According to the Financial Times, Apple considered purchasing the multinational media conglomerate Time Warner late last year. While the idea apparently did not result in serious negotiations, Apple is said to have ramped its spending on original media content to “several hundred million dollars a year”.
The paywall-guarded report claims that Apple executive Eddy Cue suggested the buyout at a meeting with Time Warner’s head of corporate strategy, Olaf Olafsson. However, as 9to5Mac explains in its relaying of the story, the idea remained “very much tentative”. Had the deal gone ahead, Apple would have had to shell out over $60b – easily dwarfing the $3b it paid for record acquisition Beats in 2014.
Apple’s interest in acquiring Time Warner had previously been reported by the New York Post in January. Though none of Apple’s alleged plans to make a move for the HBO and CNN owner have come to fruition, they hint that Apple has considerable ambitions in screen media.
Indeed, Apple is said to remain interested in acquiring a media company. It’s possible that any original content Apple makes will be strictly limited in availability to the iTunes Store, therefore helping Apple with the promotion of such consumption-friendly devices as the iPhone, iPad and Apple TV.