When it comes to the movers and shakers of the tech world, few companies come bigger and richer than Apple. The California-based company has loads of cash in its coffers, and isn’t afraid to use it, having previously bought Beats Audio for $3 billion and more recently, scooping up Shazam for US$400 million last month.
But that’s all going to be dwarfed in comparison to Apple potentially acquiring Netflix, which Citi analysts claim that there’s a 40% chance of happening. US$75 billion is the amount Apple will have to cough up in order to purchase the streaming site, which would make it their largest acquisition of all time.
Apple has recently received $252 billion in repatriated cash thanks to Donald Trump’s corporate tax cut, and yes, they can use it to buy new companies, with Netflix touted as the most obvious choice by analysts.
And considering that content creation isn’t exactly Apple’s strongest suit – they did make a scripted video series with Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon however, there is some logic to buying Netflix. Plus, there’ll be plenty of leftover dough from that $252 billion cash kitty, even after Netflix has been bought.
Don’t believe the rumors just yet though. Things may not get that exciting. At the end of the day, Apple is a still a company primarily focused on technological and engineering needs, while there isn’t much of a need to boost content creation compared to a few years back.
It’s more likely that Apple will use the repatriated cash to buy back stock and reward stockholders.
That may not be such a bad thing. It would suck to see Apple monopolise Netflix, potentially leaving Android users out of the picture. Whatever the case may be; as long as they don’t stop Netflix from doing what they do and making good shows, we’re all good with whoever the company belongs to.
Cover image: Apple
