“Apple is expected to release a smartwatch this fall, which should provide a boost,” Matt McFarland reports for The Washington Post. “But Francis McInerney, a consultant at North River Ventures, has another idea for how Apple can keep growing. Why not buy Disney?
“‘The logic is so great this could happen tomorrow,’ McInerney said. ‘The two companies have an identical way of thinking in complementary markets. There’s nothing they do that competes with another. And yet combined this would be a powerhouse deal in the imagining,'” McFarland reports. “Although an Apple-Disney union has been the subject of Wall Street speculation for years, McInerney believes the shift of content to the cloud will force Disney to act. ‘This changing structure, this Gutenberg-like tectonic shift in human behavior based on the cloud’s ability to offer unlimited computing at marginal cost, says to Disney, ‘We’ve got to be on the platform to grow in the new space,” McInerney said.”
“McInerney imagines the two combined as a ‘Netflix on steroids,’ in which Apple would benefit from finding ways to monetize Disney’s content offerings, and Disney would have a safe and profitable place in the emerging, unbundled world of TV and video to peddle its wares. Having Disney under the Apple umbrella would also be an asset if Apple ever launches a television set,” McFarland reports. “At the same time, there are plenty of good reasons to think this deal will never happen. Apple rarely makes splashy acquisitions. The $3 billion it recently paid for Beats is the company’s largest acquisition. Disney’s market cap is $143 billion, and its shareholders would expect a premium on top of that price. Apple currently holds $151 billion in cash and marketable securities…”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Enderlean.
They should. That Apple TV set would become much more real. Disney-ABC owns so many channels Espn etc that this would certainly pay off in the long run IMO
Plus Disney owns the starwars franchise and marvel too.
Well worth the money!
Buy Disney (as I’ve advocated for years), and get massive amounts of content, including ABC and ESPN in the bargain. Then turn around and broker access to ESPN to the cable companies in return for access to HBO and other cable content. Comcast couldn’t survive with ESPN, so they can’t say no.
Wow…I’ll bet Tim, or Steve before him, never thought of this…../s
Absurdly ridiculous drivel! This would too severely damage Apple’s image! “Oh I see you have a Mickey Mouse phone, computer etc.”. Will never ever happen!
Oy vey.
(This idea doesn’t deserve any more of a response than that.)
I agree that a direct buy-out wouldn’t go well, but some sort of “strategic – Alliance” (think transfer of a lots of cash to Disney execs) would be plausible.
Absolutely Apple should do a stock or a stock and cash deal to acquire Disney for around $150-$160 billion. They would then have the content and the TV channels to drive their Apple TV business forward. They would also acquire a ton of valuable entertainment franchises, such as Lucasfilm (Star Wars, Indiana Jones) Marvel Entertainment, etc.
that is still a purchase.
This suggestion could only come from someone who still has no idea what Steve was talking about when he said “no” is the most important part of focus.
Also, the beginning of Sony’s end was when they bought a studio.
I used to think that Apple should buy Sony but this hasn’t happened .
If Apple wants to diversify why not Honeywell .that would tick off a lot of boxes at a reasonable price
but on the flip side Sony is no Disney. Disney has great content- franchises- characters . Sony- no so much. I’m not saying it should happen , but if it did it wouldn’t hurt Apple at all
Sony is a severely sick company at the moment. When one company acquires another, the corporate cultures merge. Apple does NOT want to bring in a sick company just so their sick work culture can ruin Apple’s. This is Sony’s ‘Spindler Period’. Stay the hell away.
all of the folks who have responded raise interesting and valid points
Note I said “used to think’
Having said that Sony owns a significant slice of Hollywood and the music industry so if Apple were to get in to the content and distribution business Sony was at one time not such a stupid idea
The reason I suggested Honeywell is because Apple wants to get in to other industries and Honeywell is a successful and respected company in the industries in which Apple has ambitions .
My perspective was having worked at Eastman Kodak at the time they went into permanent decline, despite my personal best efforts. A lot of Kodak’s blundering was related to their having bought up piles of other companies during their More-Cash-Than-We-Can-Handle days, then finding there was NO fit between themselves and those businesses. Why, for example, would they buy the company that sold Lysol, Lehn & Fink (their name at the time). It was ridiculous. I watched Kodak buy up then destroy three printing companies as they rode a manic sine wave of interest in the printing industry. Idiotic and bad for the industry.
IOW: It’s extremely wise to stick to your expertise and never pretend you can ‘learn’ a new business by simply buying it.
Working with Honeywell is going to be great for Apple! I see some nice collaboration between them. But should Apple buy Honeywell? Certainly not at this point! Should Apple buy Disney? They wouldn’t have a clue what to do with them as a production company. Jobs knew that!
Monolithic anything is a road to disaster. Collaborating diverse entities works beautifully well in nature as well as within mankind. That’s what I aim for. That’s what I find Apple engenders as well, with of course their 30% cut. 😉
What would the company be called? Applisney? And how does Dr. Dre fit into the picture?
at some point they will show Dr Dre the door. All it will take is for him and his buddies to keep saying the N-word or get into trouble with the law
It doesn’t matter what it would be called. What is important is that it would very likely be a successful, profitable merger. Content will be king as deliery/distribution platforms change.
As for Dr. Dre: who cares? He showed up at work the first day and immediately failed the new employee drug test.
Are u serious about Dr Dre?
Would Snow White’s apple become a flat icon? I think NOT.
/s
Would a nice guy let a former high school classmate step into a puddle of icy water, Ned?
/s
There is no reason for this kind of nonsense. Disney is a large entertainment company, that, despite what you think, has ridden the roller coaster of success up and down over the long term. Entertainment companies are nothing more than investment banks with the exception being that they bet on big winners to support the all the losing products they put out.
Apple already has a good content distribution deal with Disney. Owning them would not improve that.
Comcast bought NBC (which includes their production studios). What would happen if Amazon, Google, or Samsung bought a network and/or a movie studio (such as Disney) and then started excluding content delivery to their competitors (such as Apple)? Want to watch the latest Avengers movie? I hope you pay for annual Prime membership, or have Android devices upon which you can actually view it. You just wait — these kind of exclusive content deals WILL happen in the future.
I would trust Apple to be fair in this regard, but in no way would I believe that the aforementioned other companies would.
I guess Apple could buy just about any public company extant, but that does not mean it makes sense. Just because one can do something does not mean one should do that very thing.
I have equity in DIS also, that would be interesting; DIS closed at 84 today.
Why not buy Disney?
Stupid Factor In The Red!
Must Terminate Matt McFarland Who Reports For The Washington Post NOW
NOW
NOW
=()()()
They’d be better off buying Comcast to have their own network.
I couldn’t help grinning to myself to think if Apple assigned Dr. Dre to run Disney….
wouldn’t it great if apple owned comcast ISP? The internet is so important to the user when using all of their devices. they could some sweet internet deals to people who own the devices, and encouraging others to buy too. google is trying to get their own ISP up and running, so why not apple.
Who is the largest shareholder at Disney ? What company merged with Disney a fe years ago ? . No one remembers who acquired and who owned that company ?
They should just buy Tuvalu (the country). That would save them on taxes, and they would have the .tv domain. Sounds like a great idea to me!
ANALyst thinks Apple should buy some chimichangas. That’s good use of the billions in the bank. Not Disney. 😜
Honestly, I effin LOVE BOTH, Apple AND Disney. But, I can’t see this happening. I just can’t. And I’m the first Apple fanboy to admit this.
They should do it just to get rid if all the Microsoft surface crap in the “Innoventions” attraction at Disneyland.