9 things Apple could do with $137 billion cash stockpile
Apple Inc. came under attack Thursday from an influential investor for its practice of stockpiling cash. Its hoard totaled $137 billion at the end of last year, and it keeps growing.
Corporations normally don't hoard cash the way Apple does. They keep enough around for immediate needs, and either invest the rest in their operations or dole it out to shareholders in the form of dividends or stock buybacks. If they need more cash for, say, an acquisition, they borrow it.
Apple has never explained why it is salting away so much cash - other than to say the company is preserving its options.
The money belongs to shareholders, so Apple is limited in what it can legally do with it. Leaving legality aside, here are some things Apple could do with $137 billion:
• Give every American a check for $437.
• Buy 213 million iPhones at the average wholesale price, enough for every American who lives east of the Mississippi River, plus Texas.
• Based on market value at Thursday's close, Apple could acquire Facebook, Groupon, LinkedIn, Netflix, Pandora, Research In Motion (Blackberry), Yahoo, Yelp, Zillow and Zynga -and have more than $2 billion left to spare.
• Create a stack of dollar bills 9,300 miles high, 38 times higher than the orbit of the International Space Station.
• Buy 100,000 luxury Manhattan apartments, enough to house the population of Omaha.
• Foot the bill for U.S. federal spending on education for two years.
• Give every Apple employee a bonus of $1.7 million.
• Double U.S. foreign economic aid to the developing world for three and half years.
• Provide shareholders with a one-time dividend of $145 per share. (The stock closed Thursday at $456.95)
Corporations normally don't hoard cash the way Apple does. They keep enough around for immediate needs, and either invest the rest in their operations or dole it out to shareholders in the form of dividends or stock buybacks. If they need more cash for, say, an acquisition, they borrow it.
Apple has never explained why it is salting away so much cash - other than to say the company is preserving its options.
The money belongs to shareholders, so Apple is limited in what it can legally do with it. Leaving legality aside, here are some things Apple could do with $137 billion:
• Give every American a check for $437.
• Buy 213 million iPhones at the average wholesale price, enough for every American who lives east of the Mississippi River, plus Texas.
• Based on market value at Thursday's close, Apple could acquire Facebook, Groupon, LinkedIn, Netflix, Pandora, Research In Motion (Blackberry), Yahoo, Yelp, Zillow and Zynga -and have more than $2 billion left to spare.
• Create a stack of dollar bills 9,300 miles high, 38 times higher than the orbit of the International Space Station.
• Buy 100,000 luxury Manhattan apartments, enough to house the population of Omaha.
• Foot the bill for U.S. federal spending on education for two years.
• Give every Apple employee a bonus of $1.7 million.
• Double U.S. foreign economic aid to the developing world for three and half years.
• Provide shareholders with a one-time dividend of $145 per share. (The stock closed Thursday at $456.95)
crApple won't do anything with this cash, they are using it as a firewall hedge against their coming irrelevance as their marketshare dwindles.
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They are getting ready for the final stage in their lifecycle, they should make a banner for the board members: welcome to Patent Troll Gerontocracy land!
How about making a good product that doesn't cost an arm and leg to use.
 @Crimsonkid If you compare spec to spec, the price is quite competitive for the computers, and the iPhone is roughly the same price as other new phones.  The iPad on the other hand would be nice to be about $100 cheaper.
 @Thomas Gill You are crazy if you think a Mac with the exact same specs of a PC would be competitively priced. Unless you meant comparing an Alienware or Sony PC to a Mac then I would agree because Sony is like the Apple of the PC world in terms of price but without the same build quality or customer service.
How about reducing the price of the iPhone and iPad so more people can afford to buy them? Or will that cheapen the brand image?
 @timdog Wait, free is too much?  Or $99, or $199.
Yeah, I was thinking stock buyback when I first read this. The idea of buying out companies like Netflix and such would do well for their products. Or they could do something unthinkable and start offering incentives for software (gaming) companies to compile for their systems. Maybe make their platform more appealing for the people who actually use their systems as work-horses.
Or they could do a real shocker and come up with an original idea...Nah, easier to sue.Â
Whoa, let's not go overboard, Apple needs to first make the iPad useful. Â It probably doesn't take $137 billion to make an iPad run a full version of OSX. Â Look at the modBook, for example.
I do not know about you but that picture has me thinking Star Wars for some reason. Is it the Black Apple or the guy dressed in Black? Or is it radiating Evil?
It seems to me there is some form of a "social" crime going on when this amount of money is not used for the common good, but then again, this is capitalism. Don't you love it?
 @commonHuskyfan I think you make too much money and should give more to charity.  After all you own a computer and have the money to pay for an internet connection.  That is extravagant in my book.  Think of all the people who don't have the resources you do and give some back.
 @cyclops I do donate to charity, and try to give in ways that I can. To assume that I don't is very presumptuous of you.
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I disagree with your stating that having internet access and a computer as "extravagant." These are necessary tools in our society. This is an obvious fact.
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I am glad that Apple has been so successful, as I really enjoy using some of their products. But despite that success, I still believe they have an obligation to pay their fair share of taxes in ethical ways, by avoiding tax shelters.Â
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 @commonHuskyfan Do you take a mortgage interest deduction on your taxes?  That is a tax shelter.
@commonHuskyfan
They earned the $$$.Why should they send it how someone else wants them to??? Maybe the board of directors sees the future in a very dark light. They might just be putting two to three yearsâ operating cash aside because they see big problems in the future. Or maybe those companies with big cash reserves are absolutely take-over proof. If you have enough cash you simply buy the company putting the squeeze on you and then gut them for it. The financial meltdown was caused by people and companies leveraging themselves too far. Apple is staying very safe and they are being beat down for it?? What a bunch of hypocrites, this is how all companies need to be runâ¦.
 @bustedupredneck How am I a hypocrite?Â
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My position on issues like this is static and constant - I do not believe companies should be able to hoard cash - particularly when the hoarded cash or assets sit overseas in some overseas account avoiding taxes by shifty accounting methods that are "legal" - just because it is legal, does not make it ethical.Â
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I personally believe there should be some social responsibility when it comes to very successful business, and people. You don't have to believe this, and just because you don't, does not make your position any stronger than mine.
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In fact, I think you are an idiot simply because you resort to name calling. Â Name calling really is a sign that you are weak and ineffectual when it comes to actual actual conversations with adults. It is juvenile and pathetic, to be frank.
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 @commonHuskyfan Yes, capitalism rewards blood, sweat, and tears...not standing around with your hand out.  Working as intended for those who decide to partake in it.  The rest get left behind.
 @Sheridan Don't forget that capitalism also rewards lying, cheating, and stealing too!
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 @commonHuskyfan  Do you own a home and pay a mortgage?  Maybe you shouldn't be allowed to use the interest deduction loophole that so many people can't.
 @PacMan  @Gaikokujin True.
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I suppose part of me is reacting to the recent articles on corporations and their off-shore accounts which protect them from taxes.Â
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The condition of man really is the issue - you will have greed and lust in any financial system, that much is true.
 @Gaikokujin @commonHuskyfan As does Communism and Anarchism. Problem is that those that will lie cheat and steal will do it under any circumstance.
It is much easier to point out the problems with a system than it is to work to make systems better.Â
 @commonHuskyfan  @Sheridan So does socialism