That isn't how you can buy VW, the market cap is totally misleading. VW Group has a bizarre structure, it is actually directly controlled by some Porsche Holding company, which is directly owned by the Porsche–Piëch family.
I wasn't really quoting $58B as the price Apple would pay - just an indicator of the size of VW. But probably the wrong one I guess?
I know that a merger doesn't involve paying the market cap. It's more about convincing the shareholders that their final shares in the merged company would be worth more than the sum of whatever shares they have in each part. If it's legally structured as an acquisition, the purchase price is a bit of a fiction.
No, VW Group owns Porsche, the car brand. There is also Porsche SE which is a tiny company, which owns controlling shares over VW Group.
The short squeeze happened because there aren't actually that many shares around which you can buy.
>I know that a merger doesn't involve paying the market cap. It's more about convincing the shareholders that their final shares in the merged company would be worth more than the sum of whatever shares they have in each part.
Shareholders opinions are totally irrelevant. The only thing that would matter is the family who owns Porsche SE agreeing, which isn't going to happen.
Market cap is the product of the number of shares and what the market thinks a single share is worth. So the market cap matters as it puts a bound on what the price could be. But in this case the price at which shareholders would accept such an acquisition is irrelevant, as their is a single shareholder who holds controlling shares and gets to make the decision.
Then sign an IP/licensing deal that both halves of the new company have access to most/all of the IP developed historically.
I.E. securing any future VW profits, and ensuring that the IP licensing deal is indefinite, while staying hands off and allowing VW to keep doing what they do with the exception of using Apple software.
No, apple can not buy VW. This idea is totally absurd.
> In another universe, I wonder [about Apple + VW joining forces]
We're not speculating on what might happen tomorrow, just discussing hypotheticals for the scenario in which those companies were wanting to be partners of some kind.
Basically, shareholders expect you to invest all the cash in your stockpile for a similar percentage return (on average), and they won't want you to invest in a capital heavy but almost profitless industry like carmaking unless you think you can turn it into a business of similar profit levels per unit investment to your existing business.
And what would apple even do with the teams? They now have 10k people in Germany ready to design a car for them, sounds totally nightmarish.
A company which does multiple acquisitions per year will have a team specialising in the integration of acquired companies, and practice and institutional knowledge of the issues of doing so. But a merger would be different - a smaller company will slot in under some existing executive, with maybe the CEO promoted into the top team if it's a really hot company; a merger would require the merger of two executive teams, which would be a difficult event. So yeah, might not be viable.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mergers_and_acquisitio...