14 DAY TRIAL // Speculation that Apple may be on the verge of acquiring Facebook has emerged via an All Things D report by Peter Kafka, who believes that the company is in a good position to spend some of the $51 billion it has in the bank.
The author points out to statements made by Apple’s CEO when pressed to answer questions about Apple’s plans with the $51 billion.
A combination of direct quotes and paraphrase is provided, as follows:
“We strongly believe that one or more very strategic opportunities may come along that we’re in unique opportunity to take advantage of because of our cash,” and we want to keep our powder dry “because we feel that there are one or more” opportunities in the future.
Kafka asserts that it is hard to read this quote and not think Steve Jobs is likely to plan a big, perhaps enormous investment.
He believes that investment is Facebook, as in buying the whole company, which, at the moment, is estimated to be worth around 25 billion dollars.
Why Facebook, you ask? Well, first of all, the giant social network is a direct competitor with Google. Apple is too.
Second of all, Facebook has a LOT of users. With Apple owning the service, all these users become potential FaceTime callers, TUAW speculates even further.
Then, there’s also the rumor that Facebook founder/CEO Mark Zuckerberg met with Jobs over dinner to discuss some business.
Until now, it was believed that the duo’s main topic of discussion was Ping, Apple’s fledging social network for music which, admittedly, still has a long way to go before it can even start to look like competition to Facebook.
However, a new possibility is now taken into account: Apple buying Facebook altogether, which should translate into over 500 million new iRecruits.
Some may say that’s crazy talk, but is it that far fetched?