I don't think he has an accompanying article I can point to, but there was an episode of Exponent where Ben Thompson discussed the possibility of these giant Ap

I don't think he has an accompanying article I can point to, but there was an episode of Exponent where Ben Thompson discussed the possibility of these giant Apple purchases (and did specifically discuss both Netflix and Tesla). He made a point that is often underappreciated given how obviously true it is: that, with rare exceptions, huge cross-sector corporate takeovers/mergers almost never work. They entice the imagination, which is why both analysts and the general public are always speculating about them, but from a business perspective it's almost never a good idea. Apple seems to understand this pretty well: they make small, smart buys (as opposed to, say, Microsoft or even Google, who have a history of big purchases that didn't deliver), so I doubt they'll start considering takeovers like this.