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Apple Posts Earnings, Denies Bid for Universal
Lars T. writes "A number of things: Apple posts Q2 results, and denies it bid for Universial Music. Now a Register article quotes a Reuters article that 'Vivendi Universal director Claude Bebear didn't express his views on the merger talks between Vivendi's Universal Music Group (UMG) and Apple,' which was the claim of the Bloomberg article. Now who needs General Hospital?"
Oh well, we can't all get what we want.
Checking out my form of escapism.
Every quarter that Apple posts a profit is just another nail in the coffin of that dying company.
Oh wait..
Trolling is a art,
I wonder what how the stock of vivendi and apple changed after the LA times announced the alleged talks of apple's plan to purchase vivendi...Seems like a pretty big announcement to simply be a rumor.
With the Ipod and itunes and all, I thought it would only be a matter of time until Apple got involved with a record label. I'm actually a little disappointed that this was all just speculation.
The anti-salmon
Note that Jobs only denies that they made an offer, which may well mean that Apple was/still are in talks with Universal...
But my policy is to comment as egregiously as possible on rumors.
When did the future switch from being a promise to a threat? -C. Palahniuk
Someone really ought to take all the times businseses explicitly say "We are not doing X", and gather data on how often they are in fact doing X. Classify by type of X - corporate mergers, new products, swindling customers, etc.
I mean, I'm really curious exactly how much stock to put in Apple's denial here...
Anyone have any ideas?
Philip Sandifer's academic website
Dont ask dont tell!
All you touch and all you see is all your life will ever be
..can rarely be trusted.
What company every admitted to a buyout or merger before it was actually announced.
Take Bungie for instance.. The very night before their buyout by Microsoft was announced, they were denying that there was anything even on the table.
I glanced at the headline and thought it said "Apple Posts Earnings, Denies Bid for Universe". Then I realized I read it incorrectly, the article was about Apple, not Microsoft.
ich muß mehr Kuhglocke haben
Comical Ali (aka Baghdad Bob) told me that Steve Jobs was to make a bid for Walmart and turn it into a sci-fi museum dedicated to the Commodore Plus 4...
You can send your own lies to your friends with Your Comical Ali
All I Want For Christmas Is My Constitutional Rights
It honestly defies all conventional wisdom that a company set beside a large monopoly can still survive with a profit and imbue such incredible loyalty from its consumer base. If there were a couple of big players and Apple was a niche player in left field it would be different. But still..
They cost more.
They are generally slower (I know this is getting better everytime they make the consumer cough up money for a new version Mac OS X).
There is less software available in the retail markets.
Before you take a LART to me. This is leading to something.
Why?
This is a loaded question really since I am a linux user on x86 and understand there are plenty of reasons not to want to follow the mainstream. But I know my reasons and why others use linux.
I am actually curious.
Macheads with the computer world so very Windows focused why do you still buy macs?
ACK
It's common in the light-speed internet news world for one news agency to use another agency's article as the source of a story (and sometimes, without doing any fact/validation checking).
It happens all the time. Journalistic practices have gone way downhill since the web. Many stories on the web are obviously not reviewed by an editor. Heck, some aren't even spell checked. We're talking about major news networks too, like CNN, Fox, etc. CNN is one of the worst. BBC appears to be one of the better ones.
.sigs are for post^Hers.
Did you read the article??
For the quarter, the Company posted a net profit of $14 million, or $.04 per diluted share.These results compare to a net profit of $40 million, or $.11 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Revenues for the quarter were $1.475 billion
Those are not good numbers. That's a net of less than 1%. I'm not saying they're dying, but those are not good numbers. Are you willing to buy a piece of a company with numbers like this?
Apple stock drops on Universal music speculation.
To "get involved with" a record label doesn't necessarily entail taking on colossal debt to actually buy one.
"Fundamentalism" isn't about divine morality. It's about human authority.
Because you have to mess with them less to get your tasks done. I bend computers to my will as my job - at home I have other things to do.
Because they're less vulnerable to the virus-du-jour. Some of this is just better software, especially since OS X. Most of it is just choosing to live on the outer edges of the target, rather than right in the bullseye.
To a Lisp hacker, XML is S-expressions in drag.
In all three cases, they've actually rewritten their stories to reflect my bitching, at least in some minor ways. Amazing, huh? They responded, and actually rewrote copy, within a few hours.
On the one hand, how responsive they really are -- very cool, better than traditional papers by far and faster than, oh, a certain source of News for Nerds I can think of... ever try to get a headline changed?
But was there adequate editorial oversight, if one reader is capable of influencing them this much? These weren't even rush stories; they were more like the sort of thing where the "reporting" was largely transcribing chunks of a press release. They're rushing the stories up, even at the BBC.
"Fundamentalism" isn't about divine morality. It's about human authority.
I'm using a 4 year old PowerMac G4 400 as my primary machine at my web programming job. My 1.7 GHz Win2k PC sits next to the Mac and sees far less use. Even though Macs cost more than x86 boxes, they make up for it in terms of longevity, not to mention resale value. This 4 year old Mac I'm posting from has a resale value of $500 or $600 dollars.
The simplest way to put it is that Macs work better and longer than any other system I've worked with. Windows is easy to use, but absurdly unstable. Linux is very stable, but a major pain in the ass to use. I use Win2k, Mandrake 9, and OS X, but I wish I could just use OS X all the time. Trouble is, I can't afford a decent Mac to replace my home dual-boot PC!
What baffles me most about this whole story is that Apple released a comment on the alleged talks with Universal. It is their policy, as it is with most enterprises, not to discuss rumors, future products, future mergers, etc.
Why have a policy that you selectively break when its ?really not true?? Does this breach of policy allow rumors to be quasi-substantiated?
?Do or do not, there is no try? ? Old little green man-thing
I only came here to do two things; kick some ass, and drink some beer...looks like we're almost out of beer.
I want to see their quarter results come out with the CEO saying "Well, it seems we are really tanking and there is no hope at all. I would say that largely, all of this is my fault."
Hey, at least they have profit - who cares if it is way down?
There are some odd things afoot now, in the Villa Straylight.
My father has been a Mac fan my entire life, and he was disappointed to find that I was a DOS and later Windows user. But it was to be expected; I wanted to play games and I wanted the BBS software of the time.
Once I got into college and started studying computer science, my respect for unix grew. I played with an ancient laptop installed with Linux over the summer and really learned a lot about this exciting area. But due to (in my opinion) poor applications, it would not be a desktop OS to me. All it really took to switch me to the Mac was a few evenings on my dad's Powerbook playing with OS X.
The interface was intuitive and clever. The whole thing looked professional and yet beautiful at the same time, not much like the previous Mac OS I'd remembered. The apps worked together, had really cool features, and were generally more pleasant to use and look at than on Windows; plus, most of them actually came with the machine as standard. Mail's junk mail filtering and simple interface had me entranced. The way iTunes automatically sorted and managed all of your mp3s based on their id3, while providing ripping and burning support, amazed me (I can stick an audio CD in my computer, it'll rip it in iTunes, add it to the library appropriately, and eject it automatically). For some reason, even Microsoft apps such as Office and IE look and feel much nicer, and even have added functionality! And, of course, I could access a unix terminal at any time.
On the unix side, there's plenty to be done. You can load an entire KDE installation and run it on top of Aqua. While in Cocoa-based apps such as Safari -- where I type this -- I can use emacs-style keys like ctrl-a, ctrl-e, ctrl-k, ctrl-y in this comment field. And I was finally free of the registry.
And it's all packaged. It's all so easy. It removes a huge portion of the headaches, the real currency of computers. There are a huge number of "little things" I could say I prefer about the Mac that add up to a really pleasant overall experience. If I was a gamer or multimedia expert I might be disappointed with the recent hardware speed issues, but don't be mistaken. The 1 Ghz G4 is fast as hell, and I can play Warcraft III (and many other mainstream games) or use Photoshop very smoothly.
I don't think it's perfect. I've had crashes and have been frustrated by a lack of some Windows app I wanted. But I will say I do think it is better. At this point, I'm fairly certain my next machine will be a Mac. Ideologically, it appeals to me more than Microsoft. I genuinely feel that Apple is out to make good stuff and change things for the better, while Microsoft seems more purely capitalist.
OK, this has way too long, but it's helped me put off studying for a test ;)
You might find you get what you iNeed.
This sounds like an elaborate April Fools joke that got a little out of hand to me. After all, it's still only April 17th, and the first story surfaced not long ago.
In the long run, we're all dead.
Then explain, Mr Jobs, why Apple owns the domain appleuniversal.com?
The Mac Observer has been keeping count...
Marcus Gregory, Chief Investment Strategist for the State of California Teacher's Pension Plan, said "Our holding in Apple is predicated on the company's large cash reserves. I would hate to see those reserves frittered away on sandwich acquisitions.
"Now, granted, at the $5.75 purchase price of the tuna fish sandwich, Apple would need to acquire... five plus... carry the... well, a whole hell of a lot of sandwiches to make a dent in $5 billion, but it's the principle of thing."
Really, there isn't. They make some great products. If they weren't so great, why does the rest of the industry copy them?
I've always bought Macs for my own use, even when I was a poor student, because they just work better. I'm not impressed by huge volumes of crappy applications. I simply want to get my work done. The Mac does that without getting in the way.
You can, and will, find people for whom the Mac gets in the way all the time. However you will also find people driving on the streets who shouldn't be allowed to even think about owning a car. That being said, I've NEVER used a version of Windows that integrated as fluidly with my work as my Macs. The OS should never get in the way of getting the work done. Windows frequently intrudes into my work space.
Why are most Mac Users insanely loyal? Because there is nothing else out there that works this well. Now that OS X has a BSD core, it's even better suited to me. In fact, I've been considering replacing my Employer provided PC with a Mac out of my own pocket, because my PC interferes with my work flow too much. Linux is almost there. I'd be using it on my work PC right now if I could get Lotus Notes to run, but Wine doesn't work for anything much beyond mail in Notes 6. However, there is a version of Notes for OS X.
You can have my Macs when you pry them from my cold dead hands.
"The avalanch has already started, it is too late for the pebbles to vote." -Kosh
You've been reading too many rumor websites. The Apple Unviversal domain is / was going to be an Apple Promotional when OS X matures - Apple The Universal Choice - I beleive the campaign was to involve aliens. However, if I have my insider Chiat day memory right, after Intel released their very weak Aliens using Intel Chips commercials, Apple decided to drop it, but the domain remains very useful if you ask me.
so why did they register AppleUniversal.com a few days ago?
Domain Name: APPLEUNIVERSAL.COM
Registrar: BULKREGISTER.COM, INC.
Whois Server: whois.bulkregister.com
Referral URL: http://www.bulkregister.com
Name Server: NSERVER2.APPLE.COM
Name Server: NSERVER.APPLE.COM
Status: ACTIVE
Updated Date: 11-apr-2003
Creation Date: 11-apr-2003
Expiration Date: 11-apr-2004
NOTICE: The expiration date displayed in this record is the date the
registrar's sponsorship of the domain name registration in the registry is
currently set to expire. This date does not necessarily reflect the expiration
date of the domain name registrant's agreement with the sponsoring
registrar. Users may consult the sponsoring registrar's Whois database to
view the registrar's reported date of expiration for this registration.
Over at MacSlash we've got coverage of the conference call between analysts and Apple's CFO, Fred Anderson. It's fun to listen in on the conference calls, although there's not a whole lot of new information from this one. One of the most interesting things I heard was that the education market has fallen off so significantly for Apple. It'll be interesting to see how this picks up in the June quarter, when schools traditionally do a lot of buying for next year.
Macheads with the computer world so very Windows focused why do you still buy macs?
Have you ever used a Mac? And I mean, really used one, and not just screwed around with it for 2 minutes?
If you did, you'd answer your own question.
And probably be trying to think of ways to save up to buy a new Mac.
Does anyone remember the lawsuit between Apple Records and Apple?
I thought they had some aggreement that apple would never get into the recording industry...
I know, I know... I need to learn a little English.
Please, explain.
Less is more !
Of course, it's worth taking rumours like this with a large pack of salt, but so far none of the `denials' have amounted to much either.
Ceterum censeo subscriptionem esse delendam.
Do you _really_ want Apple to buy a record label? Before you answer, think about Sony:
Back before the whole Betamax episode, Sony was just a tech company -- and a good one at that. But after losing to VHS, the executives thought that if they had had a media company under roof, they could have used the clout of that media library to push forward their own technology. So they bought Columbia.
Now maybe it was a smart move -- Sony Pictures made a heck of a lot of cash last year on movies like Spiderman. But have we really seen the marriage between tech and media that was promised? Moreover, Sony has often had internal turmoil due to the conflicting interests of Sony Pictures/Music and Sony Electronics. Many think it should have been Sony who came up with the iPod. I mean think about it, it's the next generation "walkman." The fact that Apple came up with it scares Sony to death. But do you think they could have produced it while holding interests in these large media corporations?
I'm not sure if the same fate would befall Apple if they took on a media company, but I would hate to see them (again) lose focus. Apple is a great tech company and Jobs seems to know what it is that Apple does best and right. Sometimes the smartest move is to keep it that way.
Who said Freedom was Fair?
Profit is flat, but margins are up. They're selling more higher value machines (PowerBooks mostly) compared to lower value ones.
High margin is *good* as you're then in the world of strong ROCE.
The only thing you can accurately describe as "Scotch" is a sticky tape made by 3M. And it's
Nothing. Apple adds value to its products by developing integrated software and hardware solutions for information technology and entertainment purposes. Venturing into the source of entertainment itself could only potentially distance Apple from the very media sources it should be trying to court in promotion of its core businesses (i.e., why would Warner, Sony, etc do business w/ Apple if they owned Universal?). Purchasing Universal, or any other media company, would not add value to Apple's product lines. If merging with media companies were such a priority for Apple, wouldn't it then make more sense to merge Apple with Pixar? Wouldn't that logically happen before any merger of Apple and Universal?
.Mac service (which includes various things, not all of which I'm familiar w/, tho I do know that a few of them, such as email & web page building, can be had for free elsewhere), what would be the likelyhood of Apple allowing free distribution of Apple-owned music? Slim to none. If Apple will charge clients $99/yr for email/webpages, there is no reason to believe that they would allow free distribution of music.
The only 'good' that could come out of an Apple/Universal merger would be the launching of a royalty-free music sharing service, in which Apple would permit clients to freely distribute Universal-produced music. But, seeing as Apple charges $99/yr for its
The music world is better off w/o Apple purchasing Universal; the 'Apple' world is better off guarding the sanctity of Apple's core product lines w/o the confusion that would ensue if Apple tried to manage both Universal and its computer business. The merger won't happen, because it shouldn't happen.
Warning: OS X Terminal bashing to follow.
OK, so I will admit that the version of Terminal included in the latest Jaguar is usable, but please don't try to tell me that the versions shipping with (say) 10.0.anything were. They had *exactly* the kinds of problems you complain about. Even now, I think Terminal gets more negative comments than any other frequently used portion of the OS. Doing a decent terminal (emulator) is surprisingly tough, which is why there have always been so many different ones running around.
Babar
Some reasons:
1. GUI design and esthetics. Windows has a cluttered, poorly-organized GUI, IMHO.
2. Windows has historically been poorly designed in terms of workflow. I doubt it's still in there, but my favorite example is how WIndows would allow you to drag a folder that's too large to fit onto another drive and it would blindly copy until it filled the disk and failed. MacOS has always pre-calculated how large the moved files are to make sure they fit. Which is what a computer should do.
NT/XP have come a long way, but it's more like a blind man painting a wall than a design process that considers workflow, ease of use, flexibility, etc.
3. Quicktime, etc. Windows is finally -- on something like the 8th revision -- getting its media (video, etc) act together but why use a system hacked together over such a long time by people who so obviously don't have a clue?
4. MacOS X is more flexible and powerful than Windows. As a small, but fresh, example: last night we were trying to install an 802.11g card in my roommate's Dell running XP. My Mac was up in a matter of minutes, but it took hours for the PC.
Why? Hmm, let me count the ways. XP evidently can't handle Shared Key Authentication. XP evidently can't connect without seeing an SSID broadcast. XP doesn't give you any immediate, meaningful error feedback or status indicators when you're trying to get it all to work.
MacOS X did all of these things. And that's not even mentioning the fragmented XP control panels that you use to attempt to configure wireless. (Another example of item #2, above.)
A month back, we were installing 802.11g at work and ran into a problem, this time at the receiving end, so we needed to implement an "expedient measure" to get people up. On the Mac -- from the GUI -- I could choose "DHCP with manual IP", pick an IP and got them online. On the XP side, we never found a similar option.
5. I work in a creative field, so why should I want to choose the "no bean counter ever got fired for buying MS/Dell" machine just like everyone else?
6. PCs are butt-ugly and poorly designed. Dell, for example, evidently thinks that industrial design involves coloring ugly boxes BLACK. And they evidently believe that turning a PC on its side to work on it is a good idea.
Same here. I also complained about a BBC story and the editor got back to me and fixed it. Same with CNET news.com (except that in this case I was wrong and the editor pointed that out to me - I thought the PowerBool was the first DVD burning laptop but it turns out it was a model from HP that beat Apple by a couple of weeks). Nice folk both of them. Unlike CNN.
That is Fantastically Sig-Worthy.
If Jesus wants me it knows where to find me.
"...and [Apple] denies it bid for Universial Music."
Two words: trial balloon.
The result: it didn't float.
--Richard
Take a look in whois for appleuniversal.com, and find This
Hahahah!!! Tricked You!!!
April Fools
Tricked You!, HA HA HA HAHAHA
US
Domain Name: APPLEUNIVERSAL.COM
Has on-one else noticed this?
"Why have a policy that you selectively break when its ?really not true??"
Because in this case rumor and speculation brought the stock down nearly 10% in one day.
Apple doesn't always respond when the rumor is untrue, but, in the rare event when bad journalism ends up affecting the value of the company, you better believe they'll release a statement.
It's a sad commentary on how low the fortunes of the music business have sunk, that mere rumors of Apple's offer to buy Universal caused its stock to be hammered. That must make Universal Music feel really great, huh?
There are a couple of theories as to why the music business is doing so badly. One is that music isn't good any more and people don't like it. The other is that people would rather get it for free than pay for it, because that's human nature.
Astonishingly, here at slashdot the former theory is by far the more popular and widely believed. I'm not sure whether it's because people here are stupid, or just greedy and dishonest.
Me thinks the folks at Apple are cavorting with the 'TIME-TRAVELER' if they know their Second Quarter results.
The much acclaimed Father Randy "Pudge" O'Day finally makes his appearance on Slashdot!!
M*_M_A_C_S_ _A_R_E_ _H_O_M_O_ _M_A_C_S_ _A_R_E_*H
A_/_____\____REPENT___\___NOW______/____\_______O
C|___I___|____AND_BUY__\_A_MAC____|______|______M
S|__LOVE_`.__Call_1-800-NAMBLA____|_______:_____O
_`___M____|_____________|________\|_______|______
A_\__A____|_/_______/__\\\___--___\\_______:____M
R__\__C___\/____--~~__________~--__|_\_____|____A
E___\__S___\_-~____________________~-_\____|____C
_____\______\_________.--------.______\|___|____S
H______\_____\______//_________(_(__>__\___|_____
O_______\___.__C____)_________(_(___>___|__/____A
M_______/\_|___C_____)/_STEVE\_(____>___|_/_____R
O______/_/\|___C_____)|_BLOW_|__(___>___/__\____E
______|___(____C_____)\_JOBS_/__//__>_/_____\____
M_____|____\__C_____\\_________//_(__/_______|__H
A____|_\____\____)___`----___--'_____________|__O
C____|__\______________\_______/____________/_|_M
S___|_M____________/____|_____|__\__I__G______|_O
____|_A_W_________|____/_APPLE_\__\__M__H_____|__
A___|_D_I_A____/_/____|__xServe_|__\_____E _____|M
R___|_E_T_____/_/______\__/\___/____|_____Y____|A
E__|____H_M__/_/________|_C__|_______|_________|C
___|______A___|_________|_A__|_______|_________|S
H__|______C__|__________|_T__|_______|_________|_
O__|_________|__________|_5__|_______|_________|_
*M_O_ _M_A_C_S_ _A_R_E_ _H_O_M_O_ _M_A_C_S_ A_R_*
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Good for who? And why would they do that?
Random is the New Order.
"Macheads with the computer world so very Windows focused why do you still buy macs?"
...are you serious? Have you used windows? Have you used a mac? It's the better choice for me, one that doesn't get in my way, doesn't bug me for drivers for my digital camera, and most certainly DOES NOT have a new security hole discovered every week.
It basically comes down to function. What do you use the machine for? A mac (running OS X) will let you do all the terminal/unix stuff, install almost any OSS (via Fink), run Windows 98/2000/XP in Virtual PC (if you must), and be doing a multitude of other things, all simultaneously, without the OS having so much as a hiccup.
I can do these things (and more, running VPC w/Win98SE, Apple's X11 w/xmms, browsing, serving [built-in apache as well as a carracho server], running 2 messaging programs, a P2P app, my mail program, and Dreamweaver MX and Photoshop 7 are running in the background, hidden for now)
This is all being done on a dual 450 MHz G4, with 512 MB of RAM.. it's unbelievable that this machine has more or less kept up to date on its own, through careful planning by apple for their unique hardware/software mix.
Personally, I use OS X, Linux and Windows for different things. I think that there are different tools to get stuff done. I like using OS X on my ibook for the majority of the stuff I do because I'm often walking around on campus, though I still use my Linux box for a lot of things because it does those things well.
I'm typing this right now on Konqueror on my (gentoo) linux box, while I'm waiting for patches to finish applying on my windows install running inside virtual pc on the ibook.
After that's done, I'll take my ibook with me and eat while I surf stuff on the wireless network on campus. Following that, I'll probably finish setting up our servo cd burner tethered to a windows xp machine.
They are all workable, but for the machine that offers the least headaches, I'd have to go with the ibook.
The hint that Windows hardware vendors will be hurt is in Microsoft's statements about their expectations. They are "very cautious" and sentiments anything like that are basically unheard of in Redmond.
This is absolutely 100% false. Microsoft has for many years been one of the most cautious major companies when it comes to earnings accounting and future expectations. Microsoft in terms of its relations with WallStreet is a bear. Frankly during the bubble they were one of the few points of sanity trying to explain to investers why they were overestimating tech companies buy hundreds of percent.
Don't confuse Microsoft hype / marketing which is very bullish with their reports to the SEC. Their SEC reports are if anything overly cautious and have been for at least a decade.