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

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

No way

Steve Jobs is always saying that "Apple just wants to make great products" and he knows not to lose focus. Sony is also in the music business and Apple wouldn't turn themselves into competition with other labels.

There is a whole Apple culture that would not be able to co-exist with other corporate cultures (like IBM). They are not a gaming company so forget EA. They are not going to buy Facebook because it's not the direction of Apple. No need to buy Disney or why would they sell Pixar?

I could see more of a possibility of Apple buying T-Mobile or Sprint. This fits with the whole cloud computing and takes cellular to the next level.
 
Just buy Adobe. Lots of great software. Some which need more attention than others but it would be a massive deal if Apple did this. I remember in the mid 90s when no one i knew had a mac (including me). One of the things i heard most about them is that they are only for designers and artists. If you want to do photo work etc then get a mac. Be nice to improve that aspect of things.
 
I find the idea of Apple buying Sony absurd. What does such a purchase get Apple other than headaches?

Apple prefers to sell direct to consumer with a few Internet and B&M partners. Sony mostly sells via the traditional retail sales chain model.

Apple prefers to have a small number of products and models so as to not overload consumers with info. Sony has a bajillion product models and bundles, many are specific to a particular chain so that comparison shopping is impossible.

Apple will not put its name on pure junk. Sony will put its name on anything a store will put on its shelf.

Apple likes to force its ideas into the market -- and usually succeeds. Sony likes to force its ideas into the market and fails gloriously.

Sony owns a movie studio and music distribution which have saddled Sony almost since they bought it from Coca-Cola -- who sold it on the cheap b/c it was strangling them.


If Apple were to buy Sony it would be the end of Apple as we know it. Apple is a tiny company compared to Sony. That gives management great flexibility. Apple+Sony will be unmanageable as they now do it. There is only one Infinity Loop. Sony is a true multinational company. Plus the corp culture at the two companies could not be more different.
 
I can see Apple do the following: strong-arm Sony and the Blu-ray Disc Association into a generous licensing deal for all Blu-ray disc technologies, including the new BDXL format (128 GB write-once and 100 GB rewriteable).

So while everyone else is still trying to ramp up BD-RE support, Apple blows by everyone else with BDXL support.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C5115c Safari/6533.18.5)

I they aquirred Disney they would own ESPN. Maybe we could get a live sports solution and I could ditch cable.
 
It would be a long and drawn out integration. Apple (although big financially) is fairly small and nimble as an organisation. They typically have small teams working on each product and a pretty streamlined product line.

Sony have some very talented people and Apple may be interested in acquiring their intellectual property. Apple is probably a little over stretched. But I imagine this rumour was just started by someone trying to manipulate stock.

wisty said:
Google's market cap is 200B.

Leveraged buyout. That's all I'm saying. It would be totally stupid, but a great laugh.
Click to expand...

It would send Balmer into meltdown. His 2007 iPhone rant would have nothing on this.
 
SactoGuy18 said:
I can see Apple do the following: strong-arm Sony and the Blu-ray Disc Association into a generous licensing deal for all Blu-ray disc technologies, including the new BDXL format (128 GB write-once and 100 GB rewriteable).

So while everyone else is still trying to ramp up BD-RE support, Apple blows by everyone else with BDXL support.
Click to expand...

I use to be a big BD fan, but really, BD is a dead format walking. Sony took defeat from the jaws of victory. Sony should have lowered royalty fees to near nothing, or nothing when HDDVD went down. With HD streaming picking up, not only on computers, but also game consoles and media players there really is no need to rent or buy physicals disks.

As for storage, a 500GB 2.5" HD is $59 and probably lighter and more universally usable than a stack of BD-Rs or BD-REs.
 
This won't ever happen. It makes no sense and I don't even understand how any investor would buy stock based on it. Apple is all about the ecosystem and residual income from products that it carefully designs like art. Sony is a mass producer of commodities and has no ecosystem for its products. Its a total misfit. I can much more readily see Apply buying something like Disney or Netflix than I can Sony. But I would even be surprised at those. I think you'll see mostly small acquisitions of niche products that they want to acquire for the patents and bits of technology that they can fit into their strategic plan and that will help them accelerate their existing plans.
 
Chupa Chupa said:
I use to be a big BD fan, but really, BD is a dead format walking. Sony took defeat from the jaws of victory. Sony should have lowered royalty fees to near nothing, or nothing when HDDVD went down. With HD streaming picking up, not only on computers, but also game consoles and media players there really is no need to rent or buy physicals disks.
Click to expand...

It's doing well for a "dead format walking".

BD sellthrough is the fastest-growing category in the home entertainment industry, with over twice as much revenue and growth as electronic sales.
Click to expand...
 
Mac Air...

How about this… Mac Air…lines!!!!

Jobs goes for the Branson angle and buys up a few Airbus's heck, it could even builds its own from the ground up. Apple... in... space... !

EDIT: Damn, found someone who thought of this before... "9to5Mac Noob" over at http://www.9to5mac.com/ with their witty comment:
Perhaps we'll be seeing fleets of iJets in the coming years??? Just like the Mac, there'd be few crashes.
Click to expand...
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8B117 Safari/6531.22.7)

Wow! 10 years ago and the rumors were all about who was going to buy Apple. How times change! :)
 
It is not Sony.

Sony has a hardware business that is of little interest to Apple, eg Viao? PC sales, PS3? mobile versions of the PlayStation, or mobile phones. None of this will be of interest to Apple.

The only interesting thing Sony owns is the entertainment (film and music) business.

EA, the problem with EA is that it produces on non Apple platforms. Apple does not do other people's hardware. Same goes for Adobe, and same for Netflix.

Netflix would be interesting, but it'd have to be linked to AppleTV somehow. Again, the downside of Netflix is that it runs on other hardware. Apple like their own hardware.

The only way Netflix works is if Apple are changing a long term goal of selling hardware. Remember, that App Store is all about iPhone/iPodT/iPad sales. Apple makes hardware sales. iTunes is still an Apple side show.

Netflix purchase could also kneecap GoogleTV (eg Netflix withdraws compatibility with GoogleTV). But we're heading to anti trust with this one.

Disney is an interesting (albeit expensive) option as it's content.

The key thing about speculation is who fits Apple best? No point Apple buying a business that it has to close the majority of (eg Sony). No point buying a business that goes against what Apple is about (selling it's own hardware), eg EA.

So lets ask the question - what does Apple want? And who has it?

Netlfix is a content delivery channel with content deals, customers, and distribution. Very powerful.

Sony has a content department. But they won't want the rest.

Disney has content.

The only one I haven't mentioned is Facebook - which would be perfect for the future - and smacks Google in the face. Can Apple outbid Google is that question?
 
If this is true, Apple would only purchase part of Sony, such as the Walkman business, the computer business, or the TV business. It all depends on what Sony has to offer in terms of Apple's core products. Apple would not want to acquire something that couldn't contribute or would waste money on restructuring.
 
AAPLaday said:
Just buy Adobe. Lots of great software. Some which need more attention than others but it would be a massive deal if Apple did this. I remember in the mid 90s when no one i knew had a mac (including me). One of the things i heard most about them is that they are only for designers and artists. If you want to do photo work etc then get a mac. Be nice to improve that aspect of things.
Click to expand...

Hopefully Adobe will bring something to Apple's software sections...iPhoto 11 is a mess. :(
 
T'hain Esh Kelch said:
I can't possibly see what Apple could gain from acquiring Sony, except TVs and the semiconductor department. Other than that, nothing of use.
Click to expand...

Sony patent inventory alone is worth millions, and Apple has failed to capture a large market share in Asia, a potential market dwarfs the North American market. Plus Sony is getting heavily into the connected device emerging market, IP connected TV's to IP connected whatever. And if Apple wants to own the digital home, Sony has the piece they are missing, and they do not have a lot of time to get into that space...

Just Sayin...
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8B117 Safari/6531.22.7)

Not devices but content.. Sony is one of the major film studios as well as in the music industry.. Oh and the gaming industry. Dude, seriously open your mind.. Wider so you can see.
 
ImNoSuperMan said:
Apple acquiring Sony? And people believe this rumor enough to drive the stock prices up????

I wont believe it even if steve says this himself. I'll just assume he's drunk and talking crap.
Click to expand...

He doesn't need alcohol to talk crap most of the time. Not even Kool Aid.

Full of Win said:
No, Market Cap of Sony is 33 billion. Apple is 275 billion, give or take a billion.
Click to expand...

Or take almost 200 billion, if stock prices go back to their level not that long ago. Market capitalisation tells more about the market climate and the inspirations of investors than the company itself. What can go up can go down and there were times when very strong sales meant a tiny fraction of the current AAPL price level.

Anyway, this news about the acquisition of Sony is so absurd in my view that I'd bet it wouldn't happen in Jobs' lifetime. That's another few safe years for Sony.
 
If there were any truth behind this the content creation side of Sony would be a better fit than the electronics side IMO. Jobs is already on the Board at Disney. If Apple controlled Columbia, Sony BMG and the various network of TV interests that Sony have globally it would give the Jobs/Apple combination massive sway in the entertainment sphere.

Personally though I don't think there's any substance to it. Howard Stringer has brought Sony along leaps and bounds in the past couple of years. It would be very difficult to convince SNE shareholders that this is a good time to sell unless the price was way over the current market cap.
 
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