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IBM to buy Apple?!

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gekko513

gekko513

macrumors 603
Original poster
Oct 16, 2003
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TheRegister has gone mad and are starting/quoting some wild speculations about IBM either buying Apple or forming a close joint venture with Apple to promote Macs and other Apple products. The speculations are following the news/rumors of IBM selling off their PC division.

Is this just crazy talk or could there be some truth in it?
 
Since IBM are going the PPC route, and Apple are really the only people who make consumer desktops using this technology, Apple & IBM getting in bed together more and more does make sense.
 
gekko513 said:
TheRegister has gone mad and are starting/quoting some wild speculations about IBM either buying Apple or forming a close joint venture with Apple to promote Macs and other Apple products. The speculations are following the news/rumors of IBM selling off their PC division.

Is this just crazy talk or could there be some truth in it?
Click to expand...
Wow. That's nuts.

If there were a takeover, I'm sure it'd be a hostile one. I can't see Apple giving up it's neutrality, and freedom to use the components it wishes. I can't see Steve Jobs being happy with becoming a puppet for the IBM machine, either...

TheReg has clearly lost its marbles.
 
as crazy as it sounds but a closer cooperation between apple and ibm makes a lot of sense to me

with selling their desktop/laptop pc department IBM exactly is missing the one where apple could fit in (remeber IBM likes to sale "complete business solutions" including from the server to the client busines desktop)

but ..like so ofte..it couldo nly be a rumors as well ;)
 
a partnership is more likely than everything else... a big venture between the two companies would be awesome, more and more server products and sales from apple, kicking MS away from the corporation arena.
 
Seems a hard sell since IBM is now completely focussing on services. They are not looking for ways to go into more hardware. Why would they want Apple? Partnership yes ... (think, Ebay powered by IBM).
 
In ten years will Apple be introducing Rev V of the iMac? iPods to compliment your body-piercing? Roof-mounted Xserves for your car? Nope, nope and nope. Apple and IBM, like all great companies, need to keep looking to adapt and diversify. It wouldn't surprise me if they teamed up to offer a alternate solution. If Apple can perfect even further that is.
Who knows. I do know that Jobs is one smart dude. If he stays in charge, by 2015 we may see and Apple/Disney/IBM/Pixar behemouth. Or we may see Apple gone, and like TV's, all computers will be made overseas, we would be in a huge depression, and we will look back on whether we should get an iBook or a Powerbook as "the good old days".
I think the latter, and am buying Euros as we speak.
 
It would be a drain on resources since they are working with Sony & Toshiba on the Cell Processor to develop a new line of workstations, game consoles through supercomputer.

Plus they are really kicking off the Power initiative now.

But you also need to look at the Intellistation (aka RS6000), no news on that front since they killed the PPCs, renamed the product, and left the Intellistations with just Power and x86 processors.

What is IBM cooking up for the middle of the Workstation line?

Something similar to a PowerMac, a Cell-based unit -- or nothing.

Where would Apple fit into the current IBM Product matrix?

Nowhere very well, since they are really now focused on AIX and Linux.
 
This could be a good thing if true, look Apple has the best OS and best Hardware but doesnt have a clue on how to market or build enough Macs to take Apple from its meager 2% of new sales to say half the market.Windows sucks compared to Macs yet look at the market. I have thought for many years that Apple has held itself back because of poor poor marketing and execution. IBM is the chipmaker so by making the chips,building the hardware and owning the software its total control and no more dealing with anyone else's crap or negotiations plus it makes for a even better product with no compatability issues. IBM would start selling PPCs and Macs. whens the last time you saw a Apple Computer not Pod commercial? Apple has been screwing itself for years so with IBM at the Helm you would actually see Macs marketed and in stores other then those california apple stores. rant over.
 
Well, I suppose it could be very good with some sort of joint venture between IBM and Apple, but IBM buying Apple does not sound like a good thing and to me it seems unlikely. I don't see Apple wanting to sell and I don't see that IBM would want to own Apple so badly that they would try a hostile take-over.
 
Cant see what's in it for IBM. They seem to be making most of their profit from providing services. After exiting the PC market why would they want to re-enter it again with Apple. Doesn't seem to make sense. This seems just like another rumor to me.
 
All unlikely flim-flam.

AAPL reached all time high barely a week ago.
IBM would have to offer an attractive proposition for AAPL stokeholders to accept.
If IBM offers (lets say) $80 per share as that would mean they valued AAPL 400% higher than the market did 12 months earlier when it was around the $20 mark.
The sort of returns IBM would need to make off that investment to justify the bid offer, would be astronmically baffling to the analaysts on the Nasdaq, and mankind in general.
 
It all depends on the partnership ... but it could be a good thing. Apple really can't lose its identity, they've got so much in it as it stands.

The stock price issue got me - and imagine where it would go if a partnership were to be announced? :D

D
 
Well it doesnt make sense to sell computers with someone elses chip( Intel ) when you make chips yourself. Another point is with Apples 2% market doesnt make for selling a lot of those PPCs but with someone with deep pockets like IBM they could try to change and educate the world that there is something better then windows based machines. (edit) also it is interesting that Apple hasnt joined the new PPC consortium? why?
 
brap said:
If there were a takeover, I'm sure it'd be a hostile one. QUOTE]

Clearly, you dont understand what an hostile take over strategy is: buy rivals when they are undervalued. Right now, no company in the world is in position to buyout Apple. Its stock is incredibly overpriced and with 4b$ in bank they can buy back a big chunk of their shares. Actually, thats what they should have done when the stock was at 14$-20$. Now any sound investor should simply sale its stock and be happy. Of course the price might rise again, but it will be a prelude to an even bigger fall.
Click to expand...
 
Mantat said:
brap said:
If there were a takeover, I'm sure it'd be a hostile one.
Click to expand...

Clearly, you dont understand what an hostile take over strategy is: buy rivals when they are undervalued. Right now, no company in the world is in position to buyout Apple. Its stock is incredibly overpriced and with 4b$ in bank they can buy back a big chunk of their shares. Actually, thats what they should have done when the stock was at 14$-20$. Now any sound investor should simply sale its stock and be happy. Of course the price might rise again, but it will be a prelude to an even bigger fall.
Click to expand...
You're right, its been... 6 years since I studied a Business course, which turned out to be a complete and utter haemorrhage.

But yeah, that does ring a bell somewhere. I was, however, meaning it in a broader sense; in the event IBM really want to procure Apple, they could do it, like it or not.
 
brap said:
You're right, its been... 6 years since I studied a Business course, which turned out to be a complete and utter haemorrhage.

But yeah, that does ring a bell somewhere. I was, however, meaning it in a broader sense; in the event IBM really want to procure Apple, they could do it, like it or not.
Click to expand...
When Apple's stock was in the toilet they didn't really offer anything (sort of like Mercedes buying Chrysler basically for the Design/prototyping factory talent, which they eventually chased away anyway), but Apple has something now (iTunes/iPod).

But IBM probably isn't interested in that.
 
I have heard this before, but I believe everyone has it backwards.

With the current cash flow, reserve cash, and consintent profit, I could see any or all of the following occuring.

1) IBM begins to market Apple Compatible computers (either their own creation, up to Apple's Standards, or just rebranded like the iPod).

2) IBM works to have their servers run OSX Server (bringing a huge increase for market).

3) IBM is purchased by Apple, or a "perfect" merger, leaving Steve in charge.

4) IBM pulls all products running Windows, and never sells another system running Windows ever.

5) Apple completes Marklar (OS X for x86) and IBM is the exclusive customer for a new "PC" Line.

Just my Ideas, but when I have dreams, they for some reason happen. That is why I bought APPL at $19 and $22.

TEG
 
gekko513 said:
TheRegister has gone mad and are starting/quoting some wild speculations about IBM either buying Apple or forming a close joint venture with Apple to promote Macs and other Apple products. The speculations are following the news/rumors of IBM selling off their PC division.

Is this just crazy talk or could there be some truth in it?
Click to expand...

This column just screams "deadline!"

In short, it doesn't make any good sense. Apple and IBM are partners already, on the PPC, and have been for something like 15 years now. Other joint efforts the companies have attempted have crashed and burned. Does anybody remember Taligent? The corporate cultures are just too different, and I think everybody knows it by now.

As for Darwin, remember this part of OSX is open source. Why in heaven's name would IBM want to buy Apple to get access to it? Further, IBM has already got its hand in the Linux pie, and also sells its own Unix variant. They need another?

The points about Apple's current market valuation have already been made, but this is another supposed indicator the writer of this column hasn't understood. The run-up in AAPL is directly attributed to increased profits from the iPod and the (yet to be realized) "halo effect" on Mac sales.

Guess again, brother. Guess again.
 
It's 99 percent unlikely that IBM has any interest in buying Apple. IBM has only kept a desktop group in order to sell larger machines--machines that support hundreds and thousands of users.

IBM sold PowerPC machines and OS/2 for PowerPC--maybe even a couple thousand. They and Apple never really collaborated, which is not to say that they didn't try but IBM's internal structure is so strict that it's tough to get anything done. It's part of the reason that OS/2 failed. There is no real drive for greatness, outside of the developers working on OS/400, and that drive is not sanctioned by IBM. Policy and procedure and good numbers matter at IBM, not greatness.

If IBM still can't get their heads around the PC problem after 23 years, why would they try to understand (and buy) something really foreign to them?
 
gekko513 said:
TheRegister has gone mad and are starting/quoting some wild speculations about IBM either buying Apple or forming a close joint venture with Apple to promote Macs and other Apple products. The speculations are following the news/rumors of IBM selling off their PC division.

Is this just crazy talk or could there be some truth in it?
Click to expand...

Anyone else think this might spell a Macintosh compatable clone released by IBM?

Think about it. With IBM servers running Linux as well as their workstations running OS X (pretty deep unix) I see a very tight integration possibility there. Why reinvent the wheel (rewrite a UNIX based OS from scratch) or adopt Linux (which has been proven time and again to not gain business support on the workstation) when they could adopt an OS based on chips they already make?

I seem to imagine that if IBM went to Steve saying they want to make clones, pay apple royalities, and purchase copies of OS X for each of them, Apple would have to be fools not to accept. This could be a good thing... A very good thing.
 
IBM Mac Clone

This could be a good thing... A very good thing.
Click to expand...
OS X is by far the best OS available today. It's a shame that more people don't get to use it. What would really be nice is if Apple could take advantage of IBM's support infrastructure. I suppose if IBM built clones though, only boxes built by them would be supported by them. A partnership like this though, could spell the beginning of an OS X takeover of Windows - and many more applications/games, etc for the Mac / IBM Mac Clone :cool:
 
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