Now in their head they may be thinking that by crippling Qualcomm they’ll cripple all their competitors who are more dependent on that company but given how well funded the Japanese, Chinese, Koreans, Google, and Microsoft are I just think that outcome will be short lived and highly transitory. Oh, and given the bidding war, the market may think that Apple overpaid for Qualcomm doing to Apple stock what the attempted Yahoo purchase years ago did to Microsoft’s. This will make it hard for Apple to win the bid because it will make the effective cost to Apple far higher than just the money they spend for the firm.
Wrapping Up: Tactical Thinking
I get that Apple thinks Qualcomm is overcharging them but the charges are consistent for the industry so getting rid of any part of them would only provide a short term competitive benefit to Apple. On the other hand, Apple’s actions, if they fail, could cost them massively in terms of iPhone sales, and, if they succeed, it could either block them from access to critical patents or force them to buy Qualcomm at a massive premium to prevent that outcome. Neither of these two paths are ideal.
