ray

http://www.silicon.com/hardware/desk...0003734,00.htm

My comments:

I don't think that Apple is necessarily moving away from the core foundation of their business, which is Computers. However, with companies like Gateway, HP and Dell broadening their product lines, Apple has to find another way to distinguish themselves from the seemingly dominating PC market.

I'm not so sure purchasing the largest record label in the world would help them stand out from the rest, but it certainly would give Apple the major upper hand if digital downloads and internet music services begin to really take off. Apple would have access to Universal's entire music catalog as well as the catalog of newly acquired Dreamworks Records as well.

In my opinion, I don't think anybody should be purchasing ANY record label at this point in time. Sure, many companies are in their last ditch efforts to sell off the business units that are losing money. Dreamworks sold their music because it hasn't performed too well. Vivendi Universal is still shopping their own record label. Warner Brothers has been on the auction block for several years now. Why isn't anybody biting? Because EVERYBODY wants to see where the possibilities of file-sharing and digital downloads will take the Music Industry.

I work for NBC/Universal Television and many of the people here are also curious to see how things pan out for the Music Industry. With that said, it's only a matter of time before the Movie and Television Industries are also impacted by rampant illegal file-sharing and piracy.

Part of me is proud of Universal in taking steps to try and bring back retail consumers by lowering the prices of their CDs. Why aren't those savings passed onto the customer? Because many retailers REFUSE to lower their CD prices to the $9.99 mark set by Universal a couple months ago. Universal has done their part, now the retail chains have to do theirs. Again, purchasing a Record Label right now would be a wise business venture should the industry pick back up. Everybody is asking prices that would have been absurd 5 or even 10 years ago. Steve Jobs sees a bargain, but is the bargain really worth the risk? I don't think so.

whitak24

check the date on that. it's from april. i read an article a couple weeks ago that was discussing that rumor.....there was no truth to it in the first place.

as for apple buying a record label - DISASTER. people always see a potential merger and start talking synergy and suddenly it's the "next big thing". remember AOLTimeWarner. yeah. stick to your core business, develop that, and go from there.

ray

Well, when AOL and Time Warner merged that was more a marriage of media companies trying to form a media conglomerate. Obviously, that has not met anybody's expectations yet. As far as buying just a record label, I still think there would be better acquisitions that could be made right now.

Thanks for pointing out the date, i didn't even notice it before. duh!

hoey222

you mean this apple record label???

__________________
i have become comfortably numb......

eSDee

Not gonna happen.

__________________
~~~~~~~~~~~~
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whitak24

i agree that apple buying a record label is not necessarily completely analogous to AOL buying Time Warner. but i think the point remains: even when two companies have a relatively similar business, mergers often fall far short of expectations (in that case, tech sector implosion hurt, but more importantly, AOL and TW were two very different companies which really weren't able to coexist under the same management)

ray

There have obviously been a few companies in the past decade that have had great mergers, but the most recent marriage that seems semi-successful is the HP-Compaq merger. They have actually gained on Dell as far as market share and they are working together to develop products other than personal computers.

Did you hear today's news? BMG Music and Sony Music have entered a 50/50 Joint Venture and are just awaiting approval from government agencies in the US and Europe. Assuming they're approved, they will directly compete with Universal Music as the largest record label in the world. I'm not so sure that is a good thing, but the Music Industry is beginning to take shape. I used to tell people that by the end of the year there would no longer be 5 big record labels.

Universal (just acquired Dreamworks)
BMG/Sony (joint venture)
Warner Bros (still looking to be sold)
EMI

whitak24

interesting. of course, i'm not sure that consolidation is going to help the record industry too much.....they need to start releasing more non-crap

ray

Well, the same thing happened with Pharmaceutical companies a few years back when everybody was merging because each company had only 1 product to offer and that wasn't going to last them forever once OTC drugs were approved after the FDA "licensing" periods ended. That's why a few of the bigger name firms were looking to acquire smaller biotech firms to take on their research and potential groundbreaking drugs.

Perhaps the Music Industry is gearing for a lineup of proven veteran artists in the event that the bubble gum pop era bursts and they need to rely on catalog sales to survive. Again, I honestly have no idea why the hell any record label would be looking to spend money, but maybe a merger is the way to go in such difficult times. The companies can pool their resources and vast catalog of artists and come up with some simple strategy to destroy the competition and take over the world Pinky.....