Should Apple buy out Microsoft?

[fryke]

?? Seriously: It doesn't make any sense at all.

1.) Apple doesn't consider the work of Microsoft as very valuable to their own plans. Sure, they're glad MS still makes Office for the Mac, but none of MS' projects could be considered key to Apple's future.

2.) Microsoft was allowed to go on in the 90s partly because there _was_ competition in the OS market as well.

3.) Being larger in market value doesn't in any way mean you need to buy the company that previously was larger. There's no cause and effect here. No logical link.

4.) Apple's not continuing to lose market share. It's currently gaining in home, business and education.

[ElDiabloConCaca]

Since I posted this Apple is now Largest Company in the World by market value. Makes Microsoft an even easier buy out.

Apple could also easily buy out Fiat, Jimmy Dean, and a whole slew of other companies. That doesn't make buying out Microsoft any better of an idea, and it makes even less sense. Again, just because they CAN doesn't mean they SHOULD or that they would benefit from it.

Think about it: Apple buys out Microsoft... then what? Microsoft's server platform is written atop a completely different codebase. They have too much "baggage" in the way of failed products and/or lines that aren't going anywhere (think: Windows 7 phone). Apple would have to gut the company as a whole, start mainly from scratch, making the whole buyout a losing proposition.

Given that Apple has no presence in the server market,

The Mac mini and Mac OS X Server software prove your comment otherwise.

and substantially lost what it had in Education,

Eh? I recall recently reading an article about a school supplying ALL of their students with iPads instead of textbooks. If that's not a presence in education, I don't know what is.

I am just not seeing the benefit of buying Microsoft. I could be persuaded otherwise with reason and argument, but those reasons and arguments have not been clearly set forth as of yet. In fact, I don't think they exist. Apple buying Microsoft is just not a good idea -- it wouldn't further Apple's business model, Microsoft has nothing that Apple needs, and it would cause a huge hit to Apple's cash reserves for little (if any) gain.

[fryke]

Hmm... Buying a car company could give us the iCar, though. Think of a Smart car that goes through Apple's design machine. Sure, it'll be missing a reverse gear in version one, but I hear version two will allow you to reverse *IF* you are a MobileMe user. :P

[rubaiyat]

1. Worst house in best street

2. The law is always interpreted according to how much money you have. Apple can always buy its own country and have its own laws.

3. Excuse me just have to attend my Fortune 500 Mac mini server… (off mike: What did I tell you, don't stop fanning it with the newspaper…)

4. A school has bought iPads? That's sewn up the education market right there.

[ElDiabloConCaca]

How would purchasing Microsoft address any of those concerns?