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Speculation of an Apple Acquisition Drives Sony's Stock Price Up

Purchase Adobe for the win!!! :D



Seriously... Apple has pro audio and video with previous purchases. They don't have pro photo, vector drawing or website applications. They could kill flash, if they want to be a little evil. Then cherry pick winners and losers with the rest of the apps.

However I don't think this would be good for the computer industry in general because it would eliminate even more competition. I miss macromedia pushing Adobe.
 
Carniphage said:
Nope.

MS is running at about break-even with the 360. Unfortunately this does nothing to fill-in the giant money pit that was created the first XBox.

PS3 has lost money throughout its lifetime. Sony thinks that after 10 years it might break even. It simply can't afford to drop it.

PS1 and PS2 did make money, but the business has changed a bit since then.
The cost of game production has risen. The revenues, not so much.

C.
Click to expand...

The 360 was designed to turn a profit on the hardware after 18 months, this was a factor in the initial design and subsequent RROD failures. Despite the massive write-down they still managed to turn a profit on all machines from Falcon onwards. Xbox live had revenues of 1 Billion dollars last year, and the console has the highest attach rate of any of the current gen. Xbox certainly makes money.

Sony announced in July that the were making a profit on the PS3 hardware.
 
AAPLaday said:
The more people that can use it the more money it will make. The Uk is one of the worst countries in terms of broadband speeds. I think 2 meg is the average a survey found. Even people on fast connection suffer from massive speed drops at peak times. Streaming is hardly ideal at the moment with 720p content let alone full HD.
Click to expand...

The fibre to the cabinet technology makes a big difference.

Internet distribution for music, games and videos is already here. It will only grow.

We seem to be at a point where it is just becoming viable for TV distribution. (iPlayer?)

Now would be the right time to create a TV distribution business which could undercut the cable/satellite business model. And Apple have more experience in this technology than anyone else.

C.
 
Padraig said:
The 360 was designed to turn a profit on the hardware after 18 months, this was a factor in the initial design and subsequent RROD failures. Despite the massive write-down they still managed to turn a profit on all machines from Falcon onwards. Xbox live had revenues of 1 Billion dollars last year, and the console has the highest attach rate of any of the current gen. Xbox certainly makes money.

Sony announced in July that the were making a profit on the PS3 hardware.
Click to expand...

On the 360 the entertainment division of MS made a profit of about $200m in '09. This is pretty poor stuff.

Sony will take an awfully long time to get back to break-even.

Apple needs to enter gaming like Trans-Atlantic Steamliners need to scrape along the side of icebergs.

C.
 
Carniphage said:
The fibre to the cabinet technology makes a big difference.

Internet distribution for music, games and videos is already here. It will only grow.

We seem to be at a point where it is just becoming viable for TV distribution. (iPlayer?)

Now would be the right time to create a TV distribution business which could undercut the cable/satellite business model. And Apple have more experience in this technology than anyone else.

C.
Click to expand...

iPlayer is good and i use it myself but there is no doubt that the ISPs are struggling to keep up with the heavy demand that is being put on their systems. I remember when iPlayer launched and a few ISPs saw a massive amount of traffic increase and slowdowns for users in general. They even suggested that the BBC should help fund them for providing this service. And thats only non HD material. I would like to be able to download full HD myself with full HD sound but until i can (without paying extortionate bills) i will stick to Blu-Ray.
 
While market cap for Sony is $33 billion, that is not the take over price. That price is based on the cost of buying one share of Sony stock. If you want to control Sony, then you will have to pay the control premium. Sony stock would increase by a huge amount if there was a takeover and would presumably go over $50 billion. But Apple doesn't have to buy all of the Sony stock and Apple could buy it with shares of Apple (which it can issue), so there would be little reason to seriously deplete Apple's bank account even for a huge acquisition such as this.

There really is no justification for keeping this kind of cash sitting around. Eventually the pressure to spend it is just going to be too much and they will start spending the money foolishly, like trying to acquire Yahoo or something like that. As a shareholders, I'd just like to get a dividend for once.
 
AAPLaday said:
iPlayer is good and i use it myself but there is no doubt that the ISPs are struggling to keep up with the heavy demand that is being put on their systems. I remember when iPlayer launched and a few ISPs saw a massive amount of traffic increase and slowdowns for users in general. They even suggested that the BBC should help fund them for providing this service. And thats only non HD material
Click to expand...

This stuff is just kicking off. Imagine how it will be in five or ten years.
Which means it is the perfect moment to create a television business based on internet distribution.

C.
 
ColonelSmith said:
I think more chipmaker acquisitions would be a little more strategic for Apple. Perhaps Nvidia? Though it would be interesting to see what an Apple designed Playstation would look like.
Click to expand...

It's not hard to imagine what an Apple PlayStation would look like. Just replace the black with battleship gray aluminum, slap an Apple logo on it, and double the price. Boom, Apple PlayStation.
 
What's missing

Lots of interesting speculation about who they should buy, but there is one option that I haven't seen: themselves. Why not buy back all shares and go private?
 
Carniphage said:
This stuff is just kicking off. Imagine how it will be in five or ten years.
Which means it is the perfect moment to create a television business based on internet distribution.

C.
Click to expand...

Its good having it there as an option but i still think it is progressing much faster than the IPSs are ready for. Therefore the quality of the service might not match the ambition shown.
 
Sony products used to be very well designed and made. However for the last 5 years or so the quality has gone straight down the hole. Sony TV used to be top of the line, now I wouldn't buy another one period. They left quality control and good product implementation way behind and focused on just making money on their reputation.
 
old-wiz said:
Sony products used to be very well designed and made. However for the last 5 years or so the quality has gone straight down the hole. Sony TV used to be top of the line, now I wouldn't buy another one period. They left quality control and good product implementation way behind and focused on just making money on their reputation.
Click to expand...

I much prefer Samsung or Panasonic if im in the market for a plasma. LG as well. Sony used to rule the consumer tv world
 
ericinboston said:
The reality is that the internet connections are far TOO SLOW for any kind of reliable, 100% uptime streaming. I am assuming you've been to Youtube. I would guess that 70% of the time I go there and view any kind of video that is longer than 40 seconds I receive buffering problems. And I'm on a 25Mbit downstream connection and hard wired to my router.
Click to expand...


There are no widespread buffering issues on Youtube. Change your ISP or buy a new router.
 
old-wiz said:
Sony products used to be very well designed and made. However for the last 5 years or so the quality has gone straight down the hole. Sony TV used to be top of the line, now I wouldn't buy another one period. They left quality control and good product implementation way behind and focused on just making money on their reputation.
Click to expand...

*laugh* I was complaining about that about Sony like more than 10 years ago (say probably more like 15 years ago). But then they got the PSX and I forgave them cause it got so many good games.

lazyrighteye said:
There is zero chance of Apple acquiring Sony.
None.
Nada.
Zilch.

If they do acquire Sony, I'll personally buy every unique member of this thread, up to the point of this posting, a brand new iPod shuffle.*

*Some restrictions apply. For more details, visit http://www.apple.com/ipod/shuffle/offer/null/sorry.htm
Click to expand...

Well, despite the fact I agree with you now I want htem to do it so I can get a brand new ipod :p.
 
Carniphage said:
Which means it is the perfect moment to create a television business based on internet distribution.
Click to expand...

Even if they did I doubt if it would make it to the UK for years. They would have more than enough problems with licensing issues just to crack the US market.

Unless you are suggesting Apple become a studio and produce their own TV content?
 
Some insider bucking up Sony Stock value

I can just imagine an interview with Steve Jobs over this story.

Reporter: Have you heard of this rumor about Sony

Steve: Yup

Reporter: any truth to the rumor.

Steve: Nope

Thus the interview ends.

Some where there is a trader that started this rumor to get a trempory up swing in the value of Sony stock so he could make some money.:p
 
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