Who should Apple buy?

AOL, and make it stand for Apple On-Line. Depends how much it costs of course but this would be good i think. There are probably three key influential companies on pc as far as the users are concerned - m$, Dell, and AOL. With dell being no 1 pc seller and aol numver one internet then anything they package will be used by a lot of users that dont like hunting round and installing software (sort of people that use ie, msn, outlook etc as they are just there already) . If apple got a foothold too and could make money out of it then thats cool. They already have the link with itunes and IM of course. Maybe they could port the AV part of iChat for aol subscribers and sell the iSight to them too. If they could improve the service and maybe offer mac only services then it will make pc users look at a mac more seriously. Maybe they could make a safari compatible browser to replace IE as their default browser and offer .mac style content as part or an extra for pc...of course you would need a mac for the intergration. Spinner radio could asso become aac and be played in itunes...i dunno what they would d with winamp and netscape however. People think AOL is evil, but i'm sure apple could make it better.

I too would like to see Apple buy Quark.

I would like to see Apple buy Michael Jackson, and part him and his empire out (expect for the Music portfolio).

Could you imagine the screams you'd get in the Haunted House this season if MJ replaces the mummy?

Plus there are all those Beatles songs that would make the Apple vs. Apple lawsuit a tad more interesting.

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Other than that, Classy apps and more Patents couldn't hurt.

Apple should buy Nikon. Those guys could mismarket great products together. Haha

There's also the most obvious company to buy...Apple Corps.! Purchase them up and end the lawsuits for good.

Re: Who should Apple buy?

Originally posted by eclipse525
IF Apple were in the market to buy some companies, who would you like to see Apple buying?


I personally would like to see Apple buy Quark.

~e

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If Apple bought Quark I think it would further strain relationships with Adobe. Apple would then be competing with InDesign.

When Apple released Final Cut Express Adobe dropped Premiere for the Mac.

Do you think Adobe would drop InDesign for Mac if Apple was making Quark? Or even worse photoshop

I think Apple should buy some offshore real estate and open stores there. I'm sure there's some space in Oxford Street or Tottenham Court Road in London they could afford

Originally posted by dstorey
AOL, and make it stand for Apple On-Line.

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If I recall correctly, and I may not, there used to be a service called Applelink that I was a member of. It cost like $5/hour or something. One day, I got a disk in the mail saying that Applelink is now known as America Online.

I think there's a thread for this in Community Discussion already.

apple corps, then they could use itms as a record label too

adobe, so they could drop photoshop for windows and as a result, greatly expand the amount of people wanting to buy a mac, kinda like what they did with logic, only photoshop would have a huge effect

apple should buy palm and tivo. They could use these companies to come out with some sweet products. Apple brand tivo.

Re: Re: Who should Apple buy?

Originally posted by Frisco
If Apple bought Quark I think it would further strain relationships with Adobe. Apple would then be competing with InDesign.

When Apple released Final Cut Express Adobe dropped Premiere for the Mac.

Do you think Adobe would drop InDesign for Mac if Apple was making Quark? Or even worse photoshop

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I say apple should buy Adobe. Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator all proprietory an the mac.....then it would be true that all graphics done in the pro world are done on apple boxes. It would be tough though.....windoze would still have paint, we gotta' watch out for that .

I know this would never happen, but it's just what I want to see....heck, may as well throw in the purchase of macromedia while I'm at it!!

Roxio. Get rid of napster, make a serious push at becoming the only game in town as far as music downloads. Get napster out of the way, musicmatch will bomb, buy.com is already bombing..........works out great.

Originally posted by hugemullens
Roxio. Get rid of napster, make a serious push at becoming the only game in town as far as music downloads. Get napster out of the way, musicmatch will bomb, buy.com is already bombing..........works out great.

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Being the "only game in town" is almost universally bad news. You're not driven to improve, you get complacent about your customer base and start to think no one can touch you. You'd become like Microsoft.

Just want to think they have the money...

the partnership with adobe is really strong, it's like a feeling they are already only one company.

But personally, if money is not a problem, they should invest in some top companies in different branches, telecomm, TV, Video (Already Pixar? I think so), and a science company would be great, still some engineers need more software. 15-20 investments wouldn't be a problem.

Just a feeling before going to sleep.

I don't like the idea of purchasing companies just to drive them out of the market or silence their development. If Apple buys a company, it should be to add to their already top-notch repertoire of consumer and pro software. For example, Apple's purchase of emagic led to the rapid development and the subsequent addition of multithreading, AudioUnits, and other nifty Apple goodies into an almost immediate upgrade of Logic Audio, which performs exceptionally stable and fast on G4s today.
Acquiring Roxio or Apple Corps especially would be a corrupt "Microsoftian" thing to do. That's cheating; and if judgment is passed on Apple Computer by the courts on the issue, then it is Apple's responsibility to accept that judgment. Nothing justifies circumventing the process of determining the truth in this situation, even if the truth is never found. Same thing goes for Roxio. Buying and clobbering the competition is like kicking your opponent in the balls. It's just not cool.

How about some companies that make kick-ass shareware. Hire the coders (maybe), and turn the shareware into freeware. Sound familiar? I sure think it does

It does sound familiar and like a good idea. Shareware developers are where it's at. New and fresh talent that isn't obscenely expensive to purchase. I don't even know if Apple *could* purchase AOL. Isn't AOL a big enough conglomerate (AOL Time Warner, MTV, etc.) to pretty much resist corporate takeover?

Well, I don't think AOL is too happy with being part of TimeWarner, so maybe the idea of joining up with Apple isn't looking too bad for them. But wtf do I know, I'm an engineering major

Originally posted by Marble
It does sound familiar and like a good idea. Shareware developers are where it's at. New and fresh talent that isn't obscenely expensive to purchase. I don't even know if Apple *could* purchase AOL. Isn't AOL a big enough conglomerate (AOL Time Warner, MTV, etc.) to pretty much resist corporate takeover?

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MTV = Viacom (not Time Warner)

I don't believe Apple has enough funds to buy a company like AOL (and most definitely not Time Warner-- who still owns AOL, though there has been a division/name split; also Disney is much more expensive than Apple could afford and so is Viacom)

All of Apple's purchases have been companies either on the downward swing, very new, or still private. (emagic where pro-audio market has a lousy profitablity factor, Casady and Greene IP, FCP developers from Macromedia which had been cycling around different companies before finding a home at Apple, and the ACID developer who brought Soundtrack after leaving Sonic Foundry.)

I also belive that Apple isn't invested in Pixar, Steve Jobs is. As much as we associated Steve with Apple, he's also a private individual and investor.

Probably not feasible but a buyout of Nintendo would be awesome! Would love to see Xbox2 and Microsoft flop with apple/nintendo raking in huge profits. Of course I'm a dreamer...

Buying into as-yet-undiscovered technology companies is the way to go to really make an impact and gain instant market advantage. Look for some guy in his garage developing batteries that last for days at a time, or put up the cash for a little upstart company with a clever idea for an improved internet browsing experience. Buying up a major company that´s not particularly in trouble is expensive - you have to spend a lot of time integrating it into the current business just to keep it at the level it already is, and buying proven international success is just not "thinking different" to the mainstream.