Why haven't SONOS been acquired by Apple?

A question for Apple to answer, surely. Wrong forum to be asking it!

I called and spoke to Tim Cook on this and he offered three reasons.(He actually shortened the list from 3,276,345 reasons)
1. He is not in the mood yet
2. Sonos have a NO in their name and they spell it in caps
3. He thinks he can wing it going alone

I cut the call after #3

Wappinghigh? Is that you?

On a serious note, from an anthropological point of view, I find the few days after an Apple announcement to be utterly fascinating.

LOL.

I have asked the same question on several forums, including the ones dedicated to Apple. Others are participating.

For those wondering, Wappinghigh seems to be a school in the UK.
At least I learned one thing....

On a serious note, from an anthropological point of view, I find the SONOS forums a few days after an Apple announcement to be utterly fascinating.

Why do you think Apple should acquire Sonos? Why do you think Sonos should sell to Apple? Why not Amazon, Google, or Microsoft?

Without give some sort of reason why you think it could or should happen, it's just random.

Why do you think Apple should acquire Sonos? Why do you think Sonos should sell to Apple? Why not Amazon, Google, or Microsoft?

Without give some sort of reason why you think it could or should happen, it's just random.

It seems like such a natural fit, but that'll be a start:

1) SONOS went through some changes which seemed to indicate doubt and raise questions about their future while management went into a defensive public press campaign to assuage everyone's fears.
New CEO, layoffs and a lot of noise surrounding their missing the train for Voice Commands with no guarantee it won't be too little too late now that the landscape and marketplace have evolved further. Apple takes a jab at SONOS and shows a Play"3 when mentioning "dumb" speakers on stage during WWDC. The last time I saw them do that, it was for the Palm Treo during their presentation for the iPhone if I recall correctly.

2) They public positioning sends the message that they are all about music. Steve Jobs set up his company to sit at the intersection of Liberal Arts and Tech. I see common ground in the design, pursuit of excellent and valuable lifestyle brands both companies have become. Their respective clientele mesh very well IMO.

3) I am told SONOS is doing very well from a financial standpoint. However having deeper pockets will pay for R&D, marketing and talent on a whole different level. In other words what are the growth plans for SONOS if nothing changes?

4) Apple could have saved time and benefited from SONOS expertise.


If anyone has seen any numbers, please share: what's the iOS marketshare amongst SONOS owners?

#1 doesn't really sound like a reason, just drama.

#2 I agree that there is some similarities, but Sonos would also share them Amazon and Google. Microsoft could look into it so that they could 'get there'.

#3 That won't help Sonos because they won't exist if they get bought out.

#4 Agreed. But Apply is also pretty far along with their own AirPlay stuff, so I don't know if incorporating Sonos would be step forward or backward.

I would guess the iOS marketshare is probably the same for Sonos owners as it is in general. Although I would not think that iPhone owners are going to start buying Sonos if it got an apple logo. Not a huge jump anyway. And some customers would be turned off by the Apple Logo.

We also do not know how Sonos business partners would fair if Sonos were bought out.

I also think there are good reasons not to sell right now. I'm no market analysis, but I bet there was a spike in companies that sell smarthome products when the Echo came on the market. The market is in flux right now, so it's very possible these companies could be worth more (or less) when things shake out.

I personally would not want this to happen from my customer perspective. Let apple develop their own stuff, competition will drive innovation and price. I also don't want to be pushed solely into one companies ecosystem. I'd rather keep my android phone, Amazon echo and fire tvs, and Sonos speakers....then pushed to go all Apple.

@Kumar was right:

https://www.theverge.com/2017/2/14/14596904/sonos-ceo-alexa-smart-home-outdoor-speakers-patrick-spence-interview
Current SONOS CEO Patrick Spence was asked the one question I am interested in:


Has anyone offered to buy Sonos?

No.

Good article. I'm sure you noticed as well that Sonos is employee owned. Assuming then that employees have a say in acquisitions, it could make Sonos a lot harder to buy. If being bought out potentially means layoffs.

But I am purely speculating.