Rumor: Google might buy Apple

by billso on Thursday, 21 June 2007

Based on a quote from John Heilemann’s article on Steve Jobs, the Internet is bubbling with rumors that Google might buy Apple. Philip Elmer-Dewitt of Business 2.0 discusses the rumor here.

The two companies have cultures that are similar in some ways, so the rumor has some face validity.

Google + Apple = something interesting

Apple would give Google a platform to roll out some interesting consumer devices. As I’ve noted in other posts, including my discussion of the Heilemann article, the iPhone includes a few Google web applications, including mapping.

But Google really hasn’t shown much interest in the high volume hardware business. Sure, Google builds most of the machines in its data center from off-the-shelf hardware. Google also sells a couple of search appliances, but those are rack-mounted devices designed for a server room.

Google has shown a great deal of interest in networked storage, however. Given the pervasive nature of broadband Internet access in the US, Europe and the Pacific Rim, it’s only a matter of time until we see PDAs and portable computers that rely on services provided by Google, Microsoft, and other vendors to store user email, images, music and documents.

Google doesn’t have enough cash to buy Apple… yet

In the end, Google doesn’t have the cash on hand to buy Apple. Matther Siegler at ParisLemon ran the numbers. Apple’s network is over US$100 billion and climbing, while Google has a net worth of $US158 billion. So a buyout doesn’t make much sense this month.