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reason to buy EA? integrate apples massively successful app store (already pc/mac cross platform) and include EAs games. Would sell more games as the immediate impulse buying happens, as well as greatly improving gross profits by eliminating various physical production & distribution costs, as well as by-passing the middlemen distributors and retailers.

EA games could be released at half the price and make twice the profit they do now.

as for twitter - who cares about $700 million when you got close to $30 billion?

one negative: all these record profits apple has had over the last year or so - im guessing this is partly due to the huge amount of interest they are receiving on the cash reserves? it must have been a few hundred million in the last quarter alone! :(

It's because the company has grown into new markets. A company has to increase revenue or shrink costs to get more profit. Where is EA going to branch into new markets and become a good investment for Apple?

Remember, Apple is still driven by the idea that they are a hardware company. That's their focus. Purchases like semiconductor companies help them save costs in their area of focus. Not sure a gaming or social networking company actually does anything for them.
 
Here's an idea...how about Apple (after adding improvements to the Mac lineup including but not limited to IPS panels, Samsung SSDs, TI 1394 chipsets, Seagate hard drives, etc.) produce OS X-based point-of-sale terminals? There's way too much gray and beige IBM crap still being used at many public institutions...I think a specialized Mac cash register would be cool. Just a thought. :)
 
Here's an idea...how about Apple (after adding improvements to the Mac lineup including but not limited to IPS panels, Samsung SSDs, TI 1394 chipsets, Seagate hard drives, etc.) produce OS X-based point-of-sale terminals? There's way too much gray and beige IBM crap still being used at many public institutions...I think a specialized Mac cash register would be cool. Just a thought. :)

I can see it now. MacRegister goes down and the store is told to take it in to the nearest genius bar. :D
 
Amen, Brother.

Some of that $29 billion should be invested in better quality control at the Chinese factories that make Apple products.

Having a MBP that has had 2 major overhauls in 13 months and a 30" ACD that had to be replaced, I repeat...AMEN to your suggestion.
 
People act like Apple's saved up money is burning a hole in THEIR pockets or something! I don't actually hold any Apple stock, but if I did, I'd feel good about them having that much cash saved up. I certainly wouldn't be putting pressure on them to hurry up and spend it buying something pointless like "Twitter".

Sometimes you can have too much of a good thing. It is concerning to see Apple sit on so much cash without having much to show for it (in the sense of them benefiting from that much cash). They do not need excessive amounts of ash on hand, as they are pulling in $2 billion or so in profits per quarter and not actively targeting large acquisitions.

Apple could:
- buy back shares ($5-8 billion worth won't hurt them long term)
- pay dividends for a few years
- distribute some of the cash on hand to long term investors (held stock say 5+ years)
- expand/create new product lines more quickly
- cut their system prices by 10% (not excessively) to slightly reduce profit per system sold but encourage more systems to be sold
- OR push up the specs a bit more so there is more value seen in the higher prices
- acquire a large compatible company
- acquire multiple smaller companies with an Apple focus so they can push the products more and make them more robust
- pull their finger out and get blu-ray going as a native option :)

They should avoid:
- buying Twitter as it doesn't serve any real long term value to Apple
- be cautious about buying a large gaming company as they could experience a backlash from gamers if changes are handled poorly
- directly competing with pc companies on price (ie cut prices ok, but don't kill the idea of Apple = premium brand)

I have no doubt the shareholders love seeing the profits but at some point the massive amount of cash on hand offsets the increase in stock price as Apple doesn't pay dividends so the only return to the investor is from stock price increases only. Once the stock hits a brick wall and doesn't move much for an extended period then the shareholders will get really antsy.

Regarding expansion, Apple can only grow so much in the current setup, you can only gain so much market share in an industry based on organic growth alone, if they really want to push to be something more then growth will need to come through expansion. Apple execs seem content to grow organically but at some point the issue becomes this, the shareholders own Apple, the shareholders ultimately control Apple, if nothing happens then the shareholders will eventually vote (force) something to happen.


A different take - the investment in QC should be the manufacturers responsibility and Apple should insist on "x-level" of quality from them or they take their production volume elsewhere.

Could be interesting if they end up with no suppliers or they have to build their own factories and go through their own QC issues from the beginning. If Apple wants you to go from 90% to 95% in QC testing and doesn't want to pay more for the higher quality product then no one will be interested in them and putting the onus on the manufacturer can back fire.
 
I can imagine EA, Adobe and Avid... definately!

And then:

- Develop more games for OS X and the iGame (kind of AppleTV, MacMini and PS3/XBox mix together).

- Re-program ALL Adobe Applications in Cocoa for OS X and then drop the PC version. To have better apps and force PC users to switch to Mac!

- Same thing with Avid than with Adobe :)

Release every new updates in the Apple name and shut down the companies later.... After all, that's what Microsoft did by the past with a lot of companies :)

Spid
 
Be curious to see how they would monetize Twitter. Twitter and Apple is a nice combination in theory, but I just don't know what the long term vision would be.

An Adobe acquisition is a nice idea.
 
jbernie - truth be known - Apple has most likely placed the onus on the manufacturers already. Clearly defective units no doubt get returned or repaired and the manufacturer gets charged back. The manufacturer,no doubt, charges back the suppliers for defective components.

The just released Consumer Report shows Apple laptops at the top of the list across all of its product line.
 
Having a MBP that has had 2 major overhauls in 13 months and a 30" ACD that had to be replaced, I repeat...AMEN to your suggestion.

You and Bubba need to review the just released Consumer Report - Apple is at the top of the list with all of its laptops.

They are not perfect - just the best out there.
 
You and Bubba need to review the just released Consumer Report - Apple is at the top of the list with all of its laptops.

They are not perfect - just the best out there.

So are you saying just because they are the best that means they need to not spend money improving their product?

I don't think I can agree with that. I have seen more Mac notebooks with issues than I have seen without. That's not saying they are all broken, but some better quality would be great for the consumer and for Apple because they wouldn't have to lose money on Applecare.

I don't understand an EA. Apple sells games after it sells iPods and iPhones, they aren't selling those devices because people want to play the games. They want a phone or an iPod, then they say oh maybe I'll download a game.

They won't be able to enter the gaming market after neglecting computer gamers and there really isn't any room in the console market.
 
Here's an idea...how about Apple (after adding improvements to the Mac lineup including but not limited to IPS panels, Samsung SSDs, TI 1394 chipsets, Seagate hard drives, etc.) produce OS X-based point-of-sale terminals? There's way too much gray and beige IBM crap still being used at many public institutions...I think a specialized Mac cash register would be cool. Just a thought. :)

Wasn't there talk of Apple Developing an in house POS for use at the Apple Store or expanding the one they have into iPodTouch Terminals with Credit Card readers as attachments. Maybe a Bluetooth Combo Barcode and Credit card scanner for the staff to use is coming with iPhone OS 3.0.

Would be a great expansion to the iTunes store any company with the Apple POS would be able to sell via the store (for a cut).
 
Electronic Arts has a market cap of $7B. So, yeah, Apple could buy it for cash at a 100% premium and have plenty of money left over to stop and get ice cream on the way home.

I would love to see Apple buy the New York Times Co. (the Times and lots of regional papers) or Gannett (USA Today and lots of regional papers) and reinvent the news business for a new 7-inch Kindle-killer tablet like it reinvented the music business for the iPod and is trying to reinvent the TV/movie business for the iPhone/touch.

Gannett trades at $1B and NYT trades at $750M. Apple's touch would be an immediate boost for either brand and would bring the innovation and IT expertise that the news business desperately needs to survive.

I recognize Apple didn't buy a record label or a movie distributor to kick start those projects, but in retrospect it may have been a good idea. Apple could cut through a lot of the licensing difficulties it's having with the studios by buying one and scaring the hell out of the rest of them. Plus, what's more synergistic -- General Electric and NBC Universal or Apple and NBC Universal?

Great idea....absolutely the best so far! Well done.
 
EA makes at least a little sense in that they could instantly control a major portion of PC gaming and push new titles to the Mac (perhaps make a new higher-level framework sitting on OpenGL like DirectX?)

On the other hand, Twitter? Seriously? What on earth could possibly be gained from that... Twitter is a great example of a tech startup with an enormously popular "service" that is nearly impossible to monetize effectively without driving users to a new service... *COUGH* youtube *COUGH*
 
What?

This is absolutely ludicrous. There is zero incentive for Apple to acquire either of these companies and, as a shareholder, I'd be very concered if they did. The only significant purchases they have made in the past few years are PA Semi and Fingerworks, both of which were needed to enhance the iPhone platform. These companies don't merit enough interest to even be considered a hobby. Let Google or Facebook buy Twitter, so they can actually make use of inventorying hot topics. Mac isn't a gaming platform and anyone who thinks it is needs to take another look at their bank account. Quite frankly, I'd rather see them invest in Adobe Systems, who's software offerings would match up closely with Apple's own.
 
I still wish they'd have bought Alias before Autodesk did.

Adobe or Autodesk would be nice acquisitions, though.
 
This is absolutely ludicrous. There is zero incentive for Apple to acquire either of these companies and, as a shareholder, I'd be very concered if they did. The only significant purchases they have made in the past few years are PA Semi and Fingerworks, both of which were needed to enhance the iPhone platform. These companies don't merit enough interest to even be considered a hobby. Quite frankly, I'd rather see them invest in Adobe.
Well if Apple learned a little from Twitter maybe they'd be able to have MobileMe a little more reliable, at least as reliable as twitter.
twitter_fail_whale.jpg
 
The opposite is also a potential risk, that some company want to get hold of Apple's large amount of cash by buying enough shares to give it control. This has happened before for other companies, too much cash attracts scavengers just like bees are attracted to honey....
 
Buying Adobe Systems would create an entirely new business unit for Apple, in addition to acquiring all of Adobe's programmers and personnel. In such a scenario, what's more likely to happen is Apple shipping the Final Cut Studio and Aperture teams over to the Adobe unit and simply streamlining all of their Pro Apps development under one roof, with the current heads of Adobe likely heading up this segment, as usually happens in mergers and acquisitions. Quite honestly, this makes a lot of sense for both companies, as the dev teams could learn each learn a thing or two from each other.


That won't happen and I'm glad that it won't. Apple has been neglecting its pro apps and I'd hate to see that happen to Adobe's stuff.
 
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