“Apple was once known as the stock that couldn’t stop climbing higher. But these days the prevailing wisdom is that the stock is stalled, and there is no way it will have higher numbers in 2016 than this year,” Abigail Stevenson reports for CNBC. “So, what should CEO Tim Cook do? Jim Cramer has a plan.”
“‘Many professional investors have come to believe that Apple cannot maintain its earnings momentum because it doesn’t have enough large streams of recurring, higher-margin revenue to offset what could be a slowdown in iPhone sales,’ the Mad Money host said,” Stevenson reports. “With this in mind, Cramer reminded investors that he doesn’t think Cook should worry. Apple has done incredibly well under his management, and Cramer thinks it will continue to do so.”
“But if Cramer were Cook, he would take the initiative to buy four companies,” Stevenson reports. “With just $25 billion, Apple could get Harman, Pandora, Fitbit and Verifone. All of these companies would give investors a recurring reason to own the stock in 2016 besides just an iPhone.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Well, that would certainly shake things up.
What do you think, should Apple swallow Harman, Pandora, Fitbit and/or Verifone?
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “David E.” for the heads up.]
Harman Audio..that is a dumb idea.
Keeping in mind that the Harmon Group, in addition to the Harmon-Kardon consumer stuff, produces JBL Pro Audio (you know, the stadium-class pro audio gear), Soundcraft mixing consoles, DBX (including speaker management systems), AKG microphones, Crown amplifiers, and more. What would Apple do with all that?
Buying Pandora may not be such a bad idea.
Why? It’s losing money and Apple doesn’t need the tech.
Sure is. Apple should buy IBM. It’s a steal right now.
It’s a good thing that Cramer isn’t Tim Cook. This is a dumb ass idea, and Cramer obviously does not understand what makes Apple such a great company. All he sees is the stock price.
Reminds me of the adage “When your only tool is a hammer, everything you see is a nail.”
Cramer is a one trick pony with blinders on.
Apple generally buys small but promising companies that have developed specialised technology which Apple can make great use of. The companies listed do not fit into that pattern, Other than hoping to continue benefitting from their income streams, what could they bring to the Apple party?
Analysts continually demonstrate how little they understand about how Apple works. If Apple worked the same way as other businesses, Cramer’s advice might not seem so wide of the mark, but if Apple operated like other businesses, it would never have reached the position where it had so much free cash that it could afford to buy those four well known companies and still have hundreds of billions left over.
I’ve been following Apple as a business ever since I bought my first AAPL shares a great many years ago. The one constant theme throughout that period has been the number of analysts who reckon that they have a better idea about running Apple than Jobs and then Cook did. Over that period, Apple has not done what those analysts have suggested, but has steadily risen to be the world’s biggest company. If Apple were to start doing what analysts suggest, I would be very concerned indeed.
I could see Verifone and Pandora but I don’t see a point in Apple acquiring Harman and Fitbit. I think Apple should invest in acquiring some Maps related companies like Citymapper, Nearmap, and even TomTom and Garmin and then for Siri they should acquire SoundHound behind the new Hound virtual assistant.
Apple should buy Samsung, Dell, and Microsoft then fire everyone, lock the doors, and usher in the Age of Apple. With only Apple products and services made available to humanity everyone would be forced to patronize Apple and everyone will be a happy and enlightened as Apple fanboys. The Apple caliphate will bring peace and sensibility to the planet. Amen.
They would still split into two sub groups, the followers of the monolithic socket and those addicted to the more pagan belief in multiple sockets.
I can’t imagine the government approving that type of a merger – Apple would become too much of a monopoly.
Haven’t you noticed that this “Fred” is just a troll who doesn’t have better things to do with his miserable life?
Now that you mention it I do see that. There are too many people like “Fred” in the comment sections of websites.
Don’t be hard on yourself. I haven’t lost faith that even an Apple fanboy like yourself is capable of learning to develop a sense of humor as well as the ability to think objectively and rationally. This is free public service for all Apple fanboys.
Heresy! You will be banned from the spaceship and transport to Elysium were only the righteous shall live forever and ever. Amen.
That’s a nice dream but it will never happen. Apple will remain content with small market share and Apple shareholders will continue to struggle to see any share gains. F.A.N.G. shareholders win and Apple shareholders lose. It’s as simple as that.
Fred, you are an idiot. Your sniveling blather has no merit whatsoever.
Your rock is calling…go crawl back under it.
Tsk, tsk. Another raging and impotent fan boy. It must be horrible be like you.
@Fred
Smart arse comments don’t mean you’re smart, just an arse.
Haven’t you learned that your puerile insults don’t bother me and prove my point that Apple fanboys are inherently biased, irrational, and unintelligent. In fact, I will continue to mock the likes of you because it always results in a response by those like you that confirms the obvious.
Fred is right. He’s baiting you with you know what and you are stepping–no, falling right into it. Drop it. It’s just silly.
Now, on the original subject, I agree with somebody who posted that Apple *should* buy IBM. IBM has the enterprise technology that Apple sorely needs and IBM’s price is soooo low right now.
None of those companies has anything that Apple needs.
-jcr
Just buy Adobe already.
Only one that makes sense is Verifone, to quicken rollout of terminals supporting Apple Pay. The rest are not needed by Apple inc.!
Cramer- where to begin?
Buy Microsoft and shut it down.
Apple needs to get off it’s butt and acquire a reoccurring revenue business to mimic Amazon. I still think Cook is somewhat capable of pulling something off- try starting with dog food Timber.
AWS is only part of Amazon worth owning. Retail growth is strong, but has marginal probability at best. After joining Prime, instead of aggregating orders to meet shipping minimums, I just order one offs. I ordered a book that my wife wanted for $4.99. It was the wrong one and I went on line to set up a return. The reponse was, we’ll refund the money. Don;t bother sending back the item. (In other words, it cost me more to pay the return shipment and re warehouse the item than it is worth)
and El Gato TV for the Apple TV.