If Sonos’ Board Sells, Will Apple Be the Buyer?

Will audio tech company Sonos soon have a new owner? If so, which tech giant will it be?

A report Sunday (Jan. 19) by Bloomberg News examines the company’s trouble and uncertain future. After a messy app rollout in May, Sonos’ market valuation is roughly $1.7 billion, down from more than $5 billion during the pandemic.

The board, wrote Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, will likely consider whether a sale makes sense. And while Apple has long been seen as a potential buyer, Gurman thinks it’s unlikely.

“If Apple really wanted to build out its home audio business, it already has the hardware, software, content and manufacturing chops internally,” he wrote. “It’s just about wanting to get things done properly — something that Apple is already working on. Later this year, it will launch its own home hub and a new HomePod mini.”

The report also argued that suitors like Meta, Google and Microsoft also wouldn’t make sense, while Amazon, Samsung and Spotify might consider a purchase.

Of that group, Gurman adds, Amazon seems like the most natural fit, as the company is expected to revamp its device portfolio with an eye toward more upscale products. Sonos’ tech could serve as the backbone for new Amazon Echo devices running the upcoming AI-infused Alexa digital assistant.

In exploring Amazon’s efforts to upgrade Alexa last week, PYMNTS wrote that making the assistant smarter — something that’s proven tougher than expected to do — is not as cut-and-dry as adding a large language model to it to replace its simpler algorithms.

“It’s not as simple as moving from one model to another,” Mike Finley, chief technology officer and co-founder of AnswerRocket, said in an interview with PYMNTS.

“Agentic AI is a bit more nuanced. It needs more structure and guidance to get us a better result. We will have to give it the original ‘prompt’ like we would in the past, but there’s more work to shape the AI behavior we want.”

He added that for Alexa to become more useful, it will need to become advanced enough for people to trust it with more important tasks.

“Would you trust Alexa to send the babysitter some cash? What if it hallucinates a couple of zeros on the wrong side? Agentic models can use resources like the ability to access databases or financial accounts, websites, documents, spreadsheets. But powering Alexa with those tools means gaining consumer trust to click ‘allow,’” Finley said.