Cash-rich Tim Cook is invited. Hard-hit Netflix is a takeover target. Speculation is rife.
From Jill Goldsmith's "Media Moguls To Gather At Annual Allen & Co. Sun Valley Retreat Amid Streaming Rethink, Economic Woes" posted Saturday in Deadline:
The mountains are as gorgeous as ever, the deal climate not so much as boutique investment bank Allen & Co. prepares to host its annual Sun Valley retreat. After guests arrive on Tuesday, official activities get under way Wednesday...
Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch and COO John Nallen are confirmed. So is Sony Group Corp. CEO Ken Yoshida and Jim Ryan, head of PlayStation. Casey Wasserman and Mike Fries too.
Not all invitees necessarily attend. But Rupert Murdoch is a regular and Bob Chapek — a new three-year contract now in hand — was there last year. Invitees also include tech CEOs, among them Elon Musk, Apple’s Tim Cook, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon’s Andy Jassy and Alphabet’s Sundar Pichai. The list features an array of top-of-the-top of media chiefdom – companies that could or do bank with Allen & Co. — and executives from companies that are clients.
By putting execs in close proximity and in khakis, the Sun Valley conference is credited with planting the seeds of mergers – from Disney’s buying CapitalCities/ABC back 1995, to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ acquisition of The Washington Post in 2013...
Netflix is increasingly seen as a takeover target
My take: MacRumors Joe Rossignol nailed it...
The combination of Cook’s attendance and Netflix being seen as an acquisition target will inevitably lead to speculation about Apple buying the streaming media giant. This would instantly make Apple TV+ the biggest name in the streaming video market.
So far, however, there has been little sign that Apple has any interest. The strategy of Apple TV+ has been quality over quantity, with the Cupertino company focusing on original content. It’s also a very low-margin business, which would be a surprising purchase for a company whose margins nudge close to 40%. Stranger things have happened, but any speculation is somewhat on the wilder side.
Netflix today costs $88B including debt. At acquisition premium, it’s about $110B.
Apple can build their own library and their own talent pool, for a lot less money and get better quality. They’ve already proven this.
“Today, we celebrate the first glorious anniversary of the Information Purification Directives. We have created, for the first time in all history, a garden of pure ideology—where each worker may bloom, secure from the pests purveying contradictory thoughts. Our Unification of Thoughts is more powerful a weapon than any fleet or army on earth. We are one people, with one will, one resolve, one cause. “
Sorry your AMZN is doing poorly, but why take your frustration out on Apple 3.0? Just sounds like sour grapes….
Is Apple 3.0 an echo chamber (which is your implication)? Or is it a haven for those with clearer vision than most when it comes to Apple and AAPL? Depends on your POV, I suppose.
Apple’s motto to ‘think differently’ was not a directive for everyone within Apple to all go in their own different ways, but for everyone within Apple to be like-minded, in their goal to ‘think differently’ than the PC world at-large (ie, Microsoft). Everyone within the organization needs to be like-minded in their goals (as set by Tim & crew). But obviously they need everyone coming up with a variety of ideas, to think differently, in obtaining those goals. In that sense, Apple needs to encourage everyone to ‘think differently’.
Sorry to be a CorrectionCrank, but the actual ad tag line was “Think different.” which is a subtle and appropriately alternate premise than the first “programmed” premise on most minds — “Think differently.”
(Which was the whole point.)
$110B buys a lots choice cuts, rather than one sick ole’ cow.