Apple is called a favorite to bid for Peloton Interactive
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Peloton Interactive (NASDAQ:PTON) will be one of the most closely watched stocks in the coming weeks with M&A speculation ramping up following deep sell-off in shares over the last few months.
Will a bidding war heat up? The Peloton bike and roughly 3M subscriptions are seen allowing potential buyers such as Apple, (NASDAQ:AAPL), Disney (NYSE:DIS), Nike (NYSE:NKE) or Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) an opportunity to cross-sell from their own customer base. 
In an early breakdown on the development, Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives reasoned that Apple (AAPL) acquiring Peloton would be a major strategic coup, as well as catalyze the company's aggressive health and fitness initiatives over the coming years.
"On the offensive front, Apple through its Fitness+ subscription service and Apple Watch strategy would be able to leverage the Peloton services and flywheel to significantly bulk up its healthcare initiatives which have been a key strategic linchpin for Cook."
Ives and team estimated a Peloton acquisition would go off in the $12B to $15B range depending on the timing and competitive process, which is noted to not be a big reach for a company with ~$200B in cash and a strong free cash flow anticipated for this year. PTON closed with a market cap of $8.1B on Friday before jumping by 27% in after-hours trading to an implied market cap of around $10.3B.
Last month, activist investor Blackwells Capital sent a letter to Peloton's board making the case the company should fire CEO John Foley and explore a sale.
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