Apple-Sony merger will kill both
February 17, 2008A Bloomberg columnist wonders:
It really makes you wonder why Apple Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs doesn’t just buy Sony.
Hmm. It’s really simple. After purchasing Sony and getting rid of 90% of extraneous units (content management, semiconductor design, software development, and media production), all that is left is low margin me-too electronics (LCDs) that Apple doesn’t want or expensive stuff that people don’t want (PS3, Bravia).
Apple probably wouldn’t mind controlling the Blu-Ray technology that analysts say offers lucrative revenue streams.
Apple believes that the world is going digital – any type of peripheral storage/distribution device is a step back from Apple’s vision. Anyone notice what was left out in MacBook Air?
Its camera line-up also could serve Apple well — an iCamera, anyone?
No. No one. The margins on cameras are so low (Sony’s was 9.6%) because of competitive pressures that Apple might as well close shop. They make better money selling them in the Apple stores.
Or an iPhone equipped with one of Sony’s high-definition camcorders?
And it weighs 50lbs and is the size of a square watermelon.
Japan also is a market that Apple has yet to dominate.
Dominate in what? Apple actually is doing pretty well out in Japan.
Imagine the merger of two companies that boast many of the world’s top design experts. Imagine how our living rooms might look, how we might communicate, how we might work, and how we might view what’s possible in 10 years if Sony, which is strong on hardware, and Apple, which excels in software, got together.
Apple is strong on hardware AND software (it’s the close integration that differentiates it from others).This merger dream sounds just as good as AOL/Time-Warner.
I must agree with you.
When I was reading the article, my reaction was this:
Steve Jobs has the perfect job (for him) – designing and creating some of the most amazing stuff made. This is his passion and he has the perfect partners in Jonathan Ive and the rest of the Apple design team.
If Apple took over Sony, his job would become an endless yawnfest of meeting and reorganization attempts.
So you’re Steve, and you have a choice: To continue designing things you love, or to plunge into a sea of bureaucracy, never to return again alive.
I think his choice is obvious, no?
D
Sony’s like RIM– so yesterday. Why would
Apple want to buy yesterday? Apple needs to
remain focused on the future- like AppleTV &
content delivery. Why invest in Sony’s Blue-Ray;
when they can develop a platform based on an open
standard?
Agreed, agreed, agreed. Most of the posters on A/V sites that I frequent think that BluRay is the big winner for the next decade. Well, Sony better party hard now, because BluRay is already poised for a fall. It’s (hopefully) the last throes of a dying content distribution model.
Not to mention the problem that Jobs is on the Board and largest shareholder of Disney, which conflicts with Sony Pictures.
There is nothing wrong with Sony that decent Operating Systems wouldn’t cure.
Apple makes decent Operating Systems.
Sony has the answer at hand. Pay a King’s Ransom for the use of the OS X variants.
Like that would happen.
I agree with all the above comments.
In fact, the whole premise of Apple needing to buy ANYONE is foolish.
Apple is running perfectly as it is right now.
Great products, great reputation, great vision, great margins…
Why mess with success.
Bob
I totally agree. It would be counter to Apple’s product roadmap to acquire Sony.
Give me TIVO. Now there is a company that Apple needs to buy pure and simple. Know its been talked about before, but with Apple TV something they fill they need to do then TV content will round out their offering.
No Tivo, either, please. As previous posters have correctly pointed out, digital distribution (not thru TV or cable) is the future.
no babe ……. they wont be killed
Apple just spent the last 10 years going in the complete opposite direction to Sony. They are 180 degrees, total opposites. Ten years ago I had a Sony portable DAT, Sony portable CD player, and Sony phone, but they are all gone now in favor of an iPhone and an iPod nano with a CD-quality voice recorder. Buying Sony is not going to help Apple help me.
Same with TiVo … iTunes is already a next-generation TiVo. Apple might as well put the stripes back in their logo if they are feeling that retro.
Apple is expanding and acquiring companies, but they buy small companies that have like one truly great product and many great people and is easy to incorporate into the larger company, or they buy one product from someone else. They’re shopping for things that can help them make the products they want to make, not adding bulk for the sake of bulk.
Apple needs Sony like a fish needs a bicycle. The only part of Sony I can imagine really being valuable to Apple is their music and movie content. In every other way, Apple already overshadows Sony.
Steve is too smart to buy Sony. Who needs all of that baggage. He would have to spend all of his time and energy trying to shape up a overweight company who has too many low margin products and a bureaucracy that would take a lifetime to change.