“Wall Street is buzzing over which companies Apple may buy with its massive cash holdings,” Tae Kim reports for CNBC.
“But UBS analyst Steven Milunovich used the words of its founder Steve Jobs to remind the company (and his peers on the street) that the innovative tech company should only make a deal that betters its customers and not just greedy shareholders,” Kim reports.
Wrote Milunovich in a note Tuesday: ‘Steve Jobs warned: ‘Companies forget what it means to make great products … they really have no feeling in their heart about wanting to really help the customers,'” Kim reports. “‘We think Apple is likely to only make an acquisition that results in a better product and customer experience, not to protect financial results,’ the analyst added.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Yup.
What is unique about Netflix? A handful of TV series are not worth $40 billion. Apple is perfectly capable of taking on Netflix without having to buy them, deal with integrating their employees, etc.
Until Apple actually buys Netflix, we’ll keep saying that Apple will buy Netflix for the same reason they bought Palm. — MacDailyNews, May 27, 2016
SEE ALSO:
Citi: Apple 40% likely to acquire Netflix, 5% likely to acquire Tesla – May 5, 2017
Analyst: Apple could double dividend, buy Netflix with repatriated cash under President Trump’s U.S. corporate tax changes – March 17, 2017
No, Apple doesn’t need to buy Netflix – February 22, 2017
Why Apple should buy Netflix or something – February 22, 2017
Apple’s arrogance said to contribute to struggles to make big deals – February 15, 2017
Apple hires Amazon’s Fire TV head to run Apple TV business – February 8, 2017
Why Apple should buy Disney – January 26, 2017
Apple’s new TV app shows just how painfully behind Apple is – December 14, 2016
Apple approached Time Warner about possible merger before AT&T talks – October 21, 2016
Apple’s Eddy Cue: Nope, we don’t want to be Netflix – October 20, 2016
Google signs up CBS for planned web TV service to debut in early 2017; close to deal with 21st Century Fox – October 20, 2016
Bernstein: Apple buying Netflix would be a waste of $50 billion – October 5, 2016
A chance for an Apple buyout offer as Netflix stumbles – July 19, 2016
Here comes á la carte programming – without Apple – July 13, 2016
Should Apple absorb Netflix? – July 11, 2016
Apple to buy Netflix? – May 27, 2016
Should Apple buy Netflix for $53 billion? – May 10, 2016
Apple declines to place bid on NFL Thursday Night Football – March 3, 2016
Why Apple should buy Netflix – January 7, 2016
Apple TV 4 is a beta product and, if you bought one, you’re an unpaid beta tester – November 5, 2015
Apple made ‘audacious bid’ for Top Gear trio of Clarkson, Hammond and May, but lost out to Bezos’ Amazon – September 1, 2015
Why Apple should buy Netflix – April 21, 2015
Why Apple should buy Netflix – March 26, 2014
Jim Cramer: Apple should buy Twitter or Netflix to spur growth – February 7, 2013
The Netflix buyout battle: Apple vs. Time Warner – April 10, 2012
Apple under Cook has no idea how to make great products. In fact, it seems like they’ve abandoned everything Mac and have it’s become a one product company now.
Why did they do that? Simple. They have no idea what the next step is without Jobs at the helm. All they’ve done is to take the iPhone and put it on the wrist, and even that product is problematic and hasn’t caught on.
While I understand the wish for Apple to do ‘wonderful things we didn’t know we needed’, I’m dismayed by comments like “Apple under Cook has no idea how to make great products.” and “Why did they do that? Simple. They have no idea what the next step is without Jobs at the helm.”
A few questions in return. If it’s that simple, why are there not more examples of excellence? and if it’s so simple why is the rest of the industry similarly crippled? I see very little evidence of world changing innovation anywhere except at Apple.
The answer is probably that world changing innovative, out of left-field products that nobody expected…are not conceived and born overnight. They’re endlessly researched and developed and years in the making.
Apple has had three world and company changing releases in forty years, all the rest being the result of successive development in the years between. That’s an average of thirteen years between each one.
There’s probably another five years before the next one.
Stomping your feet and dissing Apple’s management, totally misses the point about innovation being really really difficult. Would you rather have the old ‘edge of the seat’ Apple back again where innovation was a ‘do or die’ necessity for survival? Well that just can’t happen anymore with the size that Apple has become – there are other interests that must be met like stability and sustainability. Both of which mitigate against going all-in on…well…anything. Behemoths move very slowly…by necessity.
Thank goodness.
“a better product and customer experience”
Amen.
If Apple bought a company like Netflix why would they have to integrate employees? Other than some management crossover they’d be as good to run them almost entirely independently. Buying a company like Netflix, or Disney is about access to a library of content. Netflix is a lot more than a handful of TV shows, still not worth $40b, bit it’s not nothing.
Netflix is empty, give money away and make no profit, that’s Netflix, Apple doesn’t need Netflix for that.
A Netflix acquisition is on par with a Nokia acquisition. Both losing and unnecessary.
Wall Street wants Apple to make a big splashy purchase so the Lawyers, Banksters and hangers on all get a huge payday to fund their overpriced Manhattan Apartment or Heroin & Hookers habit.
Here is a unique idea: why doesn’t Apple spend some damn money advertising the Macintosh for a change? And another, hire some HW engineers to design a new generation of Macs as apparently nobody at one Infinite Loop gives a damn about anything not Mobile or rental.
It is way past time to “Make Apple Great Again”- insanely great.
Fuck the Coffee Table Books and Watch Bands.
dead on.
I don’t know about great products but Apple still makes some pretty decent products. I’m in the market for a high-end iMac this year and I hope they come out with something really powerful in the GPU department. If not, I’m still going with Apple. My current Core2Duo iMac has been going strong for five years and that’s definitely earned my respect.
There is nothing unique about Netflix worth that much money. There are just some greedy SOB’s holding Netflix stock who want to make quick money hoping Apple will buy the company. I hope those SOBs get stuck holding Netflix. Any company can make contracts for movie and TV rights and Apple has the cash to do it. Man, I sure hate those greedy investors always bitching about not getting enough from Apple. It’s as though they made Apple the company it is.
No one asked for Steve Jobs to die and expect someone exactly like him to take his place. Sometimes we just have to play the cards we’re dealt. I’ve done very well by Apple so why should I always complain if things don’t turn out the way I want them to. I can only hope things turn out better in the future with Apple but there are never any guarantees in life.
Milunovich might like to quote other people when it suits him, but if you look at what he has said himself, his track record isn’t exactly stellar.
He was shouting “Has the iPhone peaked?” way back in 2012 because he did not expect sales of iPhone 5 to match those of iPhone 4S. I think we can all agree that subsequent iPhone sales have been considerably in excess of those of the 4S, therefore talk of a peak in 2012 was utterly wrong.
Milunovich is also one of those analysts who loves to report when Chinese sources reduce orders in the early part of the year and make it seem like something to be alarmed about, when in reality it happens every year for a number of reasons, including the aftermath of peak production for Christmas deliveries and closures of the assembly plants during the Chinese New Year.
I think the bottom is about to fall out of Netflix. I’ve canceled my subscription. The hulu content offering is a lot better and with Netflix, you could subscribe oonce every six months and binge. With the foreign language subtitled stuff that netflix is throwing in the faces of their users (my experience at least) it has become too burdomsome for the cost. Apple should wait til the bottom falls out if it buys Netflix.
Great recent products: Apple Pay. Apple Watch. AirPods. And all three will only grow in importance.
Products so “great” that I have absolutely no desire to use, purchase, or wear them. They add nothing substantive to my life, provide no intrinsic benefit, and have serve no practical purpose.
Three “great products” I’m living just fine without. And will continue to do so.
These products have no practical purpose? You are kidding I can only hope.