Apple is ready to bite off a piece of Silicon Valley

The other day, Steve Jobs publicly stated that Apple has about $ 25 billion "securely stored in the bank." Agree, it is foolish not to put these funds into circulation when there is an excellent opportunity to buy assets at a low price. Actually, Steve Jobs hinted at this. Now, during the crisis, just a good time. Everything is very much cheaper, and the owner of a large bank account in the bank is viewed as a deity descending from heaven. Experts believe that Apple can start "big shopping" right now. The first target is interesting and promising firms, which now have a severe financial hunger and are ready to sell for any price.

True, it's hard to imagine who Apple wants to buy. The company's business is clearly established, there are reliable contracts with both suppliers and telecom operators, and it is difficult to suspect the lack of talented personnel from Apple. However, financial analysts still call several options.

Adobe
Apple is positioning its computers for creative people, and most of the "poppies" are installed by Adobe. However, Adobe's current market capitalization is still too big ($ 13.3 billion), and Apple traditionally prefers to buy smaller companies. Therefore, for Apple there are other, much more realistic goals.

Synaptics
Synaptics is another matter. This is a relatively small company (capitalization $ 627 million), which produces touchpads for the iPod. It also delivers touchpads for Apple’s rival Creative Zen, so Apple’s purchase of a contractor has a double benefit: cost savings and a blow to a competitor. True, this investment also cannot be called ideal, because the business around the iPod is very well established, and Apple is not at all fixing on the hardware component, and most importantly - selling digital music from iTunes, so Synaptics is hardly among its priorities.
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Vudu
Ask who? This is a content delivery service, including to digital set-top boxes. There are about 5,000 films in their video library, thanks to agreements with all the major and 18 independent film studios (Apple has only 1,000 films and deals with only a few major studios), and this service competes with Apple TV. If Apple is looking for a vulnerable company, then Vudu is a good candidate, the company fired 20 of its 100 employees in August.

IPhone Application Developers
If you think about even smaller acquisitions, Apple could look in the direction of some independent developers who are making applications for the iPhone. Among them are really creative individuals. For example, the same Steve Demeter, who made Trism and earned her a quarter of a million in just two months . He worked at Apple, the money would go to the company.

Other options
There are a few crazy ideas that Apple could still buy for cheap. Although it is not entirely clear why she might need it. For example, the formerly famous manufacturer of supercomputers, Cray, is now worth only $ 115 million. Or, say, the manufacturer of aluminum cases for the new MacBooks Alcoa ($ 3 billion), the manufacturer of Seagate hard drives ($ 3 billion), and even the General Motors automobile concern - it is also now worth quite affordable, the same $ 3 billion