Electronics Makers to Short if Steve Jobs Dies
It's pretty clear that whenever Steve Jobs leaves Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL), the rest of the technology sector is in for a rough ride. Apple's products, including the wildly popular iPhone, contain bits and pieces from across the electronic technology sector.
While not every one of those supplier companies will go south without Steve Jobs feeding them innovative products to produce, some of them might. Here are some of the companies with ties to the iPhone who may face hard times if they lose Steve Jobs as a client.
Samsung: Unless your broker has you dabbling in the Korean market, you probably aren't invested in Samsung directly. However, there is still a trading opportunity here. Samsung has been a huge manufacturer of the iPhone chips, but is now being sued by Apple for allegedly swiping Apple's ideas to manufacture their own products.
There are rumors in the tech world that Apple is very close to dropping Samsung in favor of Taiwan Seminconductor Manufacturing (NYSE: TSM). TSM could see a boost now, if they are in fact retained by Apple, although that might set them up for a fall back if Apple stops utilizing their services down the road. There is also no guarantee that these rumors are not just legal manuverings around either pricing with Samsung or to push the legal case into some sort of settlement.
Intel: Another company that might move in on Samsung's loss of Apple could be Intel (NASDAQ: INTC). The chip maker would greatly benefit from taking on the iPhone chip, making it a possible smart play on the upswing. However, Intel is large enough to weather any potential loss of Apple down the road, making a short play less enticing. Still, if they pick up Samsung's slack, they could be in for a boost.
ARM Holdings: The blandly named ARM Holdings company (NASDAQ: ARMH) is actually one of the biggest players in the mobile media world, as their processors account for some 90% of the embedded 32-bit RISC processors out there. In English? They're a big deal. Apple leads the way with mobile devices — tablets, iPhones, iPods, for example. Steve Jobs has been pushing these innovations. If someone else were in charge of Apple, would the company have the same focus on mobility?
Wireless Communications Makers: A handful of companies have their toes in the wireless communications pond aspect of iPhones, all of whom face varying levels of risk should Apple walk away, depending on their level of exposure and market cap, of course. AT&T (NYSE: T) provides a wireless voice and data network and connects users to local Wi-Fi networks.
Meanwhile Infineon (OTC: IFX), Skyworks (NASDAQ: SWKS), RF Micro Devices (NASDAQ: RFMD), and Marvell Technology Group (NASDAQ: MRVL) all make components for the wireless communications piece, and could all be worth looking at as a short play when Jobs is no longer running Apple.
