“Two of the biggest tech companies, and rivals, Apple and Microsoft might not only work together in the near future but also merge in the next 5-10 years, a market analyst has predicted,” ANI reports.
“While explaining his ‘unthinkable but absolutely possible deal’ between Apple and Microsoft theory, Money Map Press’ Keith Fitz-Gerald [told Fox Business’ Stuart Varney that] the two companies might see a merger because they have to take on the Google/Android and Facebook,” ANI reports. “Fitz-Gerald added that now content and security is king and having all the devices connected to one is the future, and according to him, apparently Apple and Microsoft fit the bill perfectly.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Our advice for Mr. Fitz-Gerald is to seek professional help.
Unless Apple needs crippling bureaucracy, stifling office politics, unwanted and/or despised products, rudderless “strategies,” and rampant mediocrity, there is absolutely nothing Microsoft has that Apple needs.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “Fred Mertz” and “Dan King” for the heads up.]
Really !!!! 😡 why would apple want corrupt ms software codes ? Another rubbish report by idiot analyst 😡
Apple merge with Microsoft!?? Not even in the wildest dreams.
It was Fox News. Enough said.
It wasn’t Fox News, it was Money Map Press. He happened to have his mental break from reality while on Fox News.
I thought guests on Fox News were chosen for their distance from reality.
No, you’re thinking of MSLSD… With the moon bats they have on that so-called ‘news’ channel.
If you remember, recently they had a host recommending that people dedicate in someone’s mouth w/ whom they politically disagree.
But there was no media outrage… The double standard that allows a lib engaging in vile attacks against a conservative, while there is no tolerance at all for even a mild attack in the reverse – and not even on Fox News, but on the radio!
Don’t recall that incident. I’d be happy to look at a link if you’d care to post it.
Either a hit whore or he’s on some incredible drugs this morning.
I think you are correct but may have missed his (inferred and admittedly obscure) point.
They (Keith & Stuart) are googol (and by extension android) fanboys and they are saying (in thier own sideways analyst/tech “journalist” sort of way) that android is sooooooooooo big that apple and MS will have to team up to even stand a chance of taking it on!
It’s just another “clever” Apple bashing article by a hit starved “journalist” quoting YA Idiot analyst without a scintilla of clue.
However on second thought…Apple might need a new, larger janitorial staff for that nice new Spaceship.
Ms staff doing janitorial duty in the new space ship makes sense, well said 🙂 😆
Too bad Ballmer’s leaving, I bet he could keep the Urinal’s in the Men’s rooms nice ‘n’ shiny, and do a little dance for his tip.
No you couldn’t trust em, lots of creative work gets done on the toilet or in Microsoft’s case down the toilet.
A lot a analcysts say stupid things but takes the cake. If he has a boss, he should be fired.
LOL he also sees Facebook as a threat…. Time to find a new job/hobby buddy
It’s a contest.
Why not? Shut it down and give the money back to the Shareholders. No wait, that’s Dell… and Mikey already did that.
Idiocy! Would never pass federal approval due to creating a monopoly. What a hit manger!
I was thinking the same thing, unless the flounder worse than they already are and I’m a few year are only worth like 10% of what they currently are. But I still don’t ever see it happening.
I fancy this anal-yst’s prediction will come to pass about the same time Apple produces a $99 dollar plastic iphone running Android–which will be about as soon as when MS (or Google or Scamdung!) manage to produce a decent OS.
In the meantime, I’d suggest this ‘expert’ invest in something else that’s an absolutely probable surefire winner, like a start-up for Porcine Parachutes, or the Antarctic Ice-cream Company–they’re the Next Big Things, no doubt about it!
Well, Microsoft does make a nice mouse. I think Apple would gladly pay a couple hundred bucks to get their hands on that technology.
I thoroughly enjoy comedy in the morning. Do Fitz-Gerald and Varney write for SNL? 🙂
Only a MS shareholder could dream of something this wrong.
To quote Judge Koh “Are you on crack?”
Gotta be Rob Enderle writing under an alias…
Heh heh..I think it was Mr bitterness himself…Joe Wilcox, who opined that apple would have to adopt Android to survive, over at Betanews a couple of years ago. He got so lambasted that he gave up and promised to not post anything about Apple until site visits fell off a cliff then it was back to his usual m.o.
Hilarious how Apple owns them all.
Gag me.
In what way would Microsoft or Apple help each other combat Google or Facebook? Surely there’s more of a non-existent chance that one of Apple or Microsoft would “merge” with Google or Facebook.
I don’t know how Mr. SHITGERALD, thinks Google and Facebook is content king…….Google’s search is so replaceable, proven by Siri Overlay search. Facebook dominance is temporary, proven by google’s very one social app. Every thing in tech moves at light speed so does the leaders, but if your core business is Hardware, Software, Retail, online and physical and Service, in which Apple is best or better or comparable. I do not see the sense in the merger mentioned above.
If Apple buys Microsoft one day, it will simply be to assume all of those retail leases. Apple’s stores are getting pretty full, and MS has all of that un-used retail space in close proximity to Apple Stores.
Pretty tempting takeover target : )
Talk about putting the “anal” in analyst…
Maybe for Microsoft’s developer tools. Not the whole company.
Most people I know have given upon Facebook, certainly anyone grown up or worthwhile.
I mean, look how well it worked for Time and AOL.
If content and security are king, where does Microsoft fit in? It has neither. Sucurity is a foreign language to Microsoft.
Apple & Microsoft ( the two companies making the most amount of $) need to be concerned about the two companies making the least amount of $. Makes a whole of sense?
Makes sense to me. Buy it and Adobe, control Office and photoshop. Dump everything else.
Life is good.
Antitrust law won’t let Apple “merge” with all of Microsoft, thank goodness.
Apple is already making it into the enterprise market through the back door, i.e., iPhone and iPad. I guess the only thing Microsoft has worthwhile is Exchange Server. It’s one of the very few products from them I like. Beyond that, what else of value could Microsoft bring to the table that Apple really needs?
There’s MS Server, but companies have been migrating a lot of their server needs to Linux as a way to cut costs and divest themselves of the Microsoft tax licenses. I guess if they threw in Ballmer, they can put him on display in the lobby of the new spaceship campus in a monkey cage. At least he won’t fling his poo at people, he prefers to toss chairs instead.
April 1st already where did the time go.
Also Google/Android are 1 and the same.
Uh, no merger. Ever.
But I could see a day when Apple decides it will license OS X to other OEMs (assuming they meet certain criteria with their hardware). The reason? At some point Apple may be involved enough in mobile in terms of their profit that they don’t desire to compete as much in the desktop/laptop space.
If they want to go thermonuclear with Microsoft and really put a bullet through its heart, license OS X and take big share of the one place that Microsoft still makes some money — Desktops/laptops.
I never say never, but it’s highly unlikely (unless Apple for whatever reason decides to buy Microsoft, as opposed to a merger).
Yeah, embrace and extinguish.
Maybe if Wine ever reaches production status, it may become part of the extinguish phase.
Apple and Google merge.
Android spun off to open source.
Let the magic of open source fragment Android.
Apple establishes an enterprise software campus in Seattle.
Announces that they are hiring and that they use humane and reasonable employee reviews.
Free the many great Microsoft programmers from the Thumb of Balmer.
The first problem is this guy was on the Faux Out of Bidness Channel with BS artist Stuart Varney. Murdochvision’s Wall Street channel has about 3 viewers.
Friday 6 December
Total Day P2+ (000s) 25-54 (000s) 35-64 (000s)
CNBC 142 44 75
FBN 49 8 21
In other news, Israel and Iran have announced a 5 to 10 year plan to merge into one country.
Anything could come to pass in 5-10 years. It’s just as absurd for proud Apple fanboys to dismiss the possibility as it is for some pundit to declare it’s the best way to take on Google.
Facebook should be recognized for the marketing firm it is. May it slide into MySpace irrelevance as fast as possible.
MDN is absolutely wrong in claiming that MS has nothing Apple needs. If Apple wishes to maintain growth, it will have to:
1) replace or improve Siri with improved search capabilities. MS currently has Yahoo’s tech driving Bing, with a crappy interface. Apple would LOVE to acquire the underlying technologies, but MS beat them to the punch.
2) Apple needs to forge much more solid relationships with enterprise and small business customers. MS actually does quite well in both of these areas.
3) Apple just acquired some of the Kinect technology, but it doesn’t have any obvious immediate platform on which to deploy it. MS does.
4) servers, servers, servers. The iCloud is a disaster. Dropbox and MS and even -gasp- Google solutions are ahead in the market/mindshare — at least for gullible people who are willing to buy server space. The advantage of Dropbox and MS, believe it or not, is that it Just Works. iCloud, not so much.
5) Developer tools. MS Windows has by far the biggest and most diverse developer base. In comparison, under Cook, the Mac has really not grown as fast. There are more Win8 users than Mavericks users — hard to believe, but true.
6) Also, believe it or not, hardware is becoming an Apple weakness. Not the design — Apple easily maintains a lead here — but manufacturing. Apple was stupid not to snatch up Nokia when it had the chance. The manufacturing capacity alone would have been worth the price. As it is now, Apple is constrained by antiquated manual assemblers in China, with no clear plan how to grown any faster than Foxconn is willing or able to grow. And the gaps in the Mac product line are too huge to continue to ignore. Apple needs more products — and yes, MS Surface hardware isn’t terrible. It”s the software that sucks.
7) patents. MS has quite a few that Apple would find worthwhile.
8) MS Office, despite the horrid ribbon, remains the productivity gold standard of the world. Really. If Apple thinks that free iWork is going to displace MS Office by offering fewer features, they need to wake up. MS Excel is without peer, and Word blows away Pages for any complex document writing. If Apple actually cared about business customers, it would offer truly professional-grade apps instead of continually dumbing-down Mac apps into iOS-like crapware.
You make some thought-worthy points put I don’t know if those are still worth Apple absorbing the entire gigantic, floating shit pile that is Microsloth.
had a nap and when I read that I thought I’ve slept all the way to April 1st….
I don’t think either side will want this, ever.
Never! I remember Steve’s speeches when IBM was the Big Baddie, then M$. Then Google. M$ is already a dust heap. Run away from garbage! I can hear Steve’s wicked snickering from heaven.
OMG Where do these people come from?! This article is an embarrassment to analysts everywhere.