Apple buying Disney? A consultant explains why he thinks a deal is ‘frighteningly obvious.’

Francis McInerney is convinced Apple will buy Disney. (Andrew Burton/Getty Images)

Apple’s success has started to become a problem. The company’s revenue and profits have grown so fast that it’s difficult for it to find new markets that will be large enough to ensure its revenues continue growing.

Apple has introduced a stock dividend and bought back shares to appease investors who question whether the world’s largest technology company by market capitulation is still a growth company.

Apple is expected to release a smartwatch this fall, which should provide a boost. But Francis McInerney, a consultant at North River Ventures, has another idea for how Apple can keep growing. Why not buy Disney?

“The logic is so great this could happen tomorrow,” McInerney said. “The two companies have an identical way of thinking in complementary markets. There’s nothing they do that competes with another. And yet combined this would be a powerhouse deal in the imagining.”

Although an Apple-Disney union has been the subject of Wall Street speculation for years, McInerney believes the shift of content to the cloud will force Disney to act.

“This changing structure, this Gutenberg-like tectonic shift  in human behavior based on the cloud’s ability to offer unlimited computing at marginal cost, says to Disney, ‘We’ve got to be on the platform to grow in the new space,’ ” McInerney said.

His argument doesn’t draw from any inside information of either company, just his own analysis of their cultures, their tendency to prepare well for the future and their needs to remain profitable.

McInerney imagines the two combined as a “Netflix on steroids,” in which Apple would benefit from finding ways to monetize Disney’s content offerings, and Disney would have a safe and profitable place in the emerging, unbundled world of TV and video to peddle its wares. Having Disney under the Apple umbrella would also be an asset if Apple ever launches a television set, which has been suggested for years but may not become a reality.

At the same time, there are plenty of good reasons to think this deal will never happen. Apple rarely makes splashy acquisitions. The $3 billion it recently paid for Beats is the company’s largest acquisition. Disney’s market cap is $143 billion, and its shareholders would expect a premium on top of that price. Apple currently holds $151 billion in cash and marketable securities, but the majority of that is offshore and would be taxed if brought back to the United States. Another question mark would be ensuring regulators approve the acquisition.

Both Apple and Disney did not respond to requests for comment.

McInerney — who calls this potential deal “frighteningly obvious” — is quick to point out that Disney chief executive Bob Iger sits on Apple’s board of directors. The companies appear friendly, but expecting them to join forces still looks like a giant leap.

Matt McFarland is the editor of Innovations. He's always looking for the next big thing. You can find him on Twitter and Facebook

Macau busts $645 million World Cup betting ring

By Sophie Brown, CNN

Macau's legal gambling revenue dwarfs that of Las Vegas, but illicit betting rackets continue to thrive.

(CNN) -- Police have smashed an illegal betting syndicate in Macau for allegedly taking the equivalent of US$645 million in bets on World Cup matches.

It's believed to be the biggest ever raid on an illicit football bookmaking racket in the Asian casino capital, according to police.

The gambling ring used three hotel rooms to take internet and phone bets from around the world, a first coordinator for the Macau Judiciary Police told CNN. One gambler placed a bet valued at around US$5 million, initial investigations found.

Police arrested some 22 people from mainland China, Hong Kong and Malaysia in the raid on Thursday. Two of the suspects, from China and Malaysia, were believed to be the ringleaders of the syndicate.

Officers seized cash worth around US$248,000, along with 17 computers, at least 10 cell phones, and betting slips.

A second gambling syndicate was busted in the same hotel hours later, with police arresting four Chinese men early Friday morning. According to police, the second betting ring took around US$645,000 in illegal bets on World Cup matches in a single day.

Police have not released the name of the hotel.

READ: The dark side of Asia's gambling Mecca

The arrests are part of a cross-border campaign to crack down on illegal betting in Macau, Hong Kong and China's southern Guangdong province around the World Cup. Authorities from the Pearl River Delta region are also cooperating with Interpol and seven other Asian nations to tackle illicit gambling.

More than half of the world's illegal sports bets are placed in Asia, according to a recent study by the International Center for Sport Security and Paris Sorbonne University.

Since the tournament began, Hong Kong police have arrested a total of 39 suspects over illegal gambling and seized betting slips worth around US$10 million, according to the South China Morning Post.

The city's legal gambling authority, the Hong Kong Jockey Club, is the second biggest betting operator worldwide. The club said illicit sports betting in Hong Kong generated an estimated HK$500 billion (US$64.5 billion) last year -- almost four times the amount the Jockey Club turned over in the same period.

In Singapore, 15 people have been arrested for allegedly receiving illegal football bets equivalent to US$640,000 in the past two weeks, police said Monday.

Police in Malaysia have also arrested dozens of suspected illegal bookmakers since the World Cup began.

WATCH: Interpol investigates World Cup betting

Cristiano Ronaldo is center of U.S. soccer team’s attention at World Cup

Portgual superstar Cristiano Ronaldo trains Friday in preparation for Sunday’s showdown with the United States. (Philippe Desmazes/AFP/Getty Images)

SAO PAULO, Brazil — In the wee hours Tuesday morning, as the U.S. national soccer team’s charter traced the Atlantic coast in returning to base from its World Cup opener up north, the coaching staff’s attention pivoted to Portugal.

And pivoting to Portugal meant pivoting to superstar Cristiano Ronaldo.

Since FIFA conducted the group draw in December, dropping the Americans into the same quartet as the planet’s premier performer, Coach Jurgen Klinsmann and his assistants have done the groundwork — scouting, studying and plotting for Sunday’s match at Arena da Amazonia in Manaus .

Now they must implement the plan. If done effectively, the Americans could secure passage to the round of 16 for the second consecutive World Cup.

Klinsmann will not reveal his tactics until Argentine referee Nestor Pitana sounds the opening whistle, but the nature of soccer suggests a collective effort involving both attacking and defensive elements to suppress a player of Ronaldo’s mercurial skills.

“You’ve got to be on high alert when he touches the ball,” midfielder Kyle Beckerman said, “because he’s just so dangerous.”

The Real Madrid winger scored 51 goals in 47 matches across all competitions in 2013-14, ending Lionel Messi’s four-year reign as world player of the year. Ronaldo has posted 252 goals in 246 appearances since joining the Spanish titans in 2009 — the primary reason he is, according to Forbes magazine, the world’s second highest-compensated athlete at more than $80 million ($52 million in pre-tax salary, $28 million in global endorsements).

At the World Cup, however, speculation has swirled around Ronaldo’s physical condition. He has undergone treatment for leg injuries, triggering reports he would have to drop out of the tournament.

On Friday, though, teammate Helder Postiga told reporters at the team’s training base near Sao Paulo that “he’s training with us, he’s practicing with us and he’s doing all the exercises. I’m not a doctor, but I don’t think [Ronaldo’s playing status] is in question. He has been training at his maximum.”

As for his mind-set, Ronaldo was visibly frustrated during a 4-0 loss to Germany on Monday, at one point accosting the referee for declining to award a penalty kick.

The Americans have not lowered their guard despite Portugal being in a wounded state from the defeat, defender Pepe’s red-card suspension and injuries to several other starters.

Portugal “is an even more dangerous team than before,” Klinsmann said. “When you get that 4-0 result from Germany, you’re going to come into Manaus pretty angry. And I don’t know how Cristiano Ronaldo behaves when he’s angry.”

GRAPHIC: A tale of two World Cups: Lionel Messi and Argentina are thriving, while Ronaldo is facing speculation over an injury — and Portugal in struggling.

Ronaldo is best contained not through one-on-one defending but by minimizing his number of touches by pressuring Portugal’s other players and sustaining possession. In essence, a formidable offense is the U.S. team’s best defense.

The Americans, though, will have to improve their passing and ball movement. Between captain Clint Dempsey’s first-minute goal and John Brooks’s late game-winner against Ghana, Klinsmann’s crew lacked structure and execution. Among the tournament’s 32 teams, only Algeria and Iran completed a fewer percentage of passes than the United States (66 percent).

“That was a problem against Ghana, but it was the first game, so you're going to be a little bit nervous,” midfielder Jermaine Jones said. “Now we have a good result. We can go win the next game with more trust in ourselves — take the ball and try to hold the ball better.”

Ronaldo is most dangerous in the open field, combining speed, footwork, vision and power to rip apart opponents. Upon taking possession, Portugal will launch counterattacks through Ronaldo on the flanks. The Americans will need to cut off the supply.

“We will figure out ways to make it really miserable for him,” Klinsmann said.

Who Klinsmann selects to inflict misery is not clear. With striker Jozy Altidore sidelined with a hamstring injury and no natural replacement, Klinsmann might add a fifth midfielder to compress the amount of available space.

In the Ghana match, Altidore and Dempsey partnered on the front line, and Jones, a defensive midfielder, played wide. With five midfielders, Klinsmann could use natural wings, such as Alejandro Bedoya and Graham Zusi, and allow Jones and Beckerman to support Michael Bradley.

Unlike Portugal, the Americans are not desperate for victory and may be tempted to play conservatively. A draw would also bolster their outlook.

Regardless of the formation, the players have emphasized all week the importance of concentrating on the full Portuguese team, not just Ronaldo.

“We feel that we have a great game plan in eliminating certain things, but they’re all dangerous,” Wondolowski said. “Right now we’re still just fine-tuning that game plan in how to stop that whole team.”

Ronaldo’s capability, though, is not lost on the Americans.

“When you look at the game today, there’s such a premium on the physical aspect of the game — speed, strength, endurance,” Bradley said. “He is a guy who checks all of those boxes. When you talk about his technical ability, the way he shoots with his right foot, his left foot, how good in the air he is, he is somebody who can make a difference at any moment.”

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England Eliminated From World Cup 2014: The ‘Years of Hurt’ Continue

With Costa Rica’s shock 1-0 victory over Italy, England has been eliminated from the World Cup. The gloomy postmortem has begun, but team manager Roy Hodgson is not resigning.

Laszlo Balogh/Reuters

The English way to lose at football is with drama, and as much delirious hubris as a 90-minute game, plus extra time and penalties—in short, a total national nervous breakdown—can encompass. Add dark irony, or tears, or should-have-beens. The nation, as one, typically cannot believe the referee didn’t award that free kick at that key moment. Oh no, descend millions of heads in hands…it’s gone to penalty shootout.

We do not—national pride and all that—crash out of the World Cup meekly, having lost two matches, and wind up humiliatingly eliminated not as a result of those two matches but because of the shock success of another team.

But that is football-mad England’s sad, dispiriting tale of World Cup 2014: We leave the competition not with a bang but a whimper, after Costa Rica’s surprise 1-0 victory over Italy in Group D on Friday. We are still down to play Costa Rica on Tuesday, but the result is inconsequential. At least the Costa Ricans’ place in the last 16 is thoroughly, hearteningly deserved: Their games against Uruguay and Italy have shown how seriously they should be taken as giant-slayers, and contenders. England could learn a lot from them.

“The World Cup for me would have been a better place with England in it, but you have to earn the right to stay in a tournament. Unfortunately for us, we have not done that, former captain Rio Ferdinand told the BBC.

The fact that the United States remains in the competition is especially galling: Football is our game. The national refrain Friday night is an all-round “This wasn’t supposed to happen.”

England's Wayne Rooney walks on the pitch at the end of their 2014 World Cup Group D soccer match against Uruguay at the Corinthians arena in Sao Paulo June 19, 2014 (Damir Sagolj/Reuters)

An anti-climactic end is not the World Cup storyline that English fans anticipated. It’s not that, as a country, England is bullish enough to expect victory. Part of the football bug in England is the tantalizing, almost-alien prospect of winning big, burnished by years of failure and if-onlys. The notion of winning has a typically English mordancy attached to it. The willing masochism of being an England supporter is innate.

Observe the lyrics of "Three Lions," the laddishly-chanted song originally released in 1996 for that year’s European Championship: “Thirty years of hurt / Never stopped me dreaming.” Everything in England’s football culture is still wired to the elation around our victory in the 1966 World Cup. The yearning of the song is in the gap it evokes between belief and reality, hope against hope: the pain and glory of the national game.

Given the length of time elapsed between 1966 and now, the English football fan’s relationship with the national team is best encapsulated as a long, crisis-strewn marriage, without the benefit of couples counseling and with the certainty that crisis follows crisis. But it is impossible to walk away.

England, especially at moments like the World Cup, is football-obsessed; town and city centers during major competitions are a blurry mass of beer-drinkers draped in St. George’s flags. If a goal is scored, the streets reverberate with cheers and honking horns. And when we lose, well…then we express the depth of our misery with either the sober English way of looking down and being gloomy, or—fueled by furious glugging of lager—fighting in the street.

Now, with World Cup failure, the country can unite for another favorite sport: looking for suitable heads to be placed, sacrificially, on platters.

After England’s 2-1 defeat against Uruguay on Thursday, the team’s manager, Roy Hodgson, said he wouldn’t quit the job. “I don’t have any intention to resign. I’ve been really happy with the way the players have responded to the work we’ve tried to do. I’m bitterly disappointed, of course, but I don’t feel I need to resign, no. On the other hand, and if the Football Association think I’m not the right man to do the job, that will be their decision and not mine.”

The FA’s chairman, Greg Dyke, strongly signaled the organization’s support of Hodgson, who is contracted to stay in the post through the Euro 2016 championships in France. “We’re supportive of Roy Hodgson, we’ve asked him to stay as manager,” Dyke said. “We do not see any value in changing. We think Roy has done a good job and it is an approach over four years and we hope to do better in the European Championships.”

Dyke has also said his eyes are on the prize of the 2022 World Cup, which he believes England can win, “but I think it means lots of changes in English football. I think there is a real chance that we can develop and win in 2022—that is the aim.”

Former England winger Chris Waddle attributed England’s exit to the professional league at home. “The Premier League is different to any league the world and that is our big problem,” he said. “It’s frustrating, because we have everything we need—money, facilities—but it comes down to coaching, and we have to get something right about producing players. The Premier League is a great advert for our football but it does our national team no good whatsoever.”

The one perhaps-positive upshot of such a quiet, sad exit is that the hand-wringing may not be as hysterical as before, although if the manager escapes blame for the team’s failure at the World Cup, the scalping spotlight may fall instead on the team’s captain, the popular Steven Gerrard, and squad.

Apparently, last Sunday, Gerrard warned the team “of the long, miserable summer facing the entire England entourage should they end up watching the World Cup knockout phase from the safe distance of a belated summer holiday,” according to BBC Sport. Now that has come to pass, and both team and fans are forced to watch the competition play out without England’s participation. They can also listen ruefully to “Three Lions”: The “thirty years of hurt” will become 50 before the vista of Euro 2016—because, as any England supporter knows, there’s always next time.