Apple considered buying out Time Warner last year

By

tvOS just got another new update.
A buyout would mean big things for Apple TV.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Apple considered buying out Time Warner late last year, according to a new report, claiming that Eddy Cue mooted the idea in a meeting with Olaf Olafsson, Time Warner’s head of corporate strategy.

This isn’t the first time a possible deal with Time Warner has been reported. At the start of this year, when Time Warner shares were hovering around the $70 mark, the New York Post wrote that the media giant was a “sitting duck among media companies because it, unlike its peers, doesn’t have a dual-class shareholder structure.”

Apple’s interest in Time Warner would give Apple an enormous amount of content it owned, which it could then make exclusively available via Apple TV.

While the idea for Apple to acquire Time Warner didn’t go further at the time, today’s report does note that Apple is still interested in upping its spending on original programming — to the tune of “several hundred million dollars a year.” While Netflix is clearly leading currently with its own original series, the relatively newfound success of Amazon in this area does suggest there’s room for other newcomers if they’re willing to compete.

Personally, I’d love to see Apple invest in original content, although it does seem like it’s something which is on the back-burner right now. Who knows, maybe it’ll be more of a priority after Apple’s announced its refreshed Apple Music at WWDC.

Source: Financial Times

Newsletters

Daily round-ups or a weekly refresher, straight from Cult of Mac to your inbox.

  • The Weekender

    The week's best Apple news, reviews and how-tos from Cult of Mac, every Saturday morning. Our readers say: "Thank you guys for always posting cool stuff" -- Vaughn Nevins. "Very informative" -- Kenly Xavier.