Apple Reportedly in Talks to Buy Universal Music for $6 Billion!

[James_F]

LA Times Article (http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-apple11apr11004423,1,5451939.story?coll=la-headlines-business) (free registration required)

In a pairing that would alter the architecture of the music business, Apple Computer Inc. is in talks with Vivendi Universal to buy Universal Music Group, the world's largest record company, for as much as $6 billion, sources said.

Such a seemingly unlikely combination would instantly make technology guru Steve Jobs, Apple's co-founder and chief executive, the most powerful player in the record industry.

Universal, which reaps about $6 billion in sales annually from artists such as 50 Cent, Shania Twain, U2 and Luciano Pavarotti, would be controlled by a maverick who revolutionized the computer market and coined the mantra "rip, mix, burn," which many in the music business read as an invitation to electronic piracy.

[firephoto]

Can't you just picture everyone at the RIAA on the phone this morning? :)

[James_F]

Well if Sony can be a member, why couldn't Apple? I hope they do work this out because its such a pain to get legal copies of music on the internet. This might stop everyone from stealing work that isn't their using Kazaa and others.

[waydwolf]

Prediction: Windows file share music swappers vastly increase their activity to stick it to Apple which then can either be touchy-feely in the Macintosh way and do nothing and face continued money losses or be big and corporate like Microsoft and come out swinging legally and show their true colors.

Prediction: Apple goes totally sell-out corporate making me laugh my butt off. John Sculley will also have a huge laugh.

 

[waydwolf]

Originally posted by Zac
"touchy-feely in the Macintosh way"???

Like how anyone who tries to modify the OS X interface faces threats of lawsuits? Not to mention those who try to bring it to other platforms! I'm not quite sure where you got the idea Apple doesn't defend their insane concepts of their intellectual property...

    So I'm not imagining the bizarre double-standard applied to Apple which has patented the "look and feel"(???) of the interface most especially the trash can icon and whacked MS with that in court. They do such penny wise pounds sterling foolish things and the Mac community sits there communing with their Macs going on to the end of time how corporate Intel, Microsoft, et al are and how "authentic" and "artistic" they and the entirety of Apple are.

    And the media at large in the IT field allow it to go on because a number of them actually went and got Macs back when Borland and Sybase were in their infancy and MS was a bit player in its own back yard. "Ooh lookie at the pretty and artistic Macs".

    I know Apple's tendencies all too well. I was a programmer on the Apple II platform and when I requested some technical support on some machine language routines, the people at Apple told me in almost frightened tones(as if I'd asked them to send me their first born child's liver smothered in baby onions), "we have that in our manuals here but we can't tell you that. You'll have to join APDA, the Apple Program Developer's Association."

    "Will that get me the information?"

    "No, and it will cost $359 or so... I think."

    "What will get me the information?"

    "You'll have to get the Apple IIe Software Developer's Kit for $359 I believe."

    "And that will have the information?"

    "No, but if you join and buy that kit, and are in good standing with us, one of the senior engineers might be allowed to answer your question."

    So I printed the assembly dump of the monitor ROM and most of the Applesoft code to my dot matrix printer(loaded with a red ink cartridge for some odd reason), and spent a weekend decoding what they did and adapting it to work the way I wanted in a program I was writing.

    It was my understanding that Beagle Brothers basically had to do the same thing to make Pronto DOS and that Apple execs were ultra peeved at them. Note that Apple did a lot of copying of early IBM/MS-DOS attributes in their ProDOS. I remember one of their sales people telling me they were told by Apple to discourage selling the Mockingboard as the Apple II's audio system(ONE bit sound made by rapidly pulsing location $C030 as I recall) was all anyone really needed.

    I know Apple's idiocy all too well. But this is a grand opportunity to watch Apple engage in it on a massive scale and rub everyone's faces in their true nature.

 

[invaliduser88]

Yeah, but will a CD still cost a freaking $15!

[James_F]

I guess this is a "non-story"

http://rss.com.com/2100-1027-997175.html?type=pt&part=rss&tag=feed&subj=news

In a statement, Apple CEO Steve Jobs said there was no substance to comments by one of Vivendi's directors to Bloomberg News that Apple would make a bid for Universal Music Group.

"Apple has never made any offer to invest in or acquire a major music company. The press statements this morning attributed to Vivendi board member Claude Bebear are untrue, as Mr. Bebear has confirmed in a later report," Jobs said. "Beyond these comments, we will abide by Apple's policy of not commenting on rumors."