Theoretically, Apple may be concerned because of Universal's market clout; an Apple spokesman did not return calls seeking comment.
It was in their financial interest to do so, and Mr. Obama needed their clout to get quasi-universal health insurance passed.
As long as that clout is wielded to promote universal principles, it's not a bad thing.
Instead, they would devote their full resources of money, political clout, moral authority and volunteer time to promoting universal sex education and easy access to contraception, with the goal of eliminating abortion by preventing unwanted pregnancies.
They plead that they are so powerless that even getting much larger would not give them anything approaching the clout to curb competition in the music market.Lucian Grainge, the head of Universal, tries to square this circle.
Oddly, Universal or anyone else doing exclusive deals with iTunes' rivals could end up reducing the clout of iTunes but spurring more sales of iPods — and that means more music to Mr. Jobs's ears.
Historians generally view the failure to establish universal health insurance during the first half of the twentieth century as an indicator of the political clout of insurers, employers, unions, and physicians who thwarted Progressive efforts.
This is not enough clout on its own to trouble the trustbusters: in fact Sony BMG has a smaller European presence than Universal, the leading record company.
The Universal sequel would be a worthy winner in most years, even if it doesn't quite have the unorthodox clout of some of Pixar's best work.
That's smart Art of War, buying Apple continued universal compatibility at a low level, and not requiring either the global scale of a Google or the near-universal social clout of a Facebook, neither of which Apple can replicate.
