Should Apple buy Sony? No. Nintendo? Well, maybe…

Posted by Dennis Sellers Feb 19, 2008 at 1:38am

The matter comes up every few years, but the “Will Apple buy Sony” (which used to be “Will Sony buy Apple?” back before Apple rebounded to become the hottest tech company around) question has been revisited. William Pesek, a Bloomberg News columnist, opines that there are good reasons why Apple should buy Sony. He makes some compelling arguments, but I’m more intrigued by his after-thought that if Apple doesn’t buy Sony (and they won’t), perhaps they should buy Nintendo.

You can read the entire article for Pesek’s reasoning on why Apple and Sony would be a good fit, but basically he says both companies are innovators, boast some of the world’s top design experts, etc. He also says that if Apple bought Sony, it would give Jobs & Company a foothold in the video game console world and that “Apple probably wouldn’t mind controlling the Blu-Ray technology that analysts say offers lucrative revenue streams.”

However, Pesek also points out some good reasons why such a deal wouldn’t work: “Jobs may have little interest in owning a company with so many fleas. Sony’s bureaucracy, scale and ingrained corporate culture could be a huge distraction for Apple, which has been successful offering a small number of products it makes very, very well. Also, Apple already is looking beyond today to tomorrow. Sony is more about today.”

So, no, I don’t think that Apple has any intention of buying Sony. It would simply divert them from their current objectives. However, Pesek does casually mention that Apple might consider buying Nintendo, which, “given Sony’s baggage, an argument can be made that Nintendo Co. would be a better fit for Apple.”

Honestly, I don’t think that Apple will buy Nintendo either, but I have to admit that having the Wii under the same company that makes the Mac, iPod, iPhone and Apple TV is an intriguing thought. Plus, analysts at the iSuppli research firm iSuppli are projecting that the Wii will overtake the 360 as the dominant videogame console this year. iSuppli projected sales puts the Nintendo system sales at over 30 million units, compared to Microsoft’s predicted 26 million unit sales. Having a games console that outsells Microsoft’s console would certainly put a smile on Jobs’ face.

(Of course, buying Sony would give Apple the biggest game console around, at least based on iSuppli’s forecast. The research firm thinks that the PlayStation 3, though off to a slow start, will be the big kahuna in the games console market over the next decade.)

In some ways, Nintendo is the Apple of the videogame market. It was counted down and out by some pundits before coming back and helping redefine its market with the introduction of a groundbreaking product with mass appeal: the Wii.

In fact, I’ve even had a couple of requests to cover the Wii here at Macsimum News. I don’t see that happening, but if Apple were going to splurge on buying a big name company, I think Nintendo would be a great fit. Much better than Sony, in fact. Of course, it wouldn’t be an inexpensive investment. Last year Nintendo’s shares rose to a record high 46,350 yen, increasing its overall market value to 6.57 trillion yen (about US$53 billion), which allowed it to surpass Sony’s market capitalization for a time.

By the way, I am curious to see which games consoles, if any, Mac users prefer. Feel out this week’s poll (which will be up momentarily) and give me some feedback, if you please.

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