In all seriousness, I laughed to myself when I read the title for this article when I came across it. Once I viewed the source, I quickly shut the hell up and started taking it seriously. Although this is just a rumour and more or less just analyst speculation; there’s a good chance that the position of power in terms of the video game industry will drastically change if this shit goes down.
Apple has been racking in the dough for quite some time now. They’re estimated to have 51 billion dollars of crisp cash to blow with zero debt as well. They have been pulling in billions of dollars quarter after quarter so I’m sure all that money is starting to burn a significant hole in their collective pockets. So what do you do with 51 big tymer bills in the bank? Why not go on a shopping spree. Apple has been getting seriously involved in the gaming scene offering mostly casual games for the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad. With the potential acquisition of EA and Sony they’ll have a huge impact on the gaming industry and could position themselves at the top of the list in a short amount of time. EA is the second biggest game publisher and we all know what Sony has to offer in terms of their existing client base with a huge hand in the hardware game.
Apple, or Jobs more specifically, did not comment directly as to what their short or long term plans are relating to their excessive cash positioning but that didn’t stop the New York Times from chiming in on the subject. At Apple’s press conference last week, Jobs went on to make the following statement that got everyone up in Wall Street in a tizzy:
There are also some investors that just don’t see the point. Take into consideration the purchase of Netflix. iTunes already has 160 million accounts. Netflix would just be a drop in the bucket with their 15 million current subscribers in comparison. Apple has also done extremely well entering new markets on its own so they don’t exactly need to make any of these acquisition to remain competitive or expand. But man wouldn’t that be something. The biggest and smartest move would probably be picking up Facebook due to it’s 500 million subscribers and the robust advertising ecosystem that comes along with it.
If you’re interested in reading the entire article I suggest you check it out over at the NY Time. I wish I had Apple money… What would you guys “acquire” with 51 billion bucks in the bank?
News source: CVG (https://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=271625)