Just found this article on Wired about reports of Apple trying to buy Universal Music Group. Apple's stocks went down 8.8% (bastards... I own 150 shares and it's gone down far enough) because the investors don't get it. The article quotes Merrill Lynch analyst Michael Hillmeyer as saying "In fact, there do not appear to be any synergies between a music company and a PC company, even one as innovative as Apple.".
Now, when's the last time any investor/analyst got anything right about Apple? Personally, I don't think it's that bad of an idea. In other industries, it's called "vertical integration" from what I hear. Apple wants to start a music distribution service. They own the end-user environment (Macs, iPods, iTunes) and if they owned a music company, they'd own the whole shebang. Otherwise, they're still going to be at the mercy of music companies, and that could easily kill any efforts to start a music distribution service.
Having said that, I hope this deal doesn't completely deplete Apple's $4.4 billion cash reserve.
Update: This article over on The Register sounds much more realistic.
Posted Sun, April 13, 2003 11:33 by dirvish
Could this have something to do with what that Apple employee was talking about in that hearing we watched on TV the other day? You know the one that had the MPAA guys there and they were discussing DRM. Didn't the Apple guy say something about Apple coming out with something that would make the MPAA/RIAA's fears unnecessary?
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