Apple was in preliminary talks to purchase Time Warner Cable, a major cable company in the US, last year but the deal never took off, reports the Financial Times. That deal may not have happened, in part, because the Cupertino company had its eye on a bigger prize: Netflix.
Unnamed sources revealed that Apple senior vice president Eddy Cue proposed the idea of an acquisition to Olaf Olafsson, Time Warner's head of corporate strategy. The idea died off eventually and the meeting between Cue and Olafsson didn't include Apple CEO Tim Cook or Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes.
According to the The Financial Times report, this might have been due to the fact that Apple may be looking to purchase a streaming video service like Netflix, if not the streaming giant itself. This information came from unnamed bankers who worked with Apple so take it with a grain of salt.
Neither Apple or Netflix have announced any concrete plans, however the move would make a lot of sense.
Apple currently has its iTunes music and video service, but customers can only rent or purchase movies, not stream them. Buying a streaming video service will round out Apple's streaming media offerings, which includes Apple Music.
With digital sales of digital music sales declining, Apple had to adapt and create Apple Music, which currently has over 11 million subscribers. As digital movie and TV sales decline, Apple will have to look toward streaming services like Netflix.
Apple has also been trying to build an internet video subscription service with content providers, but the company hasn't been able to negotiate a deal to get consumer-friendly pricing.
With over $230 billion in the bank, Apple could purchase Netflix, which currently has a value of $43 billion, but again, without anything more concrete to go off of, it's probably going to be awhile before you use your iTunes ID to sign into Netflix.
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