Apple hasn't put any of these deals in its shopping cart (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
You won't find Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook at a Spenders Anonymous meeting.
Skeptics dinged Apple managers Monday after Chief Executive Tim Cook announced the Cupertino, Calif.-based iPhone maker will pay a quarterly dividend of $2.65 and buy back $10 billion worth of stock over the next three years.
Why not use some of that cash to go shopping for a megadeal -- maybe even several megadeals -- they asked?
Here area a few often-mentioned targets, and some reasons why Apple might have passed:
Universal Music
April 2003
Source: The Los Angeles Times
Why not? Buying a record label would give Apple plenty of music. It would have also made the technology company plenty of enemies in the music business. Instead, Apple has lured all the major labels to its iTunes music store. It’s a pattern Apple would repeat again.
TiVo
May 2003
Source: Business 2.0
Why not? TiVo is a great companion to a premium cable or satellite television subscription. Apple TV, launched in 2007, is evolving into a bolder play: Apple’s little box is ideal for consumers who choose to cut the cord and stream content over the Internet.
Sun Microsystems
June 2006
Source: MarketWatch
Why not? Apple discontinued its only piece of data center gear, the XServe, last year. Apple is all about the consumer now. Sun, by contrast, was all about data centers. It’s now part of Oracle.
Adobe
January 2008
Source: Robert X. Cringely
Why not? Rather than buying Adobe and its professional class tools, Apple continued to invest in its own consumer-friendly photo and video editing software. And Apple has rejected the flash multimedia technology that once seemed like Adobe’s crown jewel.
ARM Holdings
April 2010
Source: London Evening Standard
Why not? More than 76% of Apple’s sales come from products that run on processors based on ARM’s designs. The problem: why spend billions of dollars to get the right to service ARM’s broad base of customers, many of them Apple competitors, when Apple can get what it wants for a multi-million-dollar licensing fee?
Electronic Arts
May 2010
Source: CNBC
Why not? Apple killed the only video game it built for the iPhone last year. Just as it opted to create a platform for music companies -- rather than become one -- with iTunes, Apple seems to be staying out of the way of game developers, like Electronic Arts, who are rushing to stock Apple’s App Store with their games.
February 2011
Source: TheStreet.com
Why not? Apple is known for building, rather than buying, even when it doesn’t get it right (with Ping, for example). Plus Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg and his board have rebuffed several lucrative takeover offers. This company just isn’t for sale.
Disney
April 2011
Source: MarketWatch.com
Why not? The late Steve Jobs was one of Disney’s biggest shareholders after the Magic Kingdom’s acquisition of Pixar. So Jobs could have done this deal. Would that have complicated Apple’s efforts to turn iTunes into a video streaming powerhouse?
Nintendo
June 2011
Source: Seeking Alpha
Why not? Nintendo is all about great content. Apple isn’t, but it doesn’t need to bother thanks to the thriving content ecosystem it has built around its App Store.
Advanced Micro Devices
November 2011
Source: ZDNet
Why not? Apple took a close look at AMD’s Llano processor for the MacBook air last year, former AMD employees say. Apple passed. So why would Apple buy the company if it doesn’t like the product?
Palm
July 2010
Source: Business Insider
Why not? Hewlett-Packard got it first. Forbes veteran Dan Frommer’s reported that Apple made a serious bid for the struggling smart phone company before it was snapped up by Hewlett-Packard.
Netflix
December 2010
Source: Computerworld
Why not? The onetime movies by mail specialist is trying to make a transition to a streaming-video powerhouse. Thanks to iTunes Apple never had to worry about what to do when the Internet makes sending content to people through the mail obsolete. Not buying NetFlix means it never will.
Sony
August 2011
Source: Bloomberg
Why not? Have you been paying attention to Sony over the past few years?
