AI Summary
5 min readThe 5 Companies Apple Must Buy
"This would be like a rounding error," one host says, gesturing at Apple's nearly $5 trillion market cap. The premise of this episode of This Week in Startups is a thought experiment: what if Apple's next CEO, John Ternus, abandoned the company's historical pattern of buying small technical teams for tuck-in acquisitions and instead took "massively big swings"? The hosts draft five companies each that Apple should acquire, then compare their picks with submissions from listeners. The throughline is that Apple is dangerously dependent on the iPhone for revenue and needs to buy its way into entirely new categories—entertainment, robotics, cloud infrastructure, AI chips, and transportation—rather than continuing to optimize what it already has.
The Philosophy: Why Small Acquisitions No Longer Suffice
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What you'll learn
- 1 (00:00) **The Case for Big Apple Acquisitions** - Jason argues Apple should stop buying back shares and take massive swings, acquiring full companies instead of just technical teams.
- 2 (00:50) **Setting Up the Draft Game** - The hosts explain their fantasy-draft format: each picks five companies Apple should acquire, in rounds from first to fifth pick.
- 3 (03:20) **Round 1: ElevenLabs** - Jason picks ElevenLabs as his first-round choice, arguing it would fix Siri and enable full voice-commanded phone use.
- 4 (04:33) **Round 1: Disney** - Lon picks Disney as his first-round choice, seeing it as a large, compatible brand with deep Apple integration potential.
- 5 (06:14) **Round 2: Sony** - Lon picks Sony second, citing PlayStation, Crunchyroll, and Sony's TV/music distribution as transformative assets.
- 6 (08:01) **Round 2: Boston Dynamics** - Jason picks Boston Dynamics second, arguing Apple will eventually need a robot and has the trust to sell home robots.
- 7 (09:14) **Round 3: Perplexity** - Jason picks Perplexity third, calling it a "gimme" that would make Apple model-agnostic and give it a search engine.
+ Full timestamped outline available in the app
Show Notes
This Week In Startups is made possible by: PayPal - https://paypal.com/business Northwest Registered Agent - https://www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twistdomain Odoo - https://Odoo.com/twist
Today’s show:
Timestamps:
0:00 Will Ternus take "massively big swings"?
3:43 Round 1: ElevenLabs
4:46 Round 1: Disney
6:18 Round 2: Sony
8:22 Round 2: Boston Dynamics
9:23 Round 3: Perplexity
10:02 AD: PayPal is built for all business. Get started at https://paypal.com/business
11:52 Round 3: DigitalOcean
13:02 More picks: Etched
14:30 More picks: Lucid
15:58 More picks: Superhuman
16:48 More picks: Higgsfield and more
18:09 Fans make their selections
19:47 AD: Got a new business idea? @northwestagent helps you bring it to life. Get a free domain, email, phone number, and more, with no purchase required! Learn more at www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twistdomain
25:37 Stacy Salvi of The90 joins
29:28 AD: Thanks to our partner, Odoo, the all-in-one business platform. Your first app is free! Get started today at https://Odoo.com/twist
34:38 How the app calculates your Sunscore
42:12 Building a UV research dataset
45:09 Should The90 make a version for men?
Names & Links
Stacy Salvi - https://www.instagram.com/stacysalvi/
The90 - https://the90.com/
Description
Wall Street suspects new Apple CEO John Ternus may do something predecessor Tim Cook almost never did: writing a huge check.
So Jason and Lon are playing “fantasy draft” with Apple’s balance sheet, choosing five real companies to acquire over five “rounds.” Disney buys them a ton of IP and unlocks theme park synergies. Sony gets them a gaming console and massive anime distribution. Boston Dynamics buys them lots of robots, while Etched nets them cheaper inference. So many options!
Then, we chat with Stacy Salvi of The90. Her wearable pendant tells you exactly how much sun damage you’re accumulating, long before you start to burn.
Guest
The90: https://the90.com/
Stacy Salvi on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stacysalvi/
Relevant Links
John Ternus becomes Apple CEO: https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2026/04/tim-cook-to-become-apple-executive-chairman-john-ternus-to-become-apple-ceo/
Analyst: Ternus could bring bigger acquisitions: https://9to5mac.com/?p=1065466
“Grok Has Money” meme origin: https://x.com/gmfarcaster/status/2026318035103965414