Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Apple's Stock on the Rise

Tulse said:
I really don't think that Apple is a good takeover target. First off, they have about $4 billion in cash reserves to fight a takeover, and that's not chump change even to a company like Sony.
Click to expand...

It depends on how the Board and management feel and what price is given. Who says that Apple would prevent EVERY takeover. If the price is right, especially in cash, it would be hard to resist.

That being said, since Apple has no debt whatsoever and has $4 billion in cash reserves, it would take a VERY large offer to be attractive to the Board.

Also, again, I love Apple and their products...

On the Steve Jobs point, it does not necessarily mean he would pushed out. If anything, Sony would probably want to maintain most of the same management and let Apple run its own affairs (since it has been doing so well) as a subsidiary.
 
Mr. MacPhisto said:
I can't say that I buy into the idea of Sony buying Apple or Apple buying some pieces of Sony, BUT there have been rumors of new alliances being announced.
Click to expand...

I don't necessarily buy in the idea either, but it is a rumor. Rumors of buyouts and mergers get day traders excited.
 
Naimfan said:
You're exactly right about the target stock typically running up.....

But I would point out that there are ways Apple could acquire
Sony...
Click to expand...


Exactly.

Of course, most of them involved kidnapping and mind control of key Sony stockholders into selling their shares of Sony for 1/10th the current market value and/or the construction of a time machine to go back to a time when Sony was worth less than $4.5B ...

Apple buying a part of Sony ... well, I suppose that could happen. But, not likely I think. More likely, these rumors are coming from Sony and Apple execs meeting about something, which might be anything from an HP-ish iPod deal to making Sony MiniDiscs compatible with iTMS (unlikely but whatever). Or maybe even a new MaxiPod which somehow incorporates Sony's technology ... who knows?

Generally, the stock market is good at picking up "hints" and "cues" prior to news, but not very good at determining what those are hints of, nor at determining the true magnitude or the importance of such.
 
Mr. MacPhisto said:
I can't say that I buy into the idea of Sony buying Apple or Apple buying some pieces of Sony, BUT there have been rumors of new alliances being announced. Maybe the rumors are actually indicators of Sony and Apple teaming up on something. I could see how the two could work together on a project - and if Apple is able to put together partnerships with IBM, Sony, Pepsi, and McDonald's all in one year, that's going to greatly increase product exposure. I'm not sure what the two would get together on, but I could see it happening.

and the sales of the iPod mini certainly help. I want to sell my 3rd gen iPod 10GB to buy one. They're just so amazing to behold and to use - and the aluminum encasing is definitely an improvement over the strong plastic case on mine.
Click to expand...

That would be interesting. I would like to see SONY and Apple work together.
 
Well despite following this stock closely I am at a loss in trying to justify this big jump in stock price. Never the less I do believe it is temporary therfore I dumped all my shares of AAPL this morning. Capital gains in 2005 will be a real pain. :)
 
May be Apple and Sony will team up to sell the entire catalogue of Columbia House Music and Video on the same model as first they get you in the club by offering pennies for a complete CD then you have to buy 1 CD per month etc...

Mr. MacPhisto said:
I can't say that I buy into the idea of Sony buying Apple or Apple buying some pieces of Sony, BUT there have been rumors of new alliances being announced. Maybe the rumors are actually indicators of Sony and Apple teaming up on something. I could see how the two could work together on a project - and if Apple is able to put together partnerships with IBM, Sony, Pepsi, and McDonald's all in one year, that's going to greatly increase product exposure. I'm not sure what the two would get together on, but I could see it happening.

and the sales of the iPod mini certainly help. I want to sell my 3rd gen iPod 10GB to buy one. They're just so amazing to behold and to use - and the aluminum encasing is definitely an improvement over the strong plastic case on mine.
Click to expand...
 
bluefido said:
That being said, since Apple has no debt whatsoever and has $4 billion in cash reserves, it would take a VERY large offer to be attractive to the Board.
Click to expand...

Not to fuel rumors or anything, but getting rid of any paper debt before a merger is kinda like washing and vacuuming your car before trading it in ... it won't necessarily help a whole lot, but it certainly doesn't hurt, and there's always the chance that it might help ...

Getting rid of that last little bit of debt had always struck me as odd ...
 
jettredmont said:
Exactly.

Of course, most of them involved kidnapping and mind control of key Sony stockholders into selling their shares of Sony for 1/10th the current market value and/or the construction of a time machine to go back to a time when Sony was worth less than $4.5B ...
Click to expand...

LOL! Great line!

On a more serious note, there ARE ways Apple could do it. They could, for example, do a combined cash/stock purchase of just enough of Sony to give it control, they could try a LBO, they could team up with another company (or companies), etc. The ways it could be done would only be limited by the imagination of the M&A lawyers involved. And Apple does have over 500 million shares of stock authorized but not issued, according to their most recent 10Q.

I agree with you that it's not happening, but there are ways Apple could do it if it wanted to badly enough--and were willing to pay the price.

Best,

Bob
 
gop007 said:
Well despite following this stock closely I am at a loss in trying to justify this big jump in stock price. Never the less I do believe it is temporary therfore I dumped all my shares of AAPL this morning. Capital gains in 2005 will be a real pain. :)
Click to expand...

I'm nowhere near dumping all my shares. But I had to cash out a few too ... too tempting not to, what with so many purty devices to spend the proceeds on!

Yes, my wife will be getting a pink iPod mini ...
 
iPod minis selling like hotcakes

Isn't that interesting? The entire first shipment (100,000+) of minis has essentially sold out.

I just can't help recalling how many of you cheap whiners thought the mini was going to bomb at $249. Once again, you projected your own situation (penniless and/or hopelessly myopic) onto the population at large, and labeled Apple's entire marketing department as morons for not signing on to your entitlement mantra. I can think of a few who are much more deserving of that label.

Muahahahahaha! Go Apple!
 
jeffgarden said:
ah thanks -- so were they saying the stock went up because of rumors that apple wanted to buy Sony ? or do i not understand words right ?
Click to expand...
i think that its saying that since apples stock has rosew so high the rumors of a buyout are arising again :)
 
bluefido said:
On the Steve Jobs point, it does not necessarily mean he would pushed out. If anything, Sony would probably want to maintain most of the same management and let Apple run its own affairs (since it has been doing so well) as a subsidiary.
Click to expand...

I'm sure that Sony would want to keep Steve -- my point was that I doubted that Steve wants to work for Sony (or anyone). I also think that an organization like Sony would be crazy to want Steve as an underling -- he doesn't "play well with others". (And, for that matter, ask Gil Amelio about the dangers management faces when buying a Steve-run company.)
 
Sony buying Apple is quite unlikely at this point. Apple's market cap is $9.9B and Sony's market cap is $38.7B. Apple will be a very big acquisition for Sony. Sony as about $10B in cash and $12B in debt, so this would almost have to be a stock-for-stock type of acquisition. Sony would have to pay a huge premium for Apple shares to compensate for the fact that Sony stockprice will decline after the announcement of the deal. Given it's strong cash position, no debt and Steve Job's leadership, Apple probably won't sell below $40 at this point, which is simpy too expensive for Sony, or any other corporation with the exception of IBM. Last year when AAPL was trading near cash value, Sony acquiring Apple for a 50% premium (about $20/share) would have been a more realistic deal.

Some type of a partnership where Apple licenses some technology (like OSX or iApps) to Sony's next generation home entertainment center product in return for Apple getting the rights to sell the complete Sony music catalogue on iTunes music store could be an interesting deal.

If Sony were to buy a public US company, I would say the most realistic candidate would be Pixar.
 
Sony used to be a top brand - but then tried to do TOO much. Vaio - bad call. Stick to audio/video products. That little robot dog thing - I hope someone got fired over that one...
 
and they are bl**dy silent!

splashman said:
Isn't that interesting? The entire first shipment (100,000+) of minis has essentially sold out.

I just can't help recalling how many of you cheap whiners thought the mini was going to bomb at $249. Once again, you projected your own situation (penniless and/or hopelessly myopic) onto the population at large...
Click to expand...

Ah! The sounds of silence! There's a great Ozzie term for people with this mind set but on reflection I think it's insensitive to the– "dingo."
 
bluefido said:
The is no possible way Apple could acquire Sony not unless they want to sink both Sony and Apple in infinite debt.
Click to expand...

Smaller companies buy out larger companies. Some ways include selling off pieces to others (Sony Pictures could go, Pixar could be involved). I bet there are many Sony competitors who would be interested in buying a piece of them.

That said, I doubt Apple will ever buy Sony or voce cersa.
 
rdowns said:
Smaller companies buy out larger companies. Some ways include selling off pieces to others (Sony Pictures could go, Pixar could be involved). I bet there are many Sony competitors who would be interested in buying a piece of them.

That said, I doubt Apple will ever buy Sony or voce cersa.
Click to expand...

voce cersa? cool
 
i really believe that apple and pixar should merge.

i remember reading that Apple was a very good takeover target, on motley fool or something. (a site i have great respect for)

anyway, my point is that there a lot of synergies between apple and pixar and it would be a mutually beneficial merger.

Pixar would move to Apple xserves and Apple would benefit from Pixar technologies and innovations in the video compression field and cross-marketing opporunities, and mindshare. the use of xserves would also not add to pixar's bottom line.

anyway, my point is that this would make Apple a much stronger entity to stand up against takeover bids.

this seems to be the way that apple must be heading anyway...
Pixar are on their way to becoming a large hollywood studio in its own right... at least that is what SJ's vision for it is... so Apple should probbaly merge with them while they are on their way up...

I'm just thinking out loud... but feel i mean a few good points. take from it what you will
 
sethypoo said:
Apple is higher than Microsoft! This is so, so great.

:) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :)
Click to expand...

That's irrelevent. While MSFT is lower than than AAPL, this means squat. I'm sure that MSFT has split more often the Apple has, mean that if a person who invested 1000 in both Apple and MS when they had their IPO, the Microsoft shares would be worth a lot more than the 1000 Apple shares. If microsoft was concerned about its dipping stock price it could always do a reverese split(extremely rare), at which point MSFT share prices would double.

Think before you comment.
 
splashman said:
Isn't that interesting? The entire first shipment (100,000+) of minis has essentially sold out.

I just can't help recalling how many of you cheap whiners thought the mini was going to bomb at $249. Once again, you projected your own situation (penniless and/or hopelessly myopic) onto the population at large, and labeled Apple's entire marketing department as morons for not signing on to your entitlement mantra. I can think of a few who are much more deserving of that label.

Muahahahahaha! Go Apple!
Click to expand...

Feel better about yourself now? :rolleyes:
 
jettredmont said:
Not to fuel rumors or anything, but getting rid of any paper debt before a merger is kinda like washing and vacuuming your car before trading it in ... it won't necessarily help a whole lot, but it certainly doesn't hurt, and there's always the chance that it might help ...

Getting rid of that last little bit of debt had always struck me as odd ...
Click to expand...

Debt is a good way to increase your rating - buy, sell, hold. No debt is more likely to result in a buy recomendation. Of course though, look at gateway, they had no long term debt going into 2003, and while analyst expected great things from them, they were a huge dissapointment.

Not having any long term debt just means nothing. In fact for Apple at this point i think it is a bad thing. While interest rates are low, and credit ratings are high for them, they should take out a loan to buy back stock, or start buying technology companies.

But I do agree with jett. Getting rid of debt doesn't mean merger, and Pixar mergers are unlikely. They have nothing in common, further more, neither company would benefit. Pixar Jobs would laugh at Apple Jobs for even considering something like that. Pixar needs a distributor, not a merger.
 
ethernet76 said:
But I do agree with jett. Getting rid of debt doesn't mean merger, and Pixar mergers are unlikely. They have nothing in common, further more, neither company would benefit. Pixar Jobs would laugh at Apple Jobs for even considering something like that. Pixar needs a distributor, not a merger.
Click to expand...

A Pixar merger would not be good from Pixar's point of view. Apple does not bring anything to the table, aside from maybe a custom designed hardware solution for computer animation rendering.

An Apple merger would not be good from Apple's point of view. Pixar does not bring anything to the table, aside from maybe a customer for computer.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back