6 companies we’d love…
… to see Apple buy.
Earlier, we looked at Apple investing in China’s home-grown Uber rival, Didi. The $1 billion price was big by Apple’s standards - it tends to invest smaller sums in smaller companies - but it barely dented Apple’s cash pile, which is currently sitting at just under a quarter of a trillion dollars. And that got us thinking: What if Apple decided to spend some real money?
There is a precedent. Apple spent $3 billion on Beats so it could launch Apple Music; with its subscription TV service delayed yet again, acquiring a video service might be a smart move too. Then there’s Siri, who’s got hot competition. And of course, there’s the Apple Car, which is surely the worst-kept secret in tech. A few well chosen acquisitions could supercharge all of those… Magic Leap This 3D virtual interface may be the Google Glass that actually works – and the computer interface of the future, imposing graphics over the real world. Tesla It’ll never happen – Elon Musk is too much of a maverick to work under Tim Cook, even if Apple wanted to drop $30 billion-plus on the car-and-battery firm – but imagine the possibilities of Apple and Tesla. Netflix Buying Netflix wouldn’t be cheap – it’s bringing in nearly seven billion dollars a year, and growing fast. But if Apple could woo Netflix, it would boost its attempts to offer a streaming video service, which have stalled so far. Viv Labs Viv comes from the people who created Siri. It’s Siri but smarter, connected to pretty much everything and designed for every conceivable kind of networked device.
Harman International Industries
MadMoney host Jim Cramer reckons that for around $10 billion, Apple would be able to own the Internet of Things for automobiles if it bought Harman, the market leader for car systems. Sony At around $35 billion, Sony’s market cap has fallen by more than half since 2000, making Sony relatively cheap. Buying Sony would give Apple its 4K and camera tech, its PS4 business, and its VR division.