Sitting on his bully pulpit, PBS’s technodarling Robert X. Cringely has made the prediction that Steve Jobs will be announcing that Apple will be buying Adobe Systems.
He makes some compelling arguments. For one, the two founders John Warnock, and Charles Geschke are pretty much out of the company, and the current CEO is basically a caretaker, after Bruce Chizen’s sudden departure. On the other hand, Apple seems just the right size where they are, and this would greatly add to Steve’s workload.
Think of the benefits, though. Flash and QuickTime could merge into a single unbeatable standard for digital media (Windows Media? Real Player? Buh-bye…). It would broaden Apple’s coverage in content creation software with the addition of Premiere. It would broaden Apple’s reach into the Windows platform. And, Apple could do it with the oodles of cash they have lying around. The only hitch could be opposition from the Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice.
Other clues that Steve is going to have a really, really huge announcement next Tuesday is that Apple announced the newly-supercharged MacPro tower and Xserve boxes this week, so Steve won’t have to take much time from his keynote (on Keynote) to talk about updates to important, but low-volume products.
Soooooo… Whaddya think? Appledobe? Adople? Rubbish?
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