Will Apple Buy Netflix, Facebook?

Other Apple buyout targets could be Sony, Adobe, Electronic Arts.

Microsoft  may not be acquiring software developer Adobe after all. The New York Times, Apple strategy may be to itself acquire its long-time software rival Adobe Systems.

CEO Steve Jobs openly admitted that Apple was pooling its cash resources in anticipation of “strategic opportunities,” indicating to those analysts listening in that Apple would be making at least one high-profile corporate acquisition in the near future.

Apple’s increasing interest in both video and gaming, Netflix and Electronic Arts  are likely targets of a multi-billion acquisition by Apple. Netflix would give Apple the same penetration with video onto competing platforms like Google  Android smartphones, set top boxes like Logitech’s Google TV boxes, and gaming consoles like Nintendo’s Wii. It would also make Apple an automatic leader in the streaming, on-demand video market that is gaining on broadcast and cable service.

Electronic Arts, meanwhile, would be desirable not just for its major gaming franchises like The Sims and Madden NFL, but its prominent social and mobile gaming divisions as well. EA’s products perform well on Apple’s mobile devices.

Sony is another possible acquisition for Apple, which would give it not just control of one of the three major video game hardware manufacturers in the world, but direct control over a competitor in numerous branches of Apple’s business, including laptop computers, smartphones, music distribution and more.

Facebook is another possibility, one that may ultimately prove the most profitable for Apple. “(As) crazy as it sounds, it would be a game-changer,” Wu told the The New York Times. Apple’s interest in the social network has been demonstrated by the prolonged and reportedly tense integration of Mark Zuckerberg’s infamous social network with Apple’s new iTunes-based network, Ping. Zuckerberg and Jobs also recently met for dinner at Jobs’ house according to the Los Angeles Times, though what they discussed is still unknown.