Quote:
Originally Posted by rhadin
When the dust settles, I think what we will see is Google buying both Borders and B&N, then offering a deal to Sony. The Sony deal I envision is to merge the Sony bookstore into the Google-Borders-B&N store (which will be Google Books) and in exchange, Google will drop the B&N and Borders hardware and subsidize the Sony hardware to make it more competitive against Amazon. Bottom line -- in my opinion -- is that if pricing were equal and all Sonys had wireless, the Sony hardware is far superior to the Kindle, and I think Google has the resources to make that battle.
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This is absolutely the least likely scenario I can imagine, even after two martinis. Google has so far purchased approximately zero bricks and mortar operations ... they develop software and stuff that runs it ... Google has no interest in retail.
Quote:
Originally Posted by rhadin
I can also see Google buying Borders and B&N primarily for their customer lists and to close the B&M stores altogether. Actually, that would make a great deal of sense and allow Google to take on Apple and Amazon directly.
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Umm, no.
The cost of buying B&N + Borders -- call it $1.1 billion cash -- and then wiping out the retail operations just to grab the mailing lists .... with something on the order of 2,000 retail locations to abandon leases, fire tens of thousands of workers, and have a fire sale on remaining inventory ... that's giggly "whatcha smokin', dude?" fiscal policy. Neithe Bush nor Obama were that whacky ... and Google is a very well managed company.