There’s a rumor going around that Apple is going to acquire a significant enterprise software company in the near future. This is a real outlier as far as rumors are concerned, after all why the hell would Apple want a software company in this space? But then I thought about it and came to a conclusion that it makes sense if we look at the convergence of software, services, media, and banking as is evident in their iTunes Music Store and the march forward to include more content types, advertising and promotions, and increase the number of publishers who have access to the service. These are complex businesses at their core and the supply chain for digital products has many of the same requirements of the physical supply chain. On top of that there is a high growth market for advertising analytics that can’t be overlooked.

As for who Apple could be looking at, I could only guess at best but the thought exercise of walking through the why reinforces just how much the enterprise software business is changing and the lines blurring between consumer and traditional enterprise.

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