Apple CEO Steve Jobs offered Sony CEO Nobuyuki Idei the chance for Sony to join Apple’s iTunes Music Store as a partner, the Nikkei Sangyo Shimbun newspaper reports. “The offer would have allowed for joint operation of the service, the newspaper says. The offer was made when the two met at the Sony Open golf tournament held in Hawaii this January, according to the paper, which quoted unnamed Sony sources. Jobs is reported to have wanted to bring the Sony brand into the service to maintain a competitive advantage over Microsoft, which launched a beta version of its MSN Music store earlier this week.”