New York Times: Speculation Is in the Air Over EMI and Apple. The obvious answer is: tomorrow, the Beatles will be on the iTunes Store. The not obvious answers are:
- DRM free downloads?
- A Yellow Submarine themed iPod?
- Apple buys its first music company?
…What? After all, EMI’s hoped for private equity white knight backed out back in December. And they were asking $4.9 billion then. According to their last 10Q, Apple had more than $7 billion in the bank—more than enough to pay for EMI the old fashioned way.
Hopefully it won’t happen. We’ve all seen what happens to tech companies that buy content businesses. But stranger things have happened.