Apple reveals it once considered purchasing Time Warner
Apple has divulged its abortive media ambitions for the first time after it was revealed that it had once considered mounting a mammoth bid for Time Warner – but never got past first base.
One of the greatest ‘what if’ stories of the tech and media world was divulged by the Financial Times which reported that Apple’s Eddy Cue, a software engineer, had floated the idea during a meeting with Time Warner’s Olaf Olafsson last year.
The meat of this discussion never progressed beyond discussion of whether to include Time Warner’s channels in Apple’s long-rumoured but yet to materialise subscription TV service.
Analysts have long speculated as to how Apple might choose to spend its gargantuan cash pile in order to diversify its income away from its flagship iPhone, as sales begin to flag.
For now Apple is concentrating on ramping up its original programming output, pledging to spend hundreds of millions of dollars a year on content to attract new Apple Music subscribers.