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Apple might acquire Sony?

reuters.com

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Re: Apple might acquire Sony?

#31

Post by points »

vilya wrote: post #9
nailer wrote: post #2

A great opportunity to go short on Sony. Apple wont buy them - Apple buy small companies that make successful products, which Sony has not for quite some time. Make money when the rumor pops and short.

Sony seems to be doing OK with the PS3 and their A/V equipment sells pretty well too. They also developed the Blu-Ray format; possibly they get licensing fees for that?

> "They also developed the Blu-Ray format; possibly they get licensing fees for that?"

The Blu-Ray format sums up what is wrong with Sony. It's a dead end format which probably won't even recoup the money it took to develop.

Re: Apple might acquire Sony?

#32

Post by anatoly »

bad_user wrote: post #27
thought_alarm wrote: post #3

Sony makes really great hardware, and (most of the time) utterly wretched software. Sony could be a much better company with Apple's help. Not sure how such a merger helps Apple, though.

I've worked with Sony engineers myself and have experienced what it's like dealing with a (successful) Japanese company. Such a merger will never happen and if it does it will be a dangerous move for both. People never think about cultural match when discussing mergers.

So what's it like? Tell us more.

Re: Apple might acquire Sony?

#33

Post by brisance »

maguay wrote: post #23
brisance wrote: post #14

Apple should acquire the rights to Steam from Valve. It makes a good fit for their business: 1) Prevent competition on the Mac app store 2) Proven distribution/scalability 3) Instant community that can bolster Ping Edited. Brainfart, put "Sony" there

You do mean Apple instead of Sony here, right?

Yeah, fixed it. Thanks for the catch.

Re: Apple might acquire Sony?

#34

Post by kmfrk »

I'd like to know who are starting these rumours. I saw them on a videogame blog (along with rumours about Netflix, Adobe, EA, Facebook, and Disney - basically all of which are ridiculous speculations).

Now I'm seeing Reuters keeping the story alive. Again, ridiculous.

Re: Apple might acquire Sony?

#35

Post by rimantas »

The most amazing thing in these rumors is how dumb they appear to me. Not sure if it says more about rumors or me. Either way I see no point for Apple in buying Sony, or Facebook. What for??? Does someone just pick a random name from the list of companies that are affordable to Apple and starts to speculate on that? The other thing I cannot wrap my head around is stock markets. The silliest thing influence them, that sure does not leave a good impression on me. Maybe it's just me.

Re: Apple might acquire Sony?

#36

Post by dfox »

schmidp wrote: post #18

Why would Apple acquire Sony? Blue-ray? Apple thinks optical media is dead. Playstation? Apple has it's own gaming devices: Mac, iPhone/iPod, Apple TV (if they add an App Store). TVs? Apple can build it's own TV hardware, they don't need Sony. Talent? Takeovers of this scale are very hard. Apple probably has a very different culture than Sony. Apple could get key talent significantly cheaper than acquiring the whole…

Well, Apple probably can't make TV hardware in same sense as Sony can make it. Sony is almost completely vertically integrated when it comes to TVs and consumer electronics.

Re: Apple might acquire Sony?

#37

Post by erikstarck »

Sony is not one company but more like multiple subcompanies working under the same brand. A merger with Apple would ruin both companies.

I have a hard time imagining even a close cooperation between the two. Apple always wants to control the entire value chain. Apple TV running on Sony TVs? Not likely.

Re: Apple might acquire Sony?

#39

Post by ahoyhere »

IdeaHamster wrote: post #28

Sony makes the Playstation, Vaio Computers, Walkmen (well, not anymore), BluRay, Cybershot cameras, Bravia TVs…going to Amazon and just searching for Sony under electronics indicates that there are over 50,000 items for sale. Certainly some dups, but Sony has A LOT of SKUs… …and they made $17.6B profit last year. Apple makes the MacBook Pro, MacBook, MacBook Air, Mac Pro, iMac, Mac Mini, iPad, iPhone, iPod Classic, i…

You could go even further:

Let's not forget that it's internally divided - so many horrible compromises were wrought by Sony because its IP division (movies, music) was pissed off by technical advances made by its tech division (hardware).

Sony has also tried and failed time & time again to make its own proprietary formats win -- Betamax, MiniDisc, Memory Stick, etc. -- showing that it is more invested in "being right than being effective." Apple has won by taking risks on standards -- even when it was doing DRM, used existing standards.

Sony is, if anything, the Anti-Apple.

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