According to Wedbush analyst and Apple bull Dan Ives, the Cupertino Colossus has made one major misstep: not buying Netflix years ago.
Daniel Howley for Yahoo Finance:
“The biggest strategic mistake, in my opinion, from Jobs and Cook over the last 10 to 12 years, is not acquiring Netflix a number of years ago,” Ives told Yahoo Finance Live, referring to the deceased founder and former CEO, Steve Jobs, and the current CEO, Tim Cook.
Buying Netflix would have given Apple a huge stake in the streaming video industry, preventing it from having to build its own offering from scratch. So far, the major releases the company has include “The Morning Show,” “Ted Lasso,” and “For All Mankind,” and while they’ve gotten audiences’ attention, none have become the kind of cultural force that the likes of Netflix and Disney+ have unleashed with shows like “Tiger King,” “The Queen’s Gambit,” and “The Mandalorian.”
According to Ives, the only way for Apple to catch up to the top dogs in the streaming space is to buy a major Hollywood studio of its own.
“We’ve talked about an MGM, a Lionsgate, an A24, otherwise they’re going to continue to sort of be on the outside looking in,” Ives said. “And that’s why I think this is something they’re going to be forced into…because it’s all about content.”
Ives said Apple TV+’s relatively slim content catalog is akin to owning a mansion but having little to furnish it with.
MacDailyNews Take: Nope.
Apple’s doing just fine with Apple TV+.
Until Apple actually buys Netflix, we’ll keep saying that Apple will buy Netflix for the same reason they bought Palm. — MacDailyNews, January 31, 2016