Slashdot Mirror
Apple To Buy ARM?
gyrogeerloose writes "An article in the London Evening Standard claims that Apple has made an $8 billion offer to acquire ARM Holdings. For those few Slashdotters who don't already know, ARM makes the processor chips that power Apple's iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch. However, ARM processors are also used by other manufacturers, including Palm and, perhaps most significantly, companies building Android phones. This explains why Apple might be willing to spend so much on the deal — almost 20% of its cash reserves. Being able to control who gets to use the processors (and, more importantly, who doesn't) would give Apple a huge advantage over its competitors."
Antitrust is a crock. Nobody except for whomever owns the property of ARM has any right to say how ARM's processors can be used. If Apple buys ARM and does not want to sell the processors to other companies that make competitor phones, then ARM under Apple is fully justified to do so. There is no discussion in this article as to whether ARM/Apple would actually lose money by not selling their processors to competitors. Why would Apple even do this if it would cost them more than they gain? That makes zero sense.
Nobody, especially a government, has the right to tell ARM/Apple what they can or cannot do with their property because they do not own it. It is as simple as that and under the last several regimes of U.S. government, there has been less and less respect for property rights. A successful society cannot remain sustainable when property rights are not upheld and usurped by a paternalistic government. Antitrust laws are just that, paternalistic and elitist.
-> Sometimes, you just gotta break free from the shackles of proprietary code.
Prices will never go below a certain level. If the unwashed masses start using Apple products then the aura of smug superiority will vanish.
"Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what is right" - Salvor Hardin
Not likely. The FTC didn't even split Microsoft, a convicted monopolist, in two. They would have a hard time arguing that a manufacturer with ~5% of the desktop PC market and ~29% of the mobile smartphone market has a monopoly on anything.
I find it entertaining how many people scream MONOPOLY!!!!11!!1!!one!!!1! at Apple. Apple only has a monopoly on phones that don't suck.
"When the president does it, that means it's not illegal." - Richard M. Nixon