Apple and Amazon Don’t Need to Buy Hollywood
Building a media empire is preferable to purchasing one.
Ignore the “for sale” sign.
Photographer: ROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images
This week's AT&T-Time Warner court ruling was the starter pistol for the sale of anything and everything in the entertainment industry. There are two questions relevant to the technology industry: Will Silicon Valley do the buying? And should it?
I can't answer the first question because acquisitions are unpredictable. (See Amazon plus a supermarket chain.) On the second query: Debatable, but probably not. A continuing deal frenzy by media, entertainment and telecom companies is a reaction to Netflix Inc., YouTube, Facebook Inc. and other online hangouts absorbing more of people's time and money. Tech companies should stand on the sidelines of this desperate reshuffling that they caused.