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Why I think Apple SHOULD buy Sony.

wikoogle

wikoogle

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 12, 2009
929
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I think it would be a great move. The iPhone is pretty mature and the iPad is close to it. Steve doesn't have much left to revolutionize in the computer/phone space. This gives Steve the power to transform sooo many other industries. Between Sony TVs and Playstation, Apple could get Apple TV into hundreds of millions of home, and transform the living room with the app store.

Plus this is a bargain for Apple. The playstation brand, all the great game studios, gran turismo, uncharted, all the movie studios, music labels, blu ray, the cell, TVs, cameras etc. All that for 30-40 billion is a bargain price and Apple could transform all those industries, they are all in need of a shakeup of sorts.

Apple getting influence in all those industries would be a good thing. They would suddenly trounce MS and Google in how many assets they own.

Sony would be Apple's lower tier brand for fantastic products that don't quite meet Job's insane standards. This is what Toyota is to Lexus, Honda is to Acura, VW is to Audi and Sony can be to Apple.

I love Sony. I love Apple. Sonys tendency to use cutting edge tech combined with Apple's aesthetics and user interface would make for epic products. The only way to screw it up is if Apple demanded the Apple markup from Sony branded products like the PSP2 or Playstation 4, which would be foolish and they have no reason to do. Keep the Apple markup limited to Apple branded products only.

It would be akin to Apple buying Siri, mining them for technology, patents, expertise, and partnerships to use in their own devices, and yet leaving the original Siri brand alone and allowed to continue to operate autonomously under it's own Siri brand name.

That's exactly what Apple should do with Sony, use them to mine for tech, patents, licenses, expertise and partnerships to improve their own products, to expand into brand new areas, and yet leave the Sony brand and entity alone and under operation for the areas that Apple doesn't feel ready to step into quite yet.
 
That's if the Japanese let it happen. I agree that as a business, this might be a very beneficial decision for Apple to takeover Sony. As a slightly devoted consumer, I feel that growth on this scale might affect the 'feel' of the company. Sony is a big company selling a whole range of electronics (i.e cameras, video recorders, computers, etc.) Apple is shifting into the dominant position of a mobile device company. Taking over Sony's business might disrupt that mobile 'halo' that Apple seems to have going on these days.
 
Sony is too close a competitor to be bought by Apple. Their quality is vastly inferior to what it was, and their products fail to grab attention and buzz.

Almost every Sony product I've owned (and it has been quite a few) since the end of the Cassette-playing Walkman, has been crap despite my exquisite care. I think they've become kind of like Bose - they used to stand for high end, but now they've just rested on their laurels while the industry has passed them by.
 
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Apple repackages hardware and sells it at a premium with its own software. Sony can make that hardware from scratch which Apple cannot. Apple would own the entire chain of production.

Apple would get a huge record label which means they would get 100% of the revenue off of iTunes from that label.

They would acquire a ton of hardware patents which they may feel they could develop into products better than Sony's current management.

Melrose said:
Sony is too close a competitor to be bought by Apple. Their quality is vastly inferior to what it was, and their products fail to grab attention and buzz.

Almost every Sony product I've owned (and it has been quite a few) since the end of the Cassette-playing Walkman, has been crap despite my exquisite care. I think they've become kind of like Bose - they used to stand for high end, but now they've just rested on their laurels while the industry has passed them by.
Click to expand...

Which is precisely how I would describe Apple in the late 90s before Jobs took back the reins. He could turn Sony around and return it to it's glory days.
 
Melrose said:
Sony is too close a competitor to be bought by Apple. Their quality is vastly inferior to what it was, and their products fail to grab attention and buzz.

Almost every Sony product I've owned (and it has been quite a few) since the end of the Cassette-playing Walkman, has been crap despite my exquisite care. I think they've become kind of like Bose - they used to stand for high end, but now they've just rested on their laurels while the industry has passed them by.
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Totally agree. Apple would be better served with an entertainment-like company like Netflix, for example, to tie in eith iTunes, iBook etc.
 
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You are thinking too small. Netflix doesn't need to be fixed, it's already integrated into Apple devices, and it doesn't open any new venues to Apple. Besides, its overvalued for the assets it has whereas Sony given how many assets it owns is grossly undervalued.
 
wikoogle said:
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You are thinking too small. Netflix doesn't need to be fixed, it's already integrated into Apple devices, and it doesn't open any new venues to Apple. Besides, its overvalued for the assets it has whereas Sony given how many assets it owns is grossly undervalued.
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Which is why I stay away from the stock market and have someone else to my investing for me:D
 
Apple doesn't have the talent to sink into sony's other industries without having a severe negative impact upon their core business. Companies like apple don't just magically do what they do so well, it takes years of building up teams that can get the job done to a certain standard.

As steve says, apple only really likes to buy companies they can comfortably absorb.
 
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They don't have to. Apple will retain the Sony branding for all of Sony's products that Apple doesn't personally oversee.

It doesn't even have to be a takeover. Apple could buy 30% of Sony and get a ton of influence in the company.

But if Jobs gets an itch to transform videogame consoles, or cameras, or hdtvs, or the distribution of Sony's media or movies, or something, he would have access to the engineers and partnerships to do precisely that.
 
I was discussing this with my housemate and we agreed that Apple would do well to buy someone like Mobile Iron.

Small companies with good ideas are who apple go for. Maybe the company who made Pixelmator.

Sony has too many assets and is too big for apple to want them.

I would've liked Apple to buy Sun Microsystems to get some corporate backend penetration, but oracle messed that all up.

I'd love Apple to come up with a way of getting rid of their need of cell phone companies too.
 
The only good thing that Sony has been useful for is creating probably the best gaming system in the world.... Play Station 3, 2, 1.


also there PSP not PSP go....


And BIG TV'S!!!!!!


maybe cameras.....
:D
 
Also the Sony Vaio Z laptop is sweeeet! It's honestly the best laptop on the market. Dual SSDs in Raid configuration!:eek:

But Sony sucks with Software. Even the Vaio Z is hampered by Sony's horrid software.

A Vaio Z running Mac OSX would be the best laptop in the market by far.
 
wikoogle said:
Which is precisely how I would describe Apple in the late 90s before Jobs took back the reins. He could turn Sony around and return it to it's glory days.
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To which I ask, Why? Big companies don't care about buying their competitors so much as they just want to quash them and take market share and revenue. Sony has already dropped the ball in music and mobile markets - so there's no point in paying a premium to acquire them. The only viable reason Apple would be interested in buying Sony would be for patent rights - but Apple completely ignored Palm, which was much much more valuable for markets Apple is in. Sony is hardly a heavyweight when it comes to patents and intelligence. Your grasp of corporate structure is a tad askew.

And buying Sony to get partnerships? Apple doesn't need to spend $34 billion to do that, they'll just go do it for themselves like they did with iTunes.
 
Why do people insist that Steve Jobs has no desire to step outside of the laptop/mobile device landscape into other markets?

He's already proven with Pixar that his sense of business acumen is broad, and he could transform industries completely unrelated to computing.

Sony has incredibly useful patents and marketshare in...

Speakers, Subwoofers, Projectors, set-top boxes, the playstation, great game studios, gran turismo, uncharted, all the movie studios, music labels, blu ray, the cell, TVs, cameras etc.

And it owns valuable patents and expertise in all these areas. They are easily worth every penny of that $33 billion dollars.

The one and only weakness Sony has is in terms of software/interfacing their different devices to work together. This weakness is why I believe Sony failed to penetrated the phone, music player and mobile device industry in the recent past. Apple happens to be quite adept at precisely this. They supplement each other rather well.

Apple makes Sony's devices more intuitive. Sony lets Apple expand into a variety of industries. In addition, previous problems such as the "bag of hurt that blu ray licensing was on OSX devices," the poor penetration of Apple into the living room, and the pain that getting Sony's music and movie content onto the iTunes store was, would melt away under such a partnership.
 
I'm not saying that Apple should outright take over Sony and integrate all aspects of it under the Apple brand.

I think Sony should remain a seperate entity, the Toyota to Apple's Lexus, the VW to Apple's Audi brand, the slightly lower class brand that operates at lower margins, with worse customer service but in larger volume.

Sony can continue doing it's thing, but Apple benefits from getting Apple TV into the Playstation 4, blu ray into Macbooks, access to Sony's vast media content and an instant foothold into any hardware industry Apple wishes to enter. And Sony benefits from getting awesome software like OSX integrated into the Vaio Z laptops, iOS integrated into their settop boxes and TVs, and all around far better software and user interfaces.
 
wikoogle said:
I'm not saying that Apple should outright take over Sony and integrate all aspects of it under the Apple brand.

I think Sony should remain a seperate entity, the Toyota to Apple's Lexus, the VW to Apple's Audi brand, the slightly lower class brand that operates at lower margins, with worse customer service but in larger volume.

Sony can continue doing it's thing, but Apple benefits from getting Apple TV into the Playstation 4, blu ray into Macbooks, access to Sony's vast media content and an instant foothold into any hardware industry Apple wishes to enter. And Sony benefits from getting awesome software like OSX integrated into the Vaio Z laptops, iOS integrated into their settop boxes and TVs, and all around far better software and user interfaces.
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Sony is not a low tier brand, I would argue that they are more of a premium brand than apple is.
 
Indeed in certain areas, in most of the areas where Apple does not currently have a presence in, Sony is a very high tier brand.

kernkraft said:
Their AV range has some cracking units (probably one of the very few brands that I would replace my ageing Pioneer separates with).

Their camcorders are also very popular (I prefer Panasonic) and they make professional video equipment.

They make fantastic alarm clocks and their newer offerings with iPod connectors are not bad at all (my girlfriend likes hers).

Their computers look decent, although I never understood pink as a colour option, and the finish and the materials could be better (here, I stay with Apple until I get absolutely sick of them and decide that I don't want any more OS X).

Sony ebook readers are some of the best (I love my new Kindle).

Their new DSLRs proved to be a hit (I haven't bought a Nikon yet, so I'll just wait until I'll really need the Canon that I really want).

Their cheaper cameras look great and make decent pictures.

I've had a few cars with their stereos, they sound good, have an understated look and offer good options and functionality (although, I prefer Alpine or Pioneer).

Playstation - need I say more? (Actually, yes. I like Lux Delux on my Macs sometimes :) ).

Digital picture frames, all sorts of gadgets - they are so popular and they are excellent gifts (I take anything from them as a gift, thank you very much in advance).

And this is just most consumer products and the professional video camera range. Sony has other interests too in media and electronics. It has its revenue sorted in a much more secure way than Apple, I would think.

They also make very good televisions.
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Which is all the reason why getting them for a mere $33 billion dollars would be a bargain, and a good business move.
 
dukebound85 said:
Companies should stick to what they know best. The more one diversifies, the more the company loses focus and is a poor result for all
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By that same logic, it was a dumb move for Apple to move beyond personal computers to make a cell phone, or a music player. In fact, when the iPod was first announced, wasn't that precisely the reaction that this forum had, that Apple was making a dumb move by diversifying rather than sticking to what they know best?

Similarly, you're saying that...

It was dumb move for Steve Jobs to move beyond computers into computer animation.

It was dumb move for Nintendo to move beyond making board games and card games to making a video game console.

This is precisely the kind of logic that caused Xerox to make perhaps the dumbest mistake in the history of personal computers...

http://www.cracked.com/article_18807_how-xerox-invented-information-age-and-gave-it-away.html

Xerox invented the personal computer with a screen, a keyboard, a mouse, and a graphical interface operating system ONE FULL DECADE before the first Mac hit store shelves!!! Yes, that's right, they had every aspect of the computer down, completed and produced a decade before anyone else, and just sat on it because they were afraid of diversifying and losing focus!
 
Ask yourself what Steve Jobs wants to do with a "lower end brand". Does that seem right to you? And Sony lost their way because they spread themselves too thin, Apple's success comes from maintaining a laser-like focus on a few key products. Why buy Sony with all their baggage when Apple can build whatever they want themselves?
 
wikoogle said:
Indeed in certain areas (their camera line, Playstation, their Vaio Z laptops, Sound), in most of the areas where Apple does not currently have a presence in, Sony is a very high tier brand.

Which is all the reason why getting them for a mere $33 billion dollars would be a bargain, and a good business move.
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I think it would turn apple into more of a department store than anything! lol.. I mean Sony makes consumer/prosumer items in almost ALLLL areas of electronics.

It would definately be a cheap deal for what they get. Sony has a loyal following just like apple does, thats what premium brands do and thats how they stay in business. So that dynamic would be interesting.

Sony is also VERY cutting edge, they just dont have the direction to get those idea to mass market appeal.
 
Sony would need to be completely rebuilt to fit in with the Jobs mantra. The company is far too spread apart, too much bureaucracy. If an acquisition did occur I could see something along the lines of Apple taking the brand name, the worthwhile technology, a handful of the talented staff then selling/disposing of the rest.
 
I think Apple should buy a small country. They have the cash for it! This way, all labour could be state mandated and low-cost, they could forgo medical benefits for their employees, and be completely above any law regarding monopolistic practices! Imagine the possibilities! Then, if they bought ExxonMobile, they'd have the oil reserves to ship their products all over the world at very little overhead cost! Then, if they bought..

sry.. :D but really, buying Sony as a low-end "Apple" brand makes as much sense as buying Best Buy just to have low-end Apple stores with a lousy purchase experience.
 
wikoogle said:
By that same logic, it was a dumb move for Apple to move beyond personal computers to make a cell phone, or a music player.

It was dumb move for Steve Jobs to move beyond computers into computer animation.

It was dumb move for Nintendo to move beyond making board games and card games to making a video game console.

This is precisely the kind of logic that caused Xerox to make perhaps the dumbest mistake in the history of personal computers...

http://www.cracked.com/article_18807_how-xerox-invented-information-age-and-gave-it-away.html

Xerox invented the personal computer with a screen, a keyboard, a mouse, and a graphical interface operating system ONE FULL DECADE before the first Mac hit store shelves!!! Yes, that's right, they had every aspect of the computer down, completed and produced a decade before anyone else, and just sat on it because they were afraid of diversifying and losing focus!
Click to expand...

Note how Apple entered those markets 1 at a time over a period of several years

You are advocating for an immediate emergence into vastly more product lines (tvs, games, music, dvd players, , cameras and camcorders, car stereo systems, etc)

So no, it is not the same logic. Far from it
 
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