“With the recent cratering of Apple’s stock price, armchair financial pundits are speculating that the company should be more aggressive in acquiring other companies to spur the company’s growth,” Jim Lynch writes for CIO. “At the top of the list of proposed companies is Netflix.”
“On the surface it might look like it’s a good idea for Apple to buy Netflix, but I think it would be madness on Tim Cook’s part if he actually did it,” Lynch writes. “Netflix simply doesn’t have enough to offer Apple to warrant paying billions and billions of dollars for it.”
“Netflix does have some good original shows such as Daredevil, Marco Polo, House of Cards and others. The company has been very busy trying to build its library of original programming, and that has proven to be a very smart move by CEO Reed Hastings,” Lynch writes. “But none of this programming warrants paying anywhere near $53 billion dollars for the company. Apple could take much less than that amount and create its own original shows.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Again, buying a large company is a signal that your company can’t come up with their own ideas. Apple is perfectly capable of taking on Netflix without having to buy them, deal with integrating their employees, etc.
Funny how some believe that Apple’s salvation lies outside Apple. What a shame. Why do people think think that Apple can purchase prosperity?
Apple HAS prosperity. What’s wrong is the measuring stick. We’ve got gangs of cocaine psychotics demanding the future now now now when there isn’t any tech ready to become ‘the next big thing’. Maybe VR/AR this year. But I still hear it whimpering out in the tech community.
For how long?
Until VR/AR becomes a ‘thing’? All I know is that from past observations, what’s needed is:
1) A price for gear that is affordable by a lot of people. The Oculus Rift ain’t it. Just the specs required for a connected PC are daunting for average users.
2) Killer games and applications. Industry is going to find uses for at least AR. It already has in some cases. For games, I have seen plenty of VR game crap and little VR game gems. But people tell me there are and will be great, killer VR games.
Timing? I don’t know! A friend of mine has been programming VR software for 18 years! Meanwhile, the technology flounders around year after year. Those who require it and can pay for it do so. That has nothing to do with average consumers.
You wouldn’t know how to generate $53.00 Mr. “Expert.” Business acumen is simply not your forte.
…No. We’ve been over this.
If Apple spent any cash, it should be for Disney. But I don’t see it happening. I am just saying it’s the best option for buying a big ticket item. That or buy ARM, once started with Apple’s help. Just saying…
Buying ARM would be brilliant. That I like.
Ummm. No! Tesla, maybe.
Buying the NFL would be a better investment.
(They could have bought the Star Wars franchise for 1/10 that amount.)
That sort of thinking will not be tolerated around here!
Titled just so I would comment. So, here it is.
ABSOLUTELY NOT!
How about just buying the companies that make components and assemble their devices.
Apple specifically doesn’t want the companies. The return on assets and return on invested capital for the assembly operations is very low. No point wasting their own money when the assembly companies only make a few % profit margin. Tim Cook saved Apple in 1998 by shutting down Apple’s manufacturing and distribution operations and outsourcing all of that.
The only reason to buy a component manufacturer is if Apple wanted some kind of exclusivity for a technology.
I wonder how good the anal-ists and pundits are at investing and spending their own money? 🖖😀⌚️
Sure buy it. And buy Facebook too. Apple can create it’s own stuff, and buy stuff too, can’t it?
One more thing….. last used for the intro of Apple Watch. Apple WON’T even SAY how much they’ve sold. Does ANYONE think the reason is because they seriously kick ass with BIG NUMBERS?
Mac Pro… All expansion is external… well that’s NOT WHAT PRO’S want !!!!!
Mac mini….. Yeah we know they f%@* that up !!!
Can’t add memory, no choice foe a quad core.
Can Apple intro some new things? Of course they CAN. They can give people some BETTER STUFF, than they’re offering now !
Damm… that was easy.
I’m ready to BUY STUFF NOW. Can you say Dick Tracy?
I would rather Apple create iTube instead of buying Netflix
It would certainly give them a real jumpstart in the original content market. They have a great library of original content. If Beats was worth what they paid for it, I don’t see why Netflix wouldn’t be worth similarly large amounts. Content lasts a long time.
i agree that apple can and should invent within. But Netflix has a great library of original content and its taken time to develop it. If Apple buys netflix it can keep its brand clean from content (non family) controversy (keep the clean image) plus they instantly gain a audience and great library which is like time travel. They also should start their own channel too
Is Netflix in trouble and now is looking for someone to pass the hot potato?
Apple should have started their own Netflix three years ago. Their offering would have been bigger and better than Netflix by now. It would have highly enhanced the ecosystem and sold millions more Apple TV’s, even if run at break even. Probably still not too late to do it successfully, but would have been much more effective earlier.
Apple should radically improve their less than halfbacked and not well thoughout TV UI and functinality .
Whats there in netflix worth 53 billion that apple cant replicate?
Successful programming, like House of Cards. That’s what Netflix, and Amazon, have that Apple can’t replicate. The closest that Apple’s approached to original and exclusive content is the rumoured Dr Dre biopic, and they may be balking at that because hip-hop isn’t universal enough apparently to their Disneyfied minds. I suspect a prudish streak runs through their ranks.
53 billion worth? For house of cards? Or alike?
Now why do you believe Apple cant replicate good content… Becouse of some bogus rumors?
I really want to believe that Apple could underwrite successful series like House of Cards or Transparent, but they haven’t shown any interest in doing so. Those two series dealt with controversial topics, and Apple has shied away from controversy in their walled garden offerings. Yes, Tim Cook the activist embraces controversial social issues but this is different, it involves saleable content. Netflix and Amazon could “roll the dice and pray” with their exclusive offerings because for them it was, well, a big gamble, at the time. Apple is equally timorous—uh, hesitant—despite their big bad reputation they have not done well wih original content, maybe they are too focussed on making the best products and have not thought enough about how people like to use those products.
With $billions in the bank, and Apple’s reputation … you’d think talent (writers, actors, directors, etc.) would flock to whatever Apple works out in this field.
It seems like a slam dunk, someone just needs to get it moving.
NO
Apple needs to buy Netflix. I want to see Apple roll Netflix into iTunes. Then all of the Netflix talent will quit. Then Apple will promise to re-invent iTunes Video to make better use of the Netflix merger.
Again no. Netflix is going in the wrong direction. Raising prices while offering less and less value.
NO NO NO!! Stop buying worthless crap like Beats!