the deal seems less absurd if placed in the context of apple's overflowing war chest. even if you ignore the hardware and streaming assets, and assume the deal was purely an acquihire, the deal would be comparable to a company like zynga in 2013 [1] buying a startup for $30M. whether the deal represents the optimal allocation of $3B is another matter, but the magnitude of the deal for apple -- unique in its size -- is not crazy.

[1] http://seekingalpha.com/article/1919501-zynga-cash-still-pil...