Entrepreneur and investor Jason Calacanis, co-host of the All-In Podcast, has suggested that Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) should utilize its financial resources to acquire several major companies. In a post shared on social media, Calacanis argued that Apple should spend its cash reserves on "big swings" to secure market leadership.
Calacanis outlined a list of 10 potential acquisition targets, categorized by industry. The proposed targets include Perplexity AI, a search and default Large Language Model provider; Wispr Flow, a voice-to-text technology for Siri; Superhuman, an AI office suite; Exo Labs, which focuses on local open-source AI; and Go.AI, an AI infrastructure company.
On the public markets, Calacanis named Robinhood Markets Inc. (NASDAQ: HOOD), DigitalOcean Holdings Inc. (NYSE: DOCN), The Walt Disney Co. (NYSE: DIS), DoorDash Inc. (NASDAQ: DASH), and Uber Technologies Inc. (NYSE: UBER). He suggested that acquiring Disney would be an "obvious" move to expand Apple's streaming, movie, and TV presence, while buying DoorDash and Uber could help the company enter the logistics sector.
Calacanis provided estimated valuations for some of the companies mentioned. Perplexity is reportedly worth $30 billion, Disney is valued at $180 billion, and Uber is valued at $145 billion. Robinhood has a market capitalization of $112 billion, DoorDash is valued at $84 billion, and DigitalOcean is valued at $17 billion. Private companies Wispr Flow and Superhuman are reportedly valued at $2 billion and $825 million, respectively.
Notably, Calacanis disclosed that he personally owns shares in four of the ten companies he recommended Apple acquire. The article also notes that Apple’s largest acquisition to date was the $3 billion purchase of Beats in 2014. As of the third quarter, Apple reported holding $147 billion in cash.
