Apple would have a huge problem on their hands with Apple Records, if I'm not mistaken. Isn't their agreement intact where Apple is not allowed to enter into the music business? Sony's music division would create quite a headache for them.
I think Apple should use some of that 51 billion to put Americans to work. Why not start manufacturing their parts in the USA? Create more Jobs, Steve! (pun intended).
Seriously, large companies in the US are sitting on top of huge cash assets that they should be spending to create jobs.
If people are not employed, they can't buy things.
This is just silly. No individual company can just "create jobs" out of the ether or whatever. It would be completely irresponsible for a company to create jobs that aren't actually needed, or that cost more than the jobs they would replace. Moving manufacturing to the USA for instance, would require Apple taking a huge hit on their costs making them uncompetitive. No one benefits from that.
The only sectors of any economy that can just "create jobs" are the consumers and the Government. Through demand for some product or service, consumers create jobs and grow businesses. By spending money on infrastructure, the Government can also create jobs.
Those are the only two ways, and it's basically the people's money being spent that creates them.
Actually it is. I hate to say it but sony just cant get it right anymore. I'm not a hater, or an Apple or Microsoft fanboy, the plain and simple fact is that sony has some serious issues with its idea's and the way it implements products. It charges more for things than even apple does, and their "Revolutionary" new ideas are hardly ever that anymore. They need some serious change at headquarters.
How about thinking beyond the final product. Sony is a key R&D, supplier and manufacture of many components. Display panels, chips...etc also Apple would acquire all of Sony's IP
It may be a good move for Apple. Especially since they are not a "Computer" company anymore.
Someone explain to us why Apple would buy Sony? To sell Apple re-branded clock radios? To get "free" licenses for Blu-ray drives?
Exactly. I can't see what Apple would gain. At some point Sony might have gotten them into the living room but it just seems so un-apple like to go that route now.
If Apple wants to become a major producer of consumer electronics .... nah, forget it. Not worth the time to argue this hypothetical scenario out. I can't see SJ or Apple loving it. Besides, Apple's business model is, and always has, been based around a very small number of well designed products. Why would they buy a company with such a vast product range. The more you think about the sillier it gets.
They could shutdown one of their main competitors within both the computer- and mobile industry
I'm not convinced that Sony is a major competitor. I don't see very many Vaios, or Sony Ericcsons around. I do see lots of stuff from Dell, Asus, Acer, Lenovo, Nokia, Samsung, etc.
Buying Sony would be a waste of money, and would hurt Apple a lot more than help.
It would get them into just about every design house and production studio on the planet:
Adobe has Photoshop, Illustrator, Indesign, Premiere, After Effects, Dreamweaver, Lightroom.
Apple has Aperture (direct competitor to Lightroom), Final Cut Studio (direct competitor to Premiere), Motion (direct competitor to After Effects), Logic (direct competitor to Soundbooth), etc.
If Apple bought Adobe, they would own the content creation/delivery market.
tend to be way overpriced (like Apple), but unlike Apple products, Sony products tend to be crap. They break down, don't work well, and getting service is all but impossible. Years ago Sony produced quality products, but now i wouldn't buy anything made by Sony.
Now, that's an interesting observation. Isn't Apple even more diversified now, compared to the 90s?
Apple used to make digital cameras, printers, and also developed the Newton. They also had a far larger product line of mac's for home users education and business users with a lot of overlapping models. There was also a lot of non os software development being done.
Contrast that with what they do today. The Mac lineup is much smaller but far more focused then before. Macs are carefully designed and optioned to appeal to the widest audience possible with just a few models. This results in fewer sku's and lower manufacturing and support costs. And because of Apples attention to detail they can go longer between refreshes and re designs then most of their competitors.
Apple launched the ipod and then carefully evolved it into powerful but affordable (compared to the 1st gen ipod) multimedia device and hand held computer. Out of that one product they evolved several successful products. The iPhone (yes I know it actually was released before the touch) the ipad and the second generation Atv.
One difference between old Apple (Steveless) and New Apple is focus. Old Apple had some brilliant, creative people but really lacked focus and discipline. Great product ideas do nothing for a company if you can't get a quality product out the door, worse if it is over budget or years behind schedule.
I'd rather that Apple just kept its cash, than buy a has-been electronics manufacturer from Japan with zero cultural fit.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Steve-J
They have extensive IP. They also have lots of proprietary stuff, like Memory Sticks and Mini Disks. And they make zillions of TV sets, each of which cold have Apple TV built in, to compete against Google TV which is going to come built-in.
Here's what the Financial Times speculates:
It is surmised that Apple is primarily targeting Sony's gaming segment which includes its PlayStation line of products. Apple lacks a significant presence in the gaming industry where Microsoft, with its Xbox line of products, and Nintendo are major players. ...
Another area which could be appealing to Apple is Sony's semiconductor business as Apple attempts to closely integrate its hardware with the software. Sony has developed a new CELL processor with Toshiba and IBM which enhances multi-media performance and vector calculation devices. ...
However, Sony is a diversified company with interests in electronics, gaming, media and financial services. Thus an overall Sony portfolio would not fit into Apple's strategy. Also Sony is a key Google partner; it recently released Google-TV powered HDTV models.
My Gawd what drooling gibberish from Financial Times.
Console gaming? All they need to do is make a controller and open up apps on AppleTV, maybe shove in a nice GPU to go with the A4 processor and voila... Apple Gaming Console that probably could do better graphics than a PS3 -- whose graphics are dated, pixelated, and just... *sigh*
Semiconductor business? Cell? After the fiasco with the G3, G4, G5 with Motorola and, IBM, somewhere in there? Really? Cell? FFS, man. Which "enhances multi-media performance and vector calculation" -- Does Financial Times even know what these words mean, let alone "multi-media"?
Memory sticks and Mini Discs? Precisely the proprietary storage Apple wants to destroy. (Apple likes its *own* proprietary gear, thank you very much...)
Even if tomorrow every Sony TV came with Apple TV built-in, in all the 50+ or whatever countries where Sony TVs are sold, where are they going to get the content? The content licensing alone is a nightmare. Which iTunes Store *outside the US* has any sort of decent content? UK maybe. Maybe. And where would the infrastructure for all that streaming come from?
The only thing Apple would do after buying Sony would be to discontinue their entire product line, take over all their manufacturing capacity for Apple products, and offload all media ownership/rights/etc to Disney. Oh, and Steve Jobs will personally see to it that Blu-Ray is absolutely dead in 2 years.
If Apple bought Adobe, they would own the content creation/delivery market.
Maybe, but they would also have to deal with the consequences with having such control. Not to mention the fact that Adobe is heavily invested in the Windows business.
I just don't see it happening. The companies aren't that compatible culture wise and the legal hassles wouldn't be worth it.
Adobe has no intentions on dropping Apple so there is no reason to buy Adobe unless they wanted to make an overtly anti-competitive move. If Adobe is still going to develop for the Mac than why bother buying them up?
Quote:
Originally Posted by mr O
Adobe would be a better acquisition.
It'd be a very strategic one:
1. It'd be a great way to end the Flash wars and fully focus on HTML5.
2. Oh, and didn't Microsoft show interest in acquiring Adobe as well?
1) There is no flash war any more than what the media is stirring to serve up and that isn't going to change any more if Apple buys Flash - people will still use it.
2) Were did MS show interest in buying Adobe - other than a meeting between Balmer and Adobe's CEO (which we know nothing of it's contents outside of rumor mongering) MS buying up Adobe suffers from the same legal issues that I brought up above. It won't happen either. If MS can't buy Yahoo outright, they aren't going to manage buying Adobe.
If Sony could deliver real holographics in virtually every living room for the 2012 Olympics, then hell yeah Apple should buy them out just for that. Otherwise...
Quote:
Originally Posted by Zandros
Great! I want a slimmer PS3.
It will be called AppleTV 2
Quote:
Originally Posted by bloggerblog
It will get them Adobe PageMill
Old skool bro... Oh, the memories.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Futuristic
It would get them into just about every design house and production studio on the planet:
Adobe has Photoshop, Illustrator, Indesign, Premiere, After Effects, Dreamweaver, Lightroom.
Apple has Aperture (direct competitor to Lightroom), Final Cut Studio (direct competitor to Premiere), Motion (direct competitor to After Effects), Logic (direct competitor to Soundbooth), etc.
If Apple bought Adobe, they would own the content creation/delivery market.
Apple *was* big in the content creation/delivery market. They decided to let it slide.
tend to be way overpriced (like Apple), but unlike Apple products, Sony products tend to be crap. They break down, don't work well, and getting service is all but impossible. Years ago Sony produced quality products, but now i wouldn't buy anything made by Sony.
I've heard from other people that Apple is crap.
Whom am I going to believe?
If they both are crap, then there will be a great and crappiest synergy.
Adobe has Photoshop, Illustrator, Indesign, Premiere, After Effects, Dreamweaver, Lightroom. Apple has Aperture (direct competitor to Lightroom), Final Cut Studio (direct competitor to Premiere), Motion (direct competitor to After Effects), Logic (direct competitor to Soundbooth), etc.
Actually, Soundtrack Pro is the direct competitor to Soundbooth, not Logic.
Of course this would never happen, but imagine the 33 billion dollar FU to Eric over at google when steve literally rips google tv out of 'his' products
Yep... also there have been many 'takeunders' over the years. Which refers to a smaller company acquiring a larger one. So in the world of buyouts size doesn't (always) matter.
Apple plans to buy Monsanto and create genetically engineered iPlants that play music and have 4G phones in their leaves. But the seeds from these plants won't sprout, forcing farmers to buy new iPlants from Appsanto every year.
One of the dumbest Apple rumours ever. It would make no sense at all for Apple to buy Sony. They would gain nothing. There is little Sony does that Apple does not do better or would do better if they wanted into that market.
`
You damn right baby!
Sony still hasn't answered the ipod touch. They are a bloated a** company. And look at the psp. Dear god! after 5 years all Sony could do was slim it down and double the ram. There ain't even a decent browser on that crap. The only reason I have it is for monster hunters. Period!
Besides, if Apple bought Sony Apple would go broke!!! Can you imagine the sheer amount of money it would take to stream line that effing behemoth?!!!!! You'll be throwing money out the window.
Now I can see Apple buying Adobe, Disney and paying off my credit cards and my tiny student loan. But Sony?
Comments
I think Apple should use some of that 51 billion to put Americans to work. Why not start manufacturing their parts in the USA? Create more Jobs, Steve! (pun intended).
Seriously, large companies in the US are sitting on top of huge cash assets that they should be spending to create jobs.
If people are not employed, they can't buy things.
This is just silly. No individual company can just "create jobs" out of the ether or whatever. It would be completely irresponsible for a company to create jobs that aren't actually needed, or that cost more than the jobs they would replace. Moving manufacturing to the USA for instance, would require Apple taking a huge hit on their costs making them uncompetitive. No one benefits from that.
The only sectors of any economy that can just "create jobs" are the consumers and the Government. Through demand for some product or service, consumers create jobs and grow businesses. By spending money on infrastructure, the Government can also create jobs.
Those are the only two ways, and it's basically the people's money being spent that creates them.
That's not entirely fair.
Actually it is. I hate to say it but sony just cant get it right anymore. I'm not a hater, or an Apple or Microsoft fanboy, the plain and simple fact is that sony has some serious issues with its idea's and the way it implements products. It charges more for things than even apple does, and their "Revolutionary" new ideas are hardly ever that anymore. They need some serious change at headquarters.
It may be a good move for Apple. Especially since they are not a "Computer" company anymore.
Someone explain to us why Apple would buy Sony? To sell Apple re-branded clock radios? To get "free" licenses for Blu-ray drives?
Exactly. I can't see what Apple would gain. At some point Sony might have gotten them into the living room but it just seems so un-apple like to go that route now.
If Apple wants to become a major producer of consumer electronics .... nah, forget it. Not worth the time to argue this hypothetical scenario out. I can't see SJ or Apple loving it. Besides, Apple's business model is, and always has, been based around a very small number of well designed products. Why would they buy a company with such a vast product range. The more you think about the sillier it gets.
They could shutdown one of their main competitors within both the computer- and mobile industry
I'm not convinced that Sony is a major competitor. I don't see very many Vaios, or Sony Ericcsons around. I do see lots of stuff from Dell, Asus, Acer, Lenovo, Nokia, Samsung, etc.
Buying Sony would be a waste of money, and would hurt Apple a lot more than help.
Apple owning Adobe would get them what? Exactly?
C.
It would get them into just about every design house and production studio on the planet:
Adobe has Photoshop, Illustrator, Indesign, Premiere, After Effects, Dreamweaver, Lightroom.
Apple has Aperture (direct competitor to Lightroom), Final Cut Studio (direct competitor to Premiere), Motion (direct competitor to After Effects), Logic (direct competitor to Soundbooth), etc.
If Apple bought Adobe, they would own the content creation/delivery market.
Now, that's an interesting observation. Isn't Apple even more diversified now, compared to the 90s?
Apple used to make digital cameras, printers, and also developed the Newton. They also had a far larger product line of mac's for home users education and business users with a lot of overlapping models. There was also a lot of non os software development being done.
Contrast that with what they do today. The Mac lineup is much smaller but far more focused then before. Macs are carefully designed and optioned to appeal to the widest audience possible with just a few models. This results in fewer sku's and lower manufacturing and support costs. And because of Apples attention to detail they can go longer between refreshes and re designs then most of their competitors.
Apple launched the ipod and then carefully evolved it into powerful but affordable (compared to the 1st gen ipod) multimedia device and hand held computer. Out of that one product they evolved several successful products. The iPhone (yes I know it actually was released before the touch) the ipad and the second generation Atv.
One difference between old Apple (Steveless) and New Apple is focus. Old Apple had some brilliant, creative people but really lacked focus and discipline. Great product ideas do nothing for a company if you can't get a quality product out the door, worse if it is over budget or years behind schedule.
I'd rather that Apple just kept its cash, than buy a has-been electronics manufacturer from Japan with zero cultural fit.
They have extensive IP. They also have lots of proprietary stuff, like Memory Sticks and Mini Disks. And they make zillions of TV sets, each of which cold have Apple TV built in, to compete against Google TV which is going to come built-in.
Here's what the Financial Times speculates:
It is surmised that Apple is primarily targeting Sony's gaming segment which includes its PlayStation line of products. Apple lacks a significant presence in the gaming industry where Microsoft, with its Xbox line of products, and Nintendo are major players. ...
Another area which could be appealing to Apple is Sony's semiconductor business as Apple attempts to closely integrate its hardware with the software. Sony has developed a new CELL processor with Toshiba and IBM which enhances multi-media performance and vector calculation devices. ...
However, Sony is a diversified company with interests in electronics, gaming, media and financial services. Thus an overall Sony portfolio would not fit into Apple's strategy. Also Sony is a key Google partner; it recently released Google-TV powered HDTV models.
My Gawd what drooling gibberish from Financial Times.
Console gaming? All they need to do is make a controller and open up apps on AppleTV, maybe shove in a nice GPU to go with the A4 processor and voila... Apple Gaming Console that probably could do better graphics than a PS3 -- whose graphics are dated, pixelated, and just... *sigh*
Semiconductor business? Cell? After the fiasco with the G3, G4, G5 with Motorola and, IBM, somewhere in there? Really? Cell? FFS, man. Which "enhances multi-media performance and vector calculation" -- Does Financial Times even know what these words mean, let alone "multi-media"?
Memory sticks and Mini Discs? Precisely the proprietary storage Apple wants to destroy. (Apple likes its *own* proprietary gear, thank you very much...)
Even if tomorrow every Sony TV came with Apple TV built-in, in all the 50+ or whatever countries where Sony TVs are sold, where are they going to get the content? The content licensing alone is a nightmare. Which iTunes Store *outside the US* has any sort of decent content? UK maybe. Maybe. And where would the infrastructure for all that streaming come from?
The only thing Apple would do after buying Sony would be to discontinue their entire product line, take over all their manufacturing capacity for Apple products, and offload all media ownership/rights/etc to Disney. Oh, and Steve Jobs will personally see to it that Blu-Ray is absolutely dead in 2 years.
It'd be a very strategic one:
1. It'd be a great way to end the Flash wars and fully focus on HTML5.
2. Oh, and didn't Microsoft show interest in acquiring Adobe as well?
If Apple bought Adobe, they would own the content creation/delivery market.
Maybe, but they would also have to deal with the consequences with having such control. Not to mention the fact that Adobe is heavily invested in the Windows business.
I just don't see it happening. The companies aren't that compatible culture wise and the legal hassles wouldn't be worth it.
Adobe has no intentions on dropping Apple so there is no reason to buy Adobe unless they wanted to make an overtly anti-competitive move. If Adobe is still going to develop for the Mac than why bother buying them up?
Adobe would be a better acquisition.
It'd be a very strategic one:
1. It'd be a great way to end the Flash wars and fully focus on HTML5.
2. Oh, and didn't Microsoft show interest in acquiring Adobe as well?
1) There is no flash war any more than what the media is stirring to serve up and that isn't going to change any more if Apple buys Flash - people will still use it.
2) Were did MS show interest in buying Adobe - other than a meeting between Balmer and Adobe's CEO (which we know nothing of it's contents outside of rumor mongering) MS buying up Adobe suffers from the same legal issues that I brought up above. It won't happen either. If MS can't buy Yahoo outright, they aren't going to manage buying Adobe.
They should buy Snapple too!
Now that's a good idea...! Free Snapple with every Mac. Ah, refreshing.
Well, okay, a lot of new shining things are now being incubated out there in Japan.
Japan Pledges 3D Holography for 2022 World Cup
Still, Sony is not necessarily being behind that.
If Sony could deliver real holographics in virtually every living room for the 2012 Olympics, then hell yeah Apple should buy them out just for that. Otherwise...
Great! I want a slimmer PS3.
It will be called AppleTV 2
It will get them Adobe PageMill
It would get them into just about every design house and production studio on the planet:
Adobe has Photoshop, Illustrator, Indesign, Premiere, After Effects, Dreamweaver, Lightroom.
Apple has Aperture (direct competitor to Lightroom), Final Cut Studio (direct competitor to Premiere), Motion (direct competitor to After Effects), Logic (direct competitor to Soundbooth), etc.
If Apple bought Adobe, they would own the content creation/delivery market.
Apple *was* big in the content creation/delivery market. They decided to let it slide.
tend to be way overpriced (like Apple), but unlike Apple products, Sony products tend to be crap. They break down, don't work well, and getting service is all but impossible. Years ago Sony produced quality products, but now i wouldn't buy anything made by Sony.
I've heard from other people that Apple is crap.
Whom am I going to believe?
If they both are crap, then there will be a great and crappiest synergy.
Adobe has Photoshop, Illustrator, Indesign, Premiere, After Effects, Dreamweaver, Lightroom. Apple has Aperture (direct competitor to Lightroom), Final Cut Studio (direct competitor to Premiere), Motion (direct competitor to After Effects), Logic (direct competitor to Soundbooth), etc.
Actually, Soundtrack Pro is the direct competitor to Soundbooth, not Logic.
However, capitalization:
Apple 280 B
Sony34 B
Now tell me, who is small and who is big.
Yep... also there have been many 'takeunders' over the years. Which refers to a smaller company acquiring a larger one. So in the world of buyouts size doesn't (always) matter.
One of the dumbest Apple rumours ever. It would make no sense at all for Apple to buy Sony. They would gain nothing. There is little Sony does that Apple does not do better or would do better if they wanted into that market.
`
You damn right baby!
Sony still hasn't answered the ipod touch. They are a bloated a** company. And look at the psp. Dear god! after 5 years all Sony could do was slim it down and double the ram. There ain't even a decent browser on that crap. The only reason I have it is for monster hunters. Period!
Besides, if Apple bought Sony Apple would go broke!!! Can you imagine the sheer amount of money it would take to stream line that effing behemoth?!!!!! You'll be throwing money out the window.
Now I can see Apple buying Adobe, Disney and paying off my credit cards and my tiny student loan. But Sony?
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