Apple Could Acquire Peloton This Year, Fund Manager Forecast Suggests
Apple will likely acquire the fitness company Peloton this year, a new hedge fund manager forecast claims.
Deepwater Asset Management's annual forecast for 2024 (via Connect the Watts) says that Apple is likely to acquire Peloton sometime this year. The move would help Apple bolster its Fitness+ subscription service, adding workout equipment to compliment the Apple Watch and its existing activity tracking software. Absorbing Peloton's subscriber base of three-million users would ostensibly add about $1.7 billion to Apple's subscription revenue and line up with its continued investment in health and wellness, the company claims.
In 2022, Apple was repeatedly floated as a potential buyer of Peloton amid financial difficulties and threats to its business model, but the company's prospects have since improved somewhat and Deepwater Asset Management's new forecast is the first serious mention of the possibility in some time. Major questions remain about why Apple would want to take responsibility for Peloton's fragile business model and not simply focus on growing Fitness+, but anything is possible.
Deepwater Asset Management also believes that Apple will bring generative AI to Siri this year, introducing the revamped assistant at WWDC. The hedge fund manager is also not expecting Apple to announce any additional Vision Pro products this year.
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Top Rated Comments
I would also like to float that Apple can acqua-hire me for $10 million a year, but that doesn't mean they're going to.
I doubt Apple will acquire, but it does fit. Apple could instantly get 3M Peloton subscribers for ~3B adding those revenues to their services. Peloton users are pretty fanatical about Peloton and tend to be affluent - much like Apple. Apple's and Peloton's business models are becoming more and more similar, selling hardware with recurring services on top. Apple is clearly taking fitness seriously and adding hardware could be a good move. Peloton talent blows away anything on Fitness+, which could boost Fitness+.
A negative is that most Peloton users are probably already users of some Apple services, so it may not be completely additive.
For those who say they don't understand why people would buy an expensive piece of Peloton hardware and then pay a subscription on top of it - this is literally Apple's business model.
I'll believe it when I see it.
Otherwise I'll file it under F for Fantasy.