[blzabub]

Why not an acquihire? Perhaps (pure speculation) Bill Nguyen is brilliant at hiring engineers, masterful at developing new technologies (and their associated patents), but utterly crap at productizing these technologies? Guess who is really good at productizing technologies? Seems like a perfect match, especially if Apple saw their previous acquisition of Lala as a success.

[dagw]

Then why not simply make him a job offer? Offer him a decent signing bonus to sell/hand over/wind down his current company plus a salary he can't refuse. Surely that must work out cheaper than buying a company you don't want.

And if he really doesn't want to work for Apple, trying to 'force' him by buying his company doesn't seem like a good long term strategy

[blzabub]

Because of the points I made in my OP: engineers and patents. I'm not saying that Apple wants Bill Nguyen. Based on his leaving Apple last time his company was acquired, maybe they in fact don't want him. They want his engineers and patents, to get them, you have to buy the company. To get rid of him, you have to buy the company.