Apple to Host Conference Call Monday Concerning its Near $100 Billion Cash Balance

[IJ Reilly]

Oh, I fully understand the theory, but in practice the money simply went poof.

Again, it's more of a signal that the company has just run out of ideas on what to do. Lack of vision, lack of foresight, lack of.. pretty much anything.

The company has been broken apart since then, but the signs were there for the reading years in advance.

Special dividend would be very preferable to a buy back.

Overall, I do like Job's philosophy - make great products and the stock price will follow. He said that ages ago and he's been proven right. I've worked for many companies that have the tail wagging the dog, and the shareholders come first - even before the customers, and that's a bad formula.

For all the good ideas that Steve had, he also had a lot of eccentricities that qualify as insecurities. Accumulating endless amounts of cash seems to have been one of the latter. Apple isn't saving for their retirement, so at some point the vast amount of unspent cash speaks more about insecurity than confidence. I think that point actually came a couple of years ago but I suspect Steve's iron hand and unbending will, not to mention his declining health, had a lot to do with the lack of direction on what to do with the cash mountain. Cook also has to be thinking about how he shows that he's his own man, not a mere shadow of Steve. Apple under Cook is probably going to look like a somewhat more conventional company. That would not actually be a bad thing in this stage of their evolution.

 

[Apple Corps]

I can’t be the only member who wondered why Apple doesn’t own the whole experience (including the carrier/cell sites).

Biggest problem? They can’t own a carrier in every country, let alone a couple without upsetting the other carrier partners.

Because owning a carrier would have a negative impact on financial performance and an increase in headaches.

 

[Mr. Incredible]

Mo' money, Mo' problems.

 

[Junkdrop1]

buy google and destroy android just like steve wanted to do

Exactly.

Just buy up companies, intellectual property, and patents - and MOVE ON!

Dividends don't do anything beneficial in the long run - unless you want to become like GE

 

[JackBauer24]

I hope they do not start paying a dividend. I have apple stock and I would rather they put the money into R&D, Server Farms, School Discount Programs, and new tech acquisitions. Apple Investors do not need anymore money. The stock has been so butter golden.

They have almost $100 billion in the bank, there is only so much that can be spent on R&D and the like. The larger the cash pile gets, the more likely it's going to be wasted on frivolity, even at a company like Apple. A dividend is a great idea. Even with a small dividend payout ratio, their bank balance is still going to grow faster than pretty much another other company out there.

 

[Mystic386]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9B176 Safari/7534.48.3)



They should buy mines in multiple countries to secure access to rare earth materials. That is one finite resource that they need to lock up for the long-term.

Not a bad idea although there are still large tracts of land untapped.

Securing any necessary resource is a smart move.

Every time I hear of the Apple cash horde I imagine a giant Scrooge McDuck vault out the back of Apple with the required diving board.

Hands down Apple's best move was the re-hiring of Steve Jobs.

 

[Rocketman]

Who wants to bet they are announcing they are simply transferring their cash to their own stock at market price? It's a lark!

 

[swordfish5736]

Scott Forstall has never been to Disney World, so first, Apple will send him there. Scott has been quoted as being very excited about Space Mountain.

Bob Mansfield will be installing a deck on the back of his house. He may also install a rain gauge.

Jony Ive intends on taking his kids out for breakfast every other Sunday for the rest of the year.

Peter Oppenheimer has been heard that he needs to "live a little" and will be stepping away from model railroading and plans on using some of the money to take up fly fishing.

Tim Cook plans on buying a new iPad.

This made me chuckle.


My outlandish prediction. Apple will buy AT&T and fire all the idiots that run the place.

 

[oliversl]

Apple will purchase Google

 

[puckhead193]

would splitting the company in too make sense? one half Macs, the other half "iToys"

maybe they are going to donate some for lower gas prices

 

[Menopause]

Indoor swimming pools for all employees to swim in ca$h!!!

On a serious note, competitors beware. $100 bn is a LOT.

 

[pedrotaquelim]

I wish they'd start the "Steve Jobs Foundation", which spends $1 billion per year on cancer research... If we had a cure, Steve would be healthy, at the helm, and ready to make Apple their next $100 billion.

I love the sarcasm there.
But actually it would be a wonderful thing to do.
A "Steve Jobs Foundation" in a cancer cure research. Think about it.
Apple has now 100 billion in cash, probably. What is the purpose of all this money they generate? Steve and other useful and capable people would still be alive to create more wealth if we had more resources dedicated do disease research. They have enough money to do this and still continue to create great products that would generate more money to cancer cure research... and more great products... and... I would love to see this cycle in motion. That would make Apple a truly great company. Wouldn't it?
Life is not about money and gadgets, is about having health to take pleasure out of this gadgets. Steve is gone, to soon, and others like him will to. Apple could help turn some of this around.

And they should, once and for all, resolve the issues with the workers at the factories. This workers are the ones responsible for the huge margin shares of Apple products. They have the power and the money.

I'm not saying that Apple can obliterate all the problems of the world, hell, a company has the objective to be lucrative, but they can help a little (a lot).

It's a bit sad for me that everyone is thrilled about more products, and buy outs and money and forgot a bit about this vital and important topics.

I love products since I learned to mess with computers (I never had a Windows PC). Since I started to do design stuff in my Power Macintosh 6100/60 in 1996 (it's there in a box-it works great still!), but nothing that Apple produces would make me more happy than this.

ps.
English is not my native tongue, so pardon me for any mistakes

 

[antseg]

If it's a big enough purchase you keep it quiet until you're ready to announce it. Look at Motorola-Google. That was kept quiet until the end.

Meh that was an overpriced patent purchase. And it was somewhat of an impulse buy, too, as Google needed to save itself from lawsuits. I really hope you're on to something and it is a purchase, though.

The timing of it does seem like a dividend. Shareholders have been demanding it and the WSJ has constantly been talking about dividends. They wouldn't be the first to give in and issue dividends.

 

[NY Guitarist]

Buy Dell, shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders.

Great post!

 

[Naaaaak]

They are going to spend some of it to re-open their Mac Pro assembly line.

 

[SBlue1]

buy a planet

 

[danielsutton]

Like who? What large company could they possibly acquire without it being blocked by the DOJ? And they're philosophically opposed to adding non-Apple culture into the company. By which I mean non-Apple employees.

Tim Cook did come from I.B.M., didn't he? So he is non-Apple blood turned Apple employee. It is an interesting prospect that Apple might make a large purchase of a tech company. Personally, I hope they get back into the server business after their foolhardy decision to kill off their XServe product. This would allow them to install their own gadgetry in the next data center that they build, as well as give their customers the option of creating their own iCloud systems. I am really hoping that these developments can come into fruition.

 

[csixty4]

Being a cellular carrier is capital-intensive. First of all, you need to spend billions of dollars just to get licensing rights to use the spectrum. Then you have to build towers and base stations, upgrade them every decade or so when a new generation of wireless technology takes hold, and spend billions in between just keeping them up to date.

What about an MVNO then? Give AT&T a big chunk of cash and a nice percentage of the monthly bills. Offer cheaper data plans and/or higher limits, but probably steer clear of antitrust concerns.

It sounds like a good idea, but probably not what they have in mind. Cook has hinted at a dividend, and that's probably the big news for tomorrow. But we can dream.

 

[NY Guitarist]

Going to build their own FAB Plant in the US.

I hope they do something like this also. Bring some jobs back in the U.S.

 

[kvizzel]

How about they use that money to bring back

"MADE IN THE USA"

More jobs and stabilize the economy.

 

[Mystic386]

Apple Lottery

Every week some lucky Apple product owner (phone, computer, iPad, iMac etc) wins $1,000,000 US. Heck I'd even be happy with 10 prizes of $100,000 US. I know that'll only mop up about a months interest or 5 days depending on what a billion is.

I also realised in working that out I don't know what $100 Billion is. I don't think i really took that in at school. Didn't seem important I guess.

Is it;
a/ $100,000,000,000 or
b/ $10,000,000,000 or
c/ none of the above

Can someone in the know post it as a number please. Thanks.

 

[newwavedave]

Buy Dell, shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders.

Best Post EVER!

 

[Will do good]

Why not keep a stockpile of cash for massive investments in R&D, acquisitions, and/or marketing when things aren't going so well? Looking at the stock price, I would think the last thing apple needs is to issue dividends.

I couldn't agreed more. It's not like Apple been driving the stock down to the ground. Some of you need to let the pros at Apple do their business, if you don't like how they run their business- DON'T BUY THEIR STOCK.

 

[RedCroissant]

Cash in hand...

I know what I would do; purchase a phone company. Maybe even a few of them. Keep their names in place and start upgrading existing infrastructure to provide the environment necessary for the future data requirements.

Companies on the list:

1. T-Mobile
2. AOL/TimeWarner
3. Clear wireless
4. Netflix
5. Yahoo

Since Steve Jobs' original intention was to make wide use of WiFi networks and other forms of connectivity for the iPhone and other iOS devices, that's what I would do.

 

[Invincibilizer]

Give every resident of the United States $30