“Whenever discussion turns to what Apple (AAPL) should do with its ever-growing cash pile, acquisitions tend to be mentioned, but largely dismissed in terms of impact,” Andrew Hall writes for Seeking Alpha.
“BlackBerry (BBRY), however, now seems to me to be a strong, logical candidate,” Hall writes. “It is far from massive. Current market cap is $6.9 billion, and there is close to $2 billion in cash, so it could probably be acquired for $7-8 billion net.”
Hall writes, “Many corporate users carry a BlackBerry for business, but an iPhone or Android phone for private use, for fun, and for access to the wide range of apps that the BlackBerry store is never going to match. Most would rather carry only one phone, and a unit that combined BlackBerry security, email access, and messaging (not to mention the little red light) with Apple’s design, and iPhone Apps would have a huge attraction… A move on BlackBerry would signal that Apple really is embracing the corporate market, and combined with a deal with China Mobile (CHL), very likely for reasons I discussed here, could be a major catalyst in turning around the share price.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: The corporate market is already embracing Apple. There’s no need, unless there are some useful patents worth $8 billion or so, for Apple waste their money, time and energy trying to scrape up this bit of iPhone roadkill.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Brawndo Drinker” for the heads up.]
Rubbish.
The article is clearly written by somebody who hasn’t got a clue. On what level could this even make sense? The operating systems aren’t even compatible. How could this work? It would almost be a stupid as Microsoft buying the Sidekick and we all saw how that worked out!
…a better idea would be for Microsoft to buy Blackberry. In some warped way, that would make perfect sense 🙂
Ubsurd.
and Absurd
Ridiculous
and Rudiculis
And just plain funny
In New York skools thet wud be rediculus.
Soytenly.
Unpossible.
No thanks.
Typing this on a BlackBerry Z10. My iPhone 4S without a sim card is my ipod touch
Pull up a satellite image on your maps app of New York….what no images.
Use Siri to look up Movies at your local theater and watch a trailer…oh Z10 dosen’t to that.
Sync tour contacts from Outlook….oh doesn’t work.
Back up your date, screen settings and all other phone settings to the iCloud…..oh no cloud?
Better put your sim card back in your iPhone 4 s
Blackberry has nothing to offer other than making addicts feel good. They don’t call it crackberry for no reason.
Apple and blackberries taste terrible together.
Have you never tried proper home-made blackberry and apple pie? Tastes wonderful. The little seeds do get caught in your teeth, though…
Or under your teeth if you have a bridge! 🙂
Got a good recipe to share?
why not use the $8 billion for stocks buy back or as one time dividend rather than throw the billions away. If its really worth 8 B,
it’s been sold or taken over long time ago.
You buy a company if they have a technology or product that you want. Blackberry has nothing that Apple could benefit from.
8 billion for a little red light?
What a dumb F#@K 😛
You are not that dumb! You probably could come out with something meaningful if you thought about it for half an hour.
Sure, let Apple alienate Canadians by shutting down Rim. No thanks.
Too late. I’m not sure Canadians can be any more alienated than what Rim’s former co-ceo’s have already done.
Nice one. Rimshot please!
Besides patents, that most definitely are not worth 8 Billion, Apple would stop it falling into the hands of Samsung or MS or other iPhone maker wannabe’s. Apple would also gain some good engineering talent and a good foothold in Asia. Apple could use it as a separate entity to produce low end products to go against NOK and Samsung in the third world without marring the Apple brand. A bit like Toyota and Lexus. Then overtime push that low-end market up towards the true Apple brand.
I would think that Apple would want Microsoft, Samsung, etc to get stuck with Blackberry!
Pinkberry would be a better purchase. Free yogurt at the apple stores.
maybe should buy Kodak too.
I don’t know the value of RIM’s patents now, but I bet they’ll be cheaper before too long.
Most senseless idea I’ve heard in a long time. And do what with it? Turn them into Appleberries? Blacintoshes? Or just keep the whole Blackberry system going but with an Apple logo? If Tim suggests that, there’ll need to be an emergency shareholder meeting…
what chance did a blackberry have wrestling an Apple?
Yes, what a JAM!
What Apple should do with all its money?
R&D and launch an awesome Mac Pro
Recover the Pro reputation for both its hardware and software
Iron out and never repeat what originated the delays of the iMac
TV commercials advertising what people can do with the Mac, inspiring them
Macs are the best computers and OS X is the best OS, but can’t a small part of that money be used to inspire people? Can’t it be used to actively create desire for people to get a Mac? Is the iOS halo effect the only way to drive people to the Mac? Can’t Apple hire great brains to find creative ways to communicate how great the Mac is? With so much money is Apple sleeping? This wouldn’t even make a dent on its bank account, but would make a difference on market share, on profits and on brand desirability.
How about an iMac with the aluminum/black logo and frame with a… white mouse and keyboard… What, Apple?? With the computers with the aluminum grey / black colours, what’s the reasoning for a keyboard and mouse with white parts?
I could give my opinions on what to improve on the iOS side also, but not on this post.
Apple hardware and software is the best on the market, but the point of this post is to point that with so much money on the bank, there are some things that are beyond comprehension!
Apple, use a small fraction of your money and change the things that money is able to change!
Hire the best brains, start thinking differently, start inspiring people.
Apple is the best tech company in the world. Apple has a great history and a huge legion of fans and evangelists.
Buy BlackBerry? Perhaps, but clean your house first, Apple. Hire human resources and hire brains. This won’t break your bank account.
Are investors complaining that Apple has too much unused money? So Apple use it to step ahead of your competitors ans start inspiring people again. Not only with revolutionary products, but with a new attitude, a regained focus!
Wow PR! Well said. Well said.
My two cents? Continue to speed up and simplify the mac User experience so that it more closely compares to that which you experience on iOs
I feel Mac OS X has become the ugly step child.
Despite the fact that we all use iPhones and iPads, I still spend the bulk Of my time on a Mac desktop with a full keyboard and monitor
Apples biggest asset is how it can make a uniformly consistent and integrated user experience across it’s assorted hardware platforms – get on it Apple!
The PC is dead? I think not! It needs to be leaner, quicker, easier like … An iOs device.
This is a new area in which Apple can innovate and reinvent the PC
Yes, I wish Apple would make a Pro machine that was amazingly upgradable.
Something where you could buy a new “CPU Module”, plug it into/Onto the computer, and use both (or more) CPUs.
Please. No more hardware for Apple. All those slumping iPhone and iPad sales are just killing Apple’s share value. Wall Street doesn’t want to hear about Apple being in second place for iPhone sales every quarter.
Apple absolutely needs to get into the search engine business. Acquire Wolfram Alpha, join partners with Yahoo or buy DuckDuck-Go. Build some search tech designed especially for iOS and OSX devices. Apple has the money to buy the best hardware and hire top personnel for support. Constantly being a number two hardware company, sucking Samsung and Android’s dust is just going to bring more grief to shareholders. Apple needs to spread out and stop totally relying on hardware sales for company value. If all that $137 billion dollar hoard is merely becoming an anvil, then take a chance and spend it on a competitive search engine. Maybe then the profit margins will open up and the P/E will expand.
Dammit Apple, do something with that cash to give the stock at least some damn value. Even average tech companies can easily manage at least that much. Having to listen to the Apple FAIL story day in and day out is getting monotonous.
“Wall Street doesn’t want to hear about Apple being in second place for iPhone sales every quarter.”
Um, recent info places the iPhone 5 in first place in smartphone sales, with the iPhone 4S in second. The Samdung offerings are a distant third and beyond. So what’s your point?
Sounds like Laughing_Boy48 hates Apple but he bought some stock at $500 thinking he could make some cash off the company he hates. Well that plan backfired.
Google owns search. It would be nearly impossible, even for Apple, to ever take search away from Google. And search is the reason that Google has been valued so high for so long. Google and search are not dependent on hardware cycles like Apple. Search is a constant that gets even bigger as time goes on. And Google has its fingers in other areas too. YouTube is seen as a great potential revenue generator going forward. One hardware cycle failure by Apple and it could be a catastrophe. Well, okay even worse than the last five months. Yes it could get much worse. Apple has to keep reinventing the wheel and competing with other hardware makers. It’s Android today but it could be a Chinese company in 3 to 5 years. Google on the other hand has a more constant business and revenue stream. But I do agree with you that Apple needs to do something with all that cash. It’s not doing the business or the shareholders any good just sitting there. Buyback more shares and increase the dividend is a start. Maybe they’re saving it for the “move into the living room”? But they could make some sweet acquisitions with all of that money.
There is no reason for Apple to buy BBRY because there is not much in the patent library and there are few customers. It is a complete waste of money as many have pointed out. Apple would be better off buying TV content and streaming it through AppleTV while selling ads that are very well targeted.
What would be wrong with a “secure ala blackberry server” version of the iPhone? Maybe 8 billion is over valued but if Apple wanted they could enter this market.
Similar to Kodak, Apple can wait until BB go into bankruptcy and buy its patents for cheap.
The reason why iPhone is not used in our defense contractor business, according to our IT manager is for this reason. They use Blackberrys corporate wide because the company offers a Blackberry email server so that messages reside on the server and not the hand-held device. If the device were lost or stolen it could not be hacked to retrieve email or text messages because some might be cached on the device, but the bulk are stored on the secured server. Apply could buy Blackberry and then roll out an Apple branded secure email/texting server that interfaces only with iPhone. Then Apple could take over the corporate market.
Please don’t be ridiculous:
If the device were lost or stolen it could not be hacked to retrieve email
Obviously it could. If a hacker got into the phone, they’ve gotten into the email account as well. BFD whether the mail is ON the phone or ON the server. Doesn’t matter. PWNed.
Meanwhile on ANY iOS device from iPod Touch on up to the biggest iPad You set it up for Remote Wipe:
Click to access iOS_Security_Oct12.pdf
Remote Wipe
iOS devices can be erased remotely by an administrator or user. Instant remote wiping is achieved by securely discarding the block storage encryption key from Effaceable Storage, rendering all data unreadable. Remote wiping can be initiated by MDM, Exchange, or iCloud.
When remote wiping is triggered by MDM or iCloud, the device sends an acknowledgment and performs the wipe. For remote wiping via Exchange, the device checks in with the Exchange Server before performing the wipe.
Users can also wipe devices in their possession using the Settings app. And as mentioned, devices can be set to automatically wipe after a series of failed passcode attempts.
Homework: It saves your ass.
And no, little trolls. Remote Wipe isn’t just for iPads. Go read the document! If you can read this, you can manage to read Apple’s support documents. Can’t you. 😛
After analysing replies to @Forbes tweets most of their subscribers seem to have BlackBerries.
Buying it might put some brakes on their stupidity.
Apple must restart thinking out-of-the-box, just like Steve did. The future is not BlackBerry.
Apple should recruit Elon Musk for its Board of Directors. He thinks like Steve Jobs. Apple must embrace the future, not the mistakes of the past. Do you really appreciate how Elon Musk has successfully reshaped the present space and car industries? We must get
Elon on board.
Yes, Apple should buy Blackberry…
and the Z10 is Apples – low end inexpensive fruity phone.