Apple has just announced a 70% lift in profit, Apple chief Steve Jobs says that with $51 billion in cash, it's out now looking for acquisitions.
So what will we see on Apple's shopping list?
Thomas Kaplan in the New York Times DealBook rattles off a list of possibilities that include, of all things, Facebook. "Brian J. White, an analyst for Ticonderoga Securities, said that further expanding into social networking would be a logical next step for Apple following the company's push into the business with Ping, a music social-networking service built into iTunes that it rolled out last month. 'Facebook would give you 500 million subscribers and a great advertising ecosystem to deal with,' Mr. White said. 'It makes a lot of sense' "
Maybe, but with the way Facebook is going, you wouldn't imagine there would be much change out of $51 billion.
Then again, why would Apple do it? Apple has never been a company for big game-changing acquisitions, so why change old habits now?
Still, the fact that Jobs says the company is looking around tells us to watch this space,
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