Apple to Purchase Sony Says Rumor; Why Not Go For Google Instead?

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Last week Apple shared with the crowds comprised of both haters and fanboys its Q4 2010 financial results and considering that Apple reached for the first time $20 billion in revenue, Steve Jobs decided to show up for the earnings conference call and he was the star of the whole show. After bashing RIM, Google, Android, Windows Phone 7 (indirectly) and 7-inch tablets he was asked what Cupertino will do with that huge $51 billion in change Apple has stored away for a rainy day.

Steve Jobs did say that Apple will not engage in stupid acquisitions and that the company is waiting for some interesting opportunities to take advantage of. But how did we get from that simple statement to a rumor that’s been sweeping up the web and the stock exchange according to which Sony is now Apple’s next target. What did Apple do to ignite such speculation? Furthermore, is the Sony purchase a viable alternative for Apple?

The thing that started this craziness was a report by Barron’s that said Apple could buy Sony at some point but there’s nothing to suggest that it will actually happen.

Sure buying out Sony sounds like a good idea from certain points of view, but will Apple be able to integrate all Sony products in its lines and sell them as premium devices? After all, no matter how cheap some of the new products available from Cupertino are, they’re still expensive when compared to what everyone else has in store. And while some of Sony’s products are also pretty expensive, the Japanese manufacturer has plenty of gadgets that are within the reach of consumers. It would be really interesting to see what Apple will do with Sony, if such a purchase is going to be finalized in the near future. And I can’t help but wonder whether Apple’s Sony would still sell Windows computers.

Would Sony allow Apple to buy them out? Has anyone asked the Japanese giant if that’s a cool move to make? This rumor might die down in the following days, but there are plenty of other similar rumors ready to spark our interest. In fact Apple is also said to be interested in Disney, Facebook, Adobe and I assume that if they’d have the chance they’d go straight for Google instead.