by , 8:15 AM EDT, May 6th, 2008

In a rare move, Apple commented on rumor and speculation when company officials denied that its pro-level applications, including Final Cut Pro, are up for sale. TVBEurope reported that Apple said that rumors begun at NAB about its pro apps being on the market is "categorically" not the case.

In an interesting bit of timing, the comments were published one day before Robert X. Cringely said in an opinion piece that Apple was looking for a buyer at NAB this year. According to Mr. Cringely, Apple wants to offload Aperture, Final Cut Pro, Logic, and Shake as a precursor to buying Adobe. By selling off its pro apps, Apple is less likely to face problems when clearing potential antitrust hurdles. "That's why Apple was shopping the programs at NAB," he said.

Apple's director of marketing for professional video applications, Richard Townhill, said that these rumors, which began at NAB, are flat-out wrong, and that the Final Cut Suite is not up for grabs. "I can categorically state, on the record, that is not the case," he said.

While selling off the Final Cut Suite could potentially make sense if Apple really were on the prowl to buy Adobe, the Mac and iPod maker could instead sell off Adobe Premiere as part of a buyout agreement and hold on to its successful Final Cut Pro instead.

Apple, however, isn't likely in the market to buy Adobe only to have to take on the burden of supporting applications like Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign and Acrobat. Getting control over Flash and PDF would be a big plus for Apple, but not at the cost of its own already successful video and audio production applications.

[Update: This story was updated to clarify the timing of Apple's comments in relation to Robert X. Cringely's column. - Editor]