“Apple has had a significant hand in pushing the media industry into the digital age. Now, the technology group is trying to find a way to get far more deeply involved in the business itself,” Richard Waters writes for The Financial Times. “The revelation that Eddy Cue, a senior executive at the iPhone maker, broached the idea of a possible purchase of Time Warner late last year is the most dramatic sign yet of Apple’s rising interest in media.”
“Thanks in part to the sale of things such as digital music and movies, services have emerged this year as the company’s largest source of revenue after the iPhone,” Waters writes. “And now that Apple has a foot planted squarely in the media industry’s door, it now seems ready to barge in further.”
Waters writes, “Whether it would seriously try to pursue an all-out bid for Time Warner — or whether the suggestion from Mr Cue was intended mainly as a heavy nudge to prod the company into releasing more of its content — points to one of the most intriguing questions over the future of the consumer technology company.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: What do you think: Seriously considered an acquisition or a negotiating tactic?
Here’s what we wrote of Apple’s burgeoning cash pile over three years ago:
Maybe it’s insurance in the face of recalcitrant content providers (“last chance: sign the deal or we’ll buy you with petty cash”)? — MacDailyNews, February 21, 2013
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Apple should use their cash pile to create some much needed leverage to finally get their Apple TV subscription bundle(s) up and running even if all they do is flash their cash around. — MacDailyNews, January 14, 2016
SEE ALSO:
Apple’s Eddy Cue proposed bid for Time Warner – May 26, 2016
Obviously, Apple could buy Time Warner, but they shouldn’t – January 14, 2016
Apple eyeing Time Warner assets to ease launch of a stand-alone streaming TV service – January 13, 2016