Apple's Cash Hoard Triggers Acqusition Rumors: Twitter, Electronic Arts

[LethalWolfe]

If acquisition of Adobe by Apple means a 95% discount on the Abobe Creative Suite for Mac users, count me in. It's time something was done about Adobe's ridiculous price-gouging that insures that all of its users are either obscenely rich or torrent pirates.

Please tell me this is just some sarcasm that I'm missing 'cause Adobe software isn't expensive at all for anyone using it to make money.


Lethal

 

[Lynxpro]

They could rescue Ireland from itself?
Exchequer deficit hits €7.3bn I know I'd be grateful They could improve health, transport... imagine, a country run by a computer company!

Dump the euro and that will solve quite a few of [the Republic of] Ireland's economic problems...

That European-federalist currency conspiracy has not done much good for the countries that do not happen to be France or Germany. Thatcher was right that it should have only been a virtual parallel currency which could have simplified transnational purchases without the loss of sovereignty involved. Its such a good idea that the Council on Foreign Relations has been putting forth the idea of creating a private parallel currency based upon the gold standard for such transactions.

 

[Lynxpro]

Yeah but seriously, that $700m is not far from an imaginary number. Keeping in mind that Yahoo just shut down Geocities, a company which they paid $3.6bn for back in 1999... I bet it didn't seem so stupid back then.

Moral of the story. Be a venture capitalist, invest in the next internet hype, promote the hell out of it, and sell out to some moronic megacorp with money to burn.

Doesn't Microsoft still have $50 billion in the bank? How ethical of them to go ahead and lay off employees while hording that money. That certainly gives off the impression to the staff that hard work is always rewarded...

Capitalism seriously needs to be saved from all the MBAs out there. That degree should be as devalued as MCSEs are today outside of government.

 

[Lynxpro]

Well, twitter is private....
EA = 6.83B
NVidia = 6.31B
AMD = 2.62B
Adobe = 13.89B
Avid = 456.33M
CBS = 4.9B
remembering of course and acquisition will cost a tad bit more

Purchasing Avid would trigger anti-trust proceedings, not to mention possible grief from Hollywood which already has a love-hate relationship with Apple.

Why won't anyone [Google] buy Corel, put them out of their misery, and open source their library?

I'd rather use an open sourced Word Perfect* than [that trash called] OpenOffice.

*After typing this, I'd bet that Word Perfect is no longer owned by Corel.

 

[Lynxpro]

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

Here's a thought...how about stop sub-contracting everything out to China and move manufacturing back to North America [and Europe]?

Sub contracting will ultimately destroy what we have left of American and European tech companies. Just look at the rise of self branding amongst the likes of ASUS and one can see the writing on the wall if this trend is left unchecked. We've - collectively - already lost IBM's PC business to Lenovo - owned by the Chinese People's Liberation Army - what's next?

Just think of the amount of money American and European businesses and governments are giving to the PRC's military every time they purchase a Lenovo ThinkPad.

 

[Lynxpro]

My guess: They will purchase Amiga!

I must say, as a former Atari ST'er, I am very impressed with what Hyperion seems to be able to do with AmigaOS with so little resources invested.

Before seeing it in action, I was under the impression that the only way to salvage such an OS would be to emulate Apple and either base a new version on FreeBSD or even Open Solaris, but now I'm having to rethink the concept.

From the videos on YouTube, it appears that a 400 (or 800) Mhz PowerPC G4 based Amiga running OS 4.1 and using its WebKit based browser appears to be able to open Apple's own website faster than what my 2Ghz Core2 Duo powered MacBook can do in WebKit based Safari.

Perhaps Mac OS X is just as bloated as Windows is.

 

[mccoma]

Purchasing Avid would trigger anti-trust proceedings, not to mention possible grief from Hollywood which already has a love-hate relationship with Apple.

Why won't anyone [Google] buy Corel, put them out of their misery, and open source their library?

I'd rather use an open sourced Word Perfect* than [that trash called] OpenOffice.

*After typing this, I'd bet that Word Perfect is no longer owned by Corel.

Well, I think Apple is walking a pretty fine line already with iWork so I think WP would be kinda close.

I am not so sure on the anti-trust thing with Avid. There are a lot of video editing suites and Adobe is in that mix. Given the price of Avid, it would seem to be closer to former purchases of Apple than Twitter / EA.

 

[jbernie]

Doesn't Microsoft still have $50 billion in the bank? How ethical of them to go ahead and lay off employees while hording that money. That certainly gives off the impression to the staff that hard work is always rewarded...

Actually, you missed all the announcements and new articles regarding Microsoft returning alot of their cash to the shareholders over the last year or two.

Though in Microsoft's case, if they even consider buying Joe's lemonade store down the road the technology world screams anti trust and has an epic fit until the Justice Dept & EU etc get involved to investigate every detail for 5 years and then throw a fine of a few hundred million dollars at them.

So really your cry of unethical business practices has zero basis (in this instance) and shows plenty of bias on your behalf.

 

[Lynxpro]

Though in Microsoft's case, if they even consider buying Joe's lemonade store down the road the technology world screams anti trust and has an epic fit until the Justice Dept & EU etc get involved to investigate every detail for 5 years and then throw a fine of a few hundred million dollars at them.

So really your cry of unethical business practices has zero basis (in this instance) and shows plenty of bias on your behalf.

Uhm, hello, we're talking about Microsoft here. Show me one business decision they've made in their history that wasn't unethical. I'm sorry, but stating the obvious isn't a sign of bias.

Let's see...hmmm...

Was Microsoft BASIC - their original product - an actual source code swiped from DEC's BASIC? Well, its never been proven, so we won't count that.

Was MS DOS - originally QDOS - an unlicensed port of CP/M to x86? Check.

Did Microsoft illegally tie Internet Explorer to Windows to crush Netscape? Check.

Did Microsoft collude Apple into making Internet Explorer the official Mac Web Browser in exchange for continuing to develop Microsoft Office for Mac? Check.

Is Microsoft a convicted monopolist? Check.

Did Microsoft fund SCO's attack on Linux? Check.

And those were just some of the few examples that I came up with off the top of my head.

As for Microsoft having to have every move of theirs scrutinized by the US Justice Department and the EC, well, that was part of their agreements. Had they gone ahead and broken up the company on their own - as they should have done - there would be no need for these restraints of trade on their business models.

 

[marksman]

EA would be interesting. If for nothing else I want a warhammer online client for the mac.

As for Twitter it makes zero sense. There is no synergy there at all.

 

[FearNo1]

I can see apple turning their apple TV into a future console. It kind of makes sense, since its been a mostly wasted product so far. With MS, apple, nintendo, and Sony all fighting over our living room, this could get very interesting. If apple buys EA and becomes exclusive to them, that would be a killer blow to the industry. I just wonder if the market is big enuff for 4 consoles??

 

[kastenbrust]

Purchasing Avid would trigger anti-trust proceedings

Thats why other countries exist.

 

[LethalWolfe]

I can see apple turning their apple TV into a future console. It kind of makes sense, since its been a mostly wasted product so far. With MS, apple, nintendo, and Sony all fighting over our living room, this could get very interesting. If apple buys EA and becomes exclusive to them, that would be a killer blow to the industry. I just wonder if the market is big enuff for 4 consoles??

A killer blow to the video game industry? Seriously? One of the biggest reasons EA is so big is because they make games for almost every platform under the sun (they even released Madden 09 on Xbox 1). Taking EA exclusive to one console might be a killer blow to EA but that's about it as other companies will fill in the void left behind on the other consoles. For example, by not making sports games for the Dreamcast EA opened the door for 2K Sports (which is now EA Sports biggest rival).


Lethal

 

[FearNo1]

Madden has huge name recognition among casual and hard core football fans. The lack of EA support on dreamcast is one of the reasons why the console failed. While I preferred 2K's NFL, you can not dismiss the popularity of madden. Also EA has exclusive rights to NFL. EA is also the largest 3rd party developer. Thus if they go exclusive to a single console, that would be big. Note that I detest EA and try to buy as few of their games as possible, but they are still very important in gaming.

A killer blow to the video game industry? Seriously? One of the biggest reasons EA is so big is because they make games for almost every platform under the sun (they even released Madden 09 on Xbox 1). Taking EA exclusive to one console might be a killer blow to EA but that's about it as other companies will fill in the void left behind on the other consoles. For example, by not making sports games for the Dreamcast EA opened the door for 2K Sports (which is now EA Sports biggest rival).


Lethal

 

[jbernie]

Uhm, hello, we're talking about Microsoft here. Show me one business decision they've made in their history that wasn't unethical. I'm sorry, but stating the obvious isn't a sign of bias.

re read my post.. I said "in this instance", I did not make any reference to any other issue/accusation, which still shows your bias, regardless of whether Microsoft did or did not act ethically in the case you originally sited regarding lay offs vs money on hand your overall opinion is they are unethical in the instance you sited because of everything else they may or may not have done.

 

[Lynxpro]

Madden has huge name recognition among casual and hard core football fans. The lack of EA support on dreamcast is one of the reasons why the console failed. While I preferred 2K's NFL, you can not dismiss the popularity of madden. Also EA has exclusive rights to NFL. EA is also the largest 3rd party developer. Thus if they go exclusive to a single console, that would be big. Note that I detest EA and try to buy as few of their games as possible, but they are still very important in gaming.

Since I'm not into sports games, EA does not impress me. When are they ever going to bring out an update for Chuck Yeager's Advanced Flight Trainer or Deluxe Paint?

I want the EA of old, before Trip Hawkins became a d-bag and then left to form the failure that was 3DO.

Oh well...if the Atari Jaguar succeeded at anything, it was burying 3DO before the Playstation 1 came out. That still brings a smile to my face...

 

[LethalWolfe]

Madden has huge name recognition among casual and hard core football fans. The lack of EA support on dreamcast is one of the reasons why the console failed. While I preferred 2K's NFL, you can not dismiss the popularity of madden. Also EA has exclusive rights to NFL. EA is also the largest 3rd party developer. Thus if they go exclusive to a single console, that would be big. Note that I detest EA and try to buy as few of their games as possible, but they are still very important in gaming.

Madden + the NLF license is very big, but EA didn't get to where they are today by creating content exclusively for one platform. Going exclusive is more risk prone because you limiting yourself to a single platform which is why we are seeing fewer and fewer exclusive titles. If Apple bought EA and turned it Mac/Apple only we'd see EA shrink in size very rapidly.


Lethal

 

[RTee]

Rubbish..

this should barely make page 2..what rubbish!

Apple acquire companies that take them in the direction they are heading not away from it.

Twitter??? come on get real.

 

[diamond.g]

Madden + the NLF license is very big, but EA didn't get to where they are today by creating content exclusively for one platform. Going exclusive is more risk prone because you limiting yourself to a single platform which is why we are seeing fewer and fewer exclusive titles. If Apple bought EA and turned it Mac/Apple only we'd see EA shrink in size very rapidly.


Lethal

Most of the high profile games could probably get canceled. Especially since the userbase would shrink a ton. Makes getting a good return on the 50 million you just spent on making Madden that much harder...

 

[jacobj]

this is just stupid!... Twitter.. maybe they're capable of acquiring the company, but why would they....
and EA... apple really doesnt have enough money to acquire EA... its a lot of money but not enough.

Current Maket Cap value of EA is 6.54 B. Give the shareholders a 15% premium and Apple have to pay 7.521 B. Plenty left over to buy Twitter. I don't think that it's likely to happen though.

They could buy Dell which stands at 23.20 B.

 

[Lynxpro]

Madden + the NLF license is very big, but EA didn't get to where they are today by creating content exclusively for one platform. Going exclusive is more risk prone because you limiting yourself to a single platform which is why we are seeing fewer and fewer exclusive titles. If Apple bought EA and turned it Mac/Apple only we'd see EA shrink in size very rapidly.
Lethal

But the beauty of such an acquisition isn't in making EA go exclusive to Apple but to extract large sums of money from Sony, Microsoft (especially), and Nintendo in an effort to keep EA content appearing on their platforms. So basically, Apple would be forcing those very companies to pay for the development of games on Apple platforms [Mac and iPhone] through those payments. The plus is that Apple products become credible gaming platform on someone else's dime.

They could buy Dell which stands at 23.20 B.

Nah, Microsoft will ultimately purchase Dell [and/or HP] and become a hardware/software company just like Apple, offering "solutions" all the way down from the consumer to the enterprise. The trend is clear because with laptops, mobile phones, gaming and gadgets, Microsoft does not call the shots and those are the growth areas for the industry, not desktop PCs. Their monopolistic advantage with desktop PCs becomes irrelevant in the long term, especially if Windows 7 suffers the same amount of "success" as Vista. Granted, Windows 7 looks like a decent product but Microsoft's perception as being lame has taken hold with Joe Consumer even if Joe cannot rationalize paying extra for Apple computers.

 

[diamond.g]

But the beauty of such an acquisition isn't in making EA go exclusive to Apple but to extract large sums of money from Sony, Microsoft (especially), and Nintendo in an effort to keep EA content appearing on their platforms. So basically, Apple would be forcing those very companies to pay for the development of games on Apple platforms [Mac and iPhone] through those payments. The plus is that Apple products become credible gaming platform on someone else's dime.

Sadly licensing doesn't work that way. EA doesn't get money from the console owner, the console owner gets money from EA. That lil' seal isn't free...

 

[jbernie]

But the beauty of such an acquisition isn't in making EA go exclusive to Apple but to extract large sums of money from Sony, Microsoft (especially), and Nintendo in an effort to keep EA content appearing on their platforms. So basically, Apple would be forcing those very companies to pay for the development of games on Apple platforms [Mac and iPhone] through those payments. The plus is that Apple products become credible gaming platform on someone else's dime.

Even if it worked that watch all 3 dump Apple's EA and go else where and happily watch Apple's $7-10 billion acquisition get written down real quick.

Funny how much talk there is in this thread about buying company (name) and then dropping the prices for the OSX version or increasing the cost for the Windows version and all sorts of improper business practices that would have Apple in court for a good roasting and fining.

A company even with near 10% OS market share is not in a position to shoot itself in the foot by saying "sorry, no more Windows support" as telling companies that to get the next version they need to dump their Windows machines and buy Apple computers instead PLUS the cost of the new software is insane.

 

[Lynxpro]

Sadly licensing doesn't work that way. EA doesn't get money from the console owner, the console owner gets money from EA. That lil' seal isn't free...

Oh but it would work if Apple told Microsoft that Apple-owned EA was suspending development of all titles for the Xbox 360. You'd see Microsoft cut a big fat check to Apple immediately to ensure continued development. Or, say, Apple and Sony cut a deal for Apple-owned EA to go PS3 exclusive for consoles in exchange for Sony dumping their Walkman MP3 players and/or ending the Sony Ericsson partnership. Sure, such actions would probably trigger anti-trust investigations by the US DOJ and the EC but hey, it would be worth the shot considering how easy Microsoft has gotten away with even more damaging behavior...

Warner Bros. did the very same thing when it came to Blu-ray. It named a price for Sony to pay them to go exclusively Blu-ray and dump HD DVD. Sony ponied up the cash and Warner Bros. spat in the faces of Toshiba and Microsoft even though Time Warner had an equity stake in HD DVD intellectual property, albeit a smaller IP stake than they had with the original DVD format.