Apple buyout rumours circulate as iPhone launch nears

Sure, I'm somewhat skeptical of the iPhone...

...but next time I'd write a story that doesn't sound quite so much like a 'sour grapes', 'I asked Steve Jobs for an interview and he turned me down' reaction.

I mean, really, implying that Jobs doesn't face hostile interviewers? That's well known. Neither do any other heads of industry in the US these days, nor does our President any more. But sure, Jobs is much more scrupulous about his vetting than anyone else that I know of who isn't currently in the US Government. (In the current government, the only person who ever faces hostile interviewers is our favorite-ist press secretary since the last press secretary, who simply lies every time he's given a question he doesn't like.)

Implying that Apple is putting out Google acquisition rumors in order to up their stock price? That's what we call 'being a d*ck'. And don't say that's not what you were implying, because if it's not, then you're a lousy writer. And you're not.

And it's always nice to hear the press weigh in on a new Apple product. I'll put your predictions of failure on the iPhone on the pile along with the predictions of failure of every major Apple product by a wide variety of 'journalists' over the years. I'd say the voice of common wisdom (if one can stretch to call it that) has had about the same record of successfully predicting such things in Apple's case as, say, a coin toss would. (Newton? Right, finally. iMac? Wrong. Pippin? Ever so right. iPod? Wrong. PowerMac G4 Cube? Quite correct. Mac OS X? Dead wrong.)

-fred

Absurd Theory

This is a silly post. This "rumor" is bad speculation from an unnamed source in a Jobs' hit-piece. This is not an example of Jobs milking press favorable to his controlled message. As the Fake Steve writes, Apple will benefit more from anti iPhone press leading up to and through the release of the iPhone. A minor (as in extremely minor ) decline of the stock is a good thing. (The stock has soared from ~85 to ~124 in the 6-7 months since the iPhone was announced -- oh no, it declined from almost 126 to 121 and bounced back to 125! How will they cope with the .4% decline today!!) Considering Apple has more cash (12.6 Bill v. 11.9 Bill) and is close in value (106.5 Bill v. 160.7 Bill) to Google and will resist all buyouts (have done so for 30 freakin' years!), the only reason to buy this theory is you hope you can pass off a poorly conceived post that will draw some Apple hits. No one else believes this rumor is pumping up Apple's stock value. Anyone who is making investments should know that Apple's valuation should be tempered by deferred revenues from aTV and iPhone, that it will continue to explode but will receive a few knocks leading up to and after the iPhone launch because it is the hottest story and the hottest stock. That is all.

Walt Mossberg will be CEO and ....

... all the other Media Whores for Apple (like those at The Apple Register) will have Executive spots or Board Seats. Mossberg being the king Apple Whore, will of course have the top spot.

Seriously, all Google or Sony or your building janitor has to do is wait till 4 months after the iPhony is out and ALL THE USUAL APPLE BUGS are leaked out past the Apple Whore Media, the iPhone will FLOP along with the ALREADY FLOPPING Apple TV and Apple Stock will be back to $14 per share. Maybe Lenovo and the Communist Party will buy Apple .... after all, most Apple products are engineered and manufactured in those same Chi-Com Sweat Shops already.

Me? I will laughing my ass off and writing everywhere .... I TOLD YOU SO!

Stock manipulation?

Drive the price down with rumors, buy at a discount, let the product prove itself, sell at a premium. The reverse of the pump & dump. And typically, you don't know who the rumor mongers are. In this instance, the reporter/columnist is just saying what he heard. I could say that the Barcelona is going to exceed expectations and beat Intel in all the benchmarks. Which I hope happens (because I own a ton of AMD stock).

Apply Buy? Don't rule out the

Don't be so quick to rule out some former and not so much anymore players that used to be a thorn in the side of IT. I wouldn't put it past

the likes of Sun or maybe SGI or Cray to buy Apple, if it was truely up for sale.

Identity revealed

Webster, please run along and stop being tiresome, there's a good little chappie.

If you don't, I'll have to tell everyone that you're really Steve Ballmer's uglier and dumber older brother.

Sounds like some sour grapes

10 million iPhone units is the estimate. That will not be hard to beat for Apple. Those thinking that it is going to be a failure -- is just wishful thinking on their part.

Pathetic

With regards to the iPhone, predictions that it will crash and burn are well wideof the mark. Like all new Apple products, the 'coolest' people will want to have one wether it works fine or not. They will shift the units, just the same as the iPod in the beginning.

I personally won't be buying one and I'm what would be described as an Apple fan boy. OSX over XP or Vista anytime. No MS product on my computers thank you very much. Apple does make some brilliant gear and it also makes some turkeys. I believe the iPhone will come into the former category.

Title

"... all the other Media Whores for Apple (like those at The Apple Register) will have Executive spots or Board Seats. Mossberg being the king Apple Whore, will of course have the top spot.

Seriously, all Google or Sony or your building janitor has to do is wait till 4 months after the iPhony is out and ALL THE USUAL APPLE BUGS are leaked out past the Apple Whore Media, the iPhone will FLOP along with the ALREADY FLOPPING Apple TV and Apple Stock will be back to $14 per share. Maybe Lenovo and the Communist Party will buy Apple .... after all, most Apple products are engineered and manufactured in those same Chi-Com Sweat Shops already.

Me? I will laughing my ass off and writing everywhere .... I TOLD YOU SO!"

How about you run along now....

I'll be happy if they do hit $14 a share though as that'll be a great time to buy!

As for where the products are manufactured, exactly what bearing does that have on the price of fish? Companies have to manufacture in the far east now in order to remain competitive, as someone who's company also does this you'll usually find that the company has very strict control over the manufacture of their products and in many cases the end result is of a far higher standard than it would be than in your home country!

Sun? SGI? Cray? It's 1998 again!

The oldest merger stories going. The Snapple rumour dates back to the late 90s, when it just might have been possible that Sun might have benefitted from a true desktop presence. The current post-Sun incarnation of Cray is a niche supercomputer maker that doesn't have the funds to buy anything, and SGI makes incredible imaging software but has got well out of OS and hardware simply because it was easier for them to port to NT and Linux on Intel than continue developing Irix and their MIPS machines.

So funny

Aaaah, Webster you're so cute with your 419-style rantings - you have such a lovely way with words! We have a janitor in our office who talks just like you and has a neat sideline in flogging "legitimately sourced" Nokias to Nigeria. You wouldn't be him by any chance? You certainly express yourself in the same way he does. A cold towel sesh becons for you my friend, or perhaps enrolling into your local infant school...

Anyway, back on topic, bit of a snooze story this.

Death Knell...

So, is this Apple Death Knell # 53? (As Apple has been declared dead 52 times since April 1995, according to The Mac Observer)

And how many of you have downloaded Safari for Windows then, Hmmm?

Lame stuff ...

That's a really crap article you have there! Reads more like a forum post on some off topic thread. C'mon, this is a good site in general - please raise your standard in future and leave the (very) vacuous rumours and cat-y comments to the general press.

Apple For Sale? No way!

Hmm. Maybe at&t will buy them and put iptv in every home with DSL. And replace POTS with voip. Yippie! Then the government can snoop it all from one source. Wheee! Apples to Oranges huh?