About 10 years ago, I invented a rule about covering mergers and acquisitions that still hasn’t failed me.
Here it is: Will Apple buy [insert company of your choice here]? –> No.
Apple almost never buys name-brand companies. Its largest takeover was 2014’s $3 billion deal for Beats Electronics. Apple is strict about its culture and its focus. While Microsoft has acquired its way to increased scale — buying Activision Blizzard for $69 billion, LinkedIn for $26 billion, Nuance Communications for $20 billion, and five other companies for more than $5 billion — M&A isn’t in Apple’s DNA.
For years, analysts and reporters have speculated Apple might want to buy Disney, a company with a market valuation of nearly $150 billion. The ties between the two companies are historically strong. Apple co-founder Steve Jobs became Disney’s largest individual shareholder after Disney acquired Pixar, then owned by Jobs, for $7.4 billion in 2006. The deal also gave Jobs a seat on the Disney board and fostered a close friendship between Jobs and Disney Chief Executive Bob Iger.
Apple’s market capitalization is near $3 trillion. Buying Disney wouldn’t even classify as a bet-the-company transaction.
In his 2019 autobiography, “The Ride of a Lifetime,” Iger acknowledged he believes Disney and Apple may have merged if Jobs, who passed away in 2011, had lived longer.
“I believe that if Steve were still alive, we would have combined our companies, or at least discussed the possibility very seriously,” Iger wrote.
Since his return as CEO in November, Iger has kept Disney’s connection with Jobs alive. A few months ago, many Disney employees came to their offices to find copies of a book, “Make Something Wonderful: Steve Jobs in His Own Words,” on their desks. Iger sent an email to all Disney employees touting the book, describing it as “another tool from Steve — a resource for you, the reader, to spark the creativity that lives inside all of us.”
Selling Disney to Apple could be a storybook ending for Iger, who could argue the best way to transition Disney into a modern media company is to pair up with the most successful technology company in history. Disney’s family-friendly brand may be a fit with Apple, which appeals to consumers around the world.
Still, it’s not clear Apple would have any interest in buying Disney. Beyond its treatment of M&A as anathema, Apple has no core competency running theme parks or selling the kinds of consumer products Disney offers. It almost certainly wouldn’t want to be in the dying cable television business.
While Apple has dabbled in owning sports rights and creating scripted content for Apple TV+, the businesses are so small relative to making and selling devices that they’re essentially non-material to the company. Apple hasn’t bothered to tell investors the number of Apple TV+ subscribers.
On one hand, buying Disney would supercharge those fledging businesses, which could help with Apple device churn while growing subscription revenue.
On the other, if Apple wants to spend more than $100 billion on an acquisition, getting an ESPN business with shrinking subscribers and a content business centered around streaming, which currently loses money, may not be its deal of choice.
Apple could buy Disney to make content for its augmented reality headset, potentially the company’s next major growth division, but that’s probably not enough of a reason to make an acquisition.
Regulatory and culture issues
Even if Apple CEO Tim Cook fell in love with the notion of owning Disney and its associated perks (free Disney World rides for Apple employees! Content synergies for device owners!), it’s ambiguous at best, and unlikely at worst, whether regulators would allow a deal to proceed.
With Lina Khan running the Federal Trade Commission, which has tried to crack down on big tech acquisitions under her watch, the chances of the U.S. government allowing Apple to increase its dominance over the global economy seem minute. Perhaps Apple and Disney could sue to win approval — the businesses don’t have much overlap — but the process would be time-consuming and messy, bringing unneeded uncertainty to both companies.
For the sake of argument, let’s say Apple does want to buy Disney. Let’s say Disney divests or sells its legacy cable assets, ridding itself of no-growth businesses that would weigh on Apple’s earnings. Let’s even say the regulatory environment changes so the U.S. government would be more amenable to a deal.
An agreement would mean Disney’s corporate culture would have to blend with Apple’s culture. The Bob Chapek era at Disney illustrated the strength of Disney’s existing culture and showcased how changing employee attitudes and expectations isn’t easy — even for someone who had spent three decades at the company. Merging the two distinct, well-established cultures seems like a potential recipe for disaster.
The overwhelming evidence on large media mergers — AOL buying Time Warner, AT&T buying Time Warner, CBS and Viacom merging, Discovery and WarnerMedia merging — is immense value destruction.
So, could Apple one day buy Disney? Sure. But I’m in no rush to alter my M&A cardinal rule.
Chief Executive of Apple, Tim Cook gives a thumb’s up during a tour the Apple Headquarters on December 12, 2024 in London, England.
Chris Jackson | Getty Images
Apple has triumphed over an effort from the U.K. government to keep details secret of its appeal against an order to create a “backdoor” to iPhone users’ data.
The U.K.’s Investigatory Powers Tribunal on Monday published a ruling dismissing the government’s attempt to prevent details from a hearing on the appeal from being made public. The government had tried to keep the information secret on the grounds it posed risks to national security.
Judges Rabinder Singh and Judge Jeremy Johnson said in their ruling that the U.K. government’s request to keep details of the hearing private “would be the most fundamental interference with the principle of open justice.”
“It would have been a truly extraordinary step to conduct a hearing entirely in secret without any public revelation of the fact that a hearing was taking place,” they said.
Britain’s Home Office was not immediately available for comment when contacted by CNBC.
This backdoor would allow the government to access information secured by Apple’s Advanced Data Protection (ADP) system, which applies end-to-end encryption to a wide range of iCloud data.
Governments in the U.S., U.K. and EU have long expressed dissatisfaction with end-to-end encryption, arguing it enables criminals, terrorists and sex offenders to conceal illicit activity.
In the U.K., the Investigatory Powers Act of 2016 empowers the government to compel tech companies to weaken their encryption technologies through so-called “backdoors” — a heavily controversial policy for both the tech industry and privacy campaigners.
Apple — which is known for its pro-privacy stance — has pushed back on efforts to weaken its encryption tools, saying this would undermine its security and put users at risk.
As a result of the government’s order, Apple withdrew its ADP system for U.K. users in February. In a blog post at the time, the tech giant said it has “never built a backdoor or master key to any of our products or services and we never will.”
“We are deeply disappointed that our customers in the UK will no longer have the option to enable Advanced Data Protection (ADP), especially given the continuing rise of data breaches and other threats to customer privacy,” Apple said in the post.
“Apple remains committed to offering our users the highest level of security for their personal data and we are hopeful that we will be able to do so in the future in the United Kingdom.”
U.S. President Donald Trump’s adviser Elon Musk reacts on the day of a rally in support of a conservative state Supreme Court candidate of an April 1 election in Green Bay, Wisconsin, U.S. March 30, 2025.
Vincent Alban | Reuters
Technology stocks teetered in volatile trading Monday as President Donald Trump stood by his sweeping global tariff plans following last week’s devastating selloff.
The Magnificent Seven stocks — Nvidia, Apple, Meta Platforms, Amazon, Microsoft and Alphabet — were largely lower after briefly rallying amid a short-lived broader market attempt to stage a rebound. Stocks temporarily jumped on speculation of a possibly delay in the tariffs, but the White House later dismissed talk of a pause.
The technology sector is coming off a brutal week. The Magnificent Seven stocks collectively shed more than $1.8 trillion in market value during a two-day market selloff, while the Nasdaq Composite recorded its worst week since the onslaught of the pandemic and entered a bear market.
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Trump held firm on his aggressive global tariffs plans over the weekend, with an initial unilateral 10% tariff going into effect Saturday. Wall Street hoped for progress on negotiations between the administration and other countries or news of a possible delay in reciprocal tariffs slated for April 9.
“I don’t want anything to go down, but sometimes you have to take medicine to fix something,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday night, downplaying the recent market meltdown.
Other technology stocks also looked to build on last week’s pain. Oracle and Palantir Technologies declined more than 2% each.
Some semiconductor stocks also struggled as investors fretted over potential demand destruction stemming from the tariffs. Advanced Micro Devices was last down about 4% each, while Intel declined more than 2%.
Nintendo on Wednesday unveiled details for the Switch 2. It’ll include a bigger screen and controllers and is a faster version than its predecessor, which sold more than 150 million units since its 2017 release.
The Switch 2 will hit store shelves on June 5 for $449.99, up from $300 for the original Switch. Like the first Switch, gamers will be able to use the Switch 2 as both a handheld console and hook it up to a television. Nintendo on Friday said it would delay preorders for the device following President Donald Trump’s “reciprocal tariffs.”
The device will launch with the game “Mario Kart World.” Other games comingfor the Switch 2 include “Donkey Kong Bananza,” “Street Fighter 6,” “The Duskbloods” and “Kirby Air Riders.”
Nintendo of America President Doug Bowser sat down with technology correspondent Steve Kovach in a CNBC exclusive interview after unveiling the new console’s details. Bowser touched on the technology boosts in the Switch 2, upcoming games, the future of Nintendo’s efforts in film and entertainment beyond video games, and what Trump’s new tariffs mean for console prices in the U.S.