Should/Could Apple buy AVID?

So....it's a bit quiet these days on the FCPX front. So I submit to you: Should or could Apple buy a company like AVID?

Since the release of FCPX many people have been fighting over which is the "professional" tool: AVID or FCPX (or Premiere Pro). I myself have had many of these discussions with editors. Many of the people I talk to keep saying that FCPX will NEVER catch on or be the primary tool for any serious business model. Of course I disagree.
But then this thought struck me: If Apple REALLY wanted to be the NLE of choice for production companies around the world, why not just buy AVID and discontinue the development of Media Composer? I guess it's not a money thing (as I understand Apple is doing quite well).
What do YOU think? Would this even be an option? Why/Why not?
Please tell me your thought.

RYAN

There is no upside in Apple buying Avid. They don't need the tech. They don't need the small user base. Now buying Adobe, if it was for sale, that would be a great acquisition.

But I am not talking about Apple buying up AVID because of their technology. I am talking about Apple buying AVID simply to put them out of business in order to gain market share. Is that legal at all? It must have been done before in the world of business.

I second Tom. Apple does´t need Avid... mostly because Avid IS NOT Mediacomposer.

Avid is a lot hardware/software like Interplay, ISIS, AirSpeed, Control Surfaces, etc.
Thinking Avid is just Mediacomposer is like thinking Apple is OS X and nothing else. Mediacomposer is the key to a lot of other products and services. Is Avid a cheap buy? I think it is, but what would Apple do with all those services and hardware? I think they are not interested in that kind of products.

PS: Don´t want to sound like an Avid fanboy. I switched from after 12 years to FCPX because, for my needs FCPX is the future.

It's not illegal by any means, but a bit pointless. I don't think the market share would shift very much, the number of users effected being quite small. If anything it might boost Abode's market share. If Avid withers or prospers with its users, Apple I'm sure is completely indifferent.

I agree with the consensus. There's no upside. If Apple believed Media Composer was the future of editorial, they wouldn't have developed FCP X as it is.

Years ago I wondered if Apple would have been smart to buy Adobe, and make all their products Mac exclusive.

But I think those days are long past.

Apple seems to only buy other companies for technology or personnel. And mostly rather small acquisitions.
AVID is in a world of hurt financially so not sure what use it would be for apple at all.

Beside, for all I've heard FCPX is doing great sales wise.

Rvdenmark wrote: ... I am talking about Apple buying AVID simply to put them out of business in order to gain market share. ...

the following sounds perhaps a bit rude, but ...

What is that, those consultants, those SE-wizzards, those 'business'-men are talking about - market share???

This is a fictional 'value' (=has to be educible in numbers *), invented if the classic number 'profit' isn't good enough! Companies with zil profit get jazzed-up 'cause of 'market share' ... even better: 'story', or 'phantasy'... :woohoo:

If your company produces real-life products, and in Apples case, software is, aside boxes made of aluminum, a real good, there's no need for market-share.

* anything you can give numbers is good; if it has no 'number' = no good. That's why those self-declared 'business'-men get hiccups, when terms like 'quality', 'satisfaction', 'comfort', 'art' etc come into discussion. SJ's cross-road of art & technology is a no-man's-land for those 'business' people.

"we want the best products our customers can buy" ... but market-share???

I agree this is not going to happen. Nor do I see any benefit in Apple buying Adobe if that were possible at all. With FCP X Apple has launched a new and unique way of thinking about video editing. Media Composer and Premier do not fit in this thinking, nor are are they significant enough in the total editing market to be of any interest to Apple. If Avid were to kill Media Composer today this would not even have much impact on FCP X at all at this time.

FCP X is constantly evolving and the more it evolves the more we get glimpses of the underlying plans for the future Apple has with this application. We are only scratching the surface of it right now, yet it already is part of many prosumer and professional workflows. People who say it will never get adopted in larger enterprise setups are either dumb or blind, or both. It IS already adopted in such environments right now. Sometimes teamed up with existing track-based workflows, or simply already being used as the primary editing tool.

The big strength of FCP X is that there is nothing like it. All other NLEs are competing in the same track-based market. FCP X is trackless and fully metadata-driven, and in this respect it has no competition. That's why Apple does not have to care one moment about how MC, Premier, Resolve, Media 100 or whatever are doing. They just have to continue to improve their unique concept as planned, adjust where needed based on customer feedback (which they do remarkably well now) and in time build a complete creative workflow around this concept (or let others fill the gaps, which is sometimes even better).

The day we can build a performant and fast collaborative creative workflow around FCP X without having to spend the huge budgets that are required to make systems like Avid/Isis work are not far away now. If Apple continues on the path it has taken it won't have to worry one moment about what others are doing or not. But this will take some more time and patience. You cannot build a castle on quicksand.

- Ronny

Gosh no, I didn't mean to buy Adobe for Premiere. Straight to the dustbin with that. No, buy it for Photoshop and Illustrator. Apple really doesn't have any creative image applications, drawing, paint, design work. I don't think Adobe's for sale, but it would be interesting.

I'm sure Apple COULD buy AVID but I don't think they SHOULD.
Same goes for Adobe. Their products are nothing like what Apple stands for.
Easy to use, affordable, elegant.

I haven't had to touch an Adobe product for two years now. Don't miss it at all.
AVID is even worse. I started using Media Composer in the early 90s and it's shocking at how little it's changed.

If AVID want to stay alive they should concentrate on their networked media systems. Make it work with FCP X and PPro. Put Composer out to pasture or make it open source and let the community bring it into the 21st century.

If Apple were going to get into the graphics market, they'd be better off buying Pixelmator and boosting its current development path, rather than Photoshop. Apple has been making things more simple, not more complex.