“Before Steve came back, sales executives were gutting Apple worse than the Capital One plunderers and rewarding themselves handsomely. (While Michael Spindler was looking to sell out.) None of the sales executives survived when Steve returned, and sales executives were rendered much less powerful. As bizarre as it seems, the sales organization can no longer even do marketing,” John Martellaro writes for The Mac Observer.
“These days, Apple has about $10B in the bank. That’s the result of years and years of rolling the profits into paying off debt and saving for a rainy day. Excellent. That $10B earns a lot of interest. But one analyst asked a few years ago whether Apple was simply running a credit union. The implication is that that much money either needs to be paid in dividends, which Apple won’t do, or be put to good work,” Martellaro writes.
Martellaro writes, “No one knows what Apple has in mind for that kind of money. My theory has been that Apple’s board of directors has been accumulating cash for a seriously large merger at the appropriate time. For a while, some thought it was Disney. It’ll be something much bigger than a mere $500M for a new campus. Or $50M for a new data center. No, I mean something so big, it’ll change the face of computing in America.”
“Apple appears to be transitioning to a much more consumer electronics focus. Back in the days, pre-iPod, when Apple was in its $6B/year doldrums, it was possible to put up barriers, remain a little arrogant (in order to keep the religious fervor alive), create a fever of endless product surprises, and remain distant from its customers. But as the Cluetrain Manifesto points out, companies that put up barriers, lock themselves behind walls, and refuse to actually talk with their customers get into trouble very quickly,” Martellaro writes.
Martellaro writes, “Apple realized that if they were going to become a consumer electronics company, they needed to have a store front presence on Main Street, USA. They’ve solved a major part of this ‘Castle and Moat’ complex with the Genius Bar at more than 150 retail sites, well placed with respect to population centers in the U.S. Even so, it’s interesting that the people who work in the Apple stores are a different kind of Apple employee, badged differently, and do not have a whole lot of authority. In time, that will have to change.”
Martellaro writes, “Apple is a mature company now, both technically and financially. The key to understanding how Apple is going to make this transition — from a computer company that has a popular electronic gadget, the iPod — into a company that has a portfolio of popular and useful electronic devices for the 21st century will be to watch where the money goes, up and down the organization. And with that money, authority and responsibility.”
Full article with much more here.
MacDailyNews Take: Buy Adobe. Clean out the dreck. Discontinue Windows versions of Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Illustrator, InDesign, Premiere, etc.
Hey, it’s just an idea. 
Related articles:
How long must we wait for Adobe to produce Universal applications for Apple’s Intel-powered Macs? – August 21, 2006
Cost of Apple’s second 50-acre Cupertino campus could top $500 million – April 25, 2006
Video: Steve Jobs meets Cupertino City Council – April 22, 2006
Transcript: Apple CEO Steve Jobs addresses the Cupertino City Council – April 20, 2006
Apple CEO Steve Jobs plans new 50-acre campus in California – April 19, 2006
Should Apple buy Adobe as leverage against Microsoft? – December 16, 2005
Adobe prefers (and promotes) PCs over Macs – March 24, 2003
Steve Jobs should use the cash to buy an extinct volcano, inside of which he should build his lair.
Two words (ten, if you count them all):
Space Elevator.
I am surprised no one has mentioned Intuit as a possible takeover target. Apple could use Intuit’s existing banking and credit card processing operations to develop new and innovative financial products. Like what? I don’t know, because they would be new. And innovative.
And they could at last give us a good Mac version of QuickBooks, while they’re at it.
INTU’s market cap is $10.68 billion, according to Google Finance.
Buying out Clearasil will defnitely change the face of computing.
It’s amazing how someone can write so many words, and still say nothing.
Consumer gadgets?… Has to be Sharper Image…
I can hardly wait to pick up my Mac Core Duo Nose Hair Clipper.
I too believe Schreck will build an adobe house.
Apple had about 4 to 6 billions before Steve came back. Where was the merger? Slow news day for the writer!
“Discontinuing Window’s version of Adobe products would render that investment a huge loser.”
I disagree. It would force all creatives to the Mac. However, I like the idea of holding it over Microsoft’s head and ensuring that they keep Office going. They could also allow Adobe’s apps to meet their true potential by giving them access to all the Core technologies, which would slowly squeeze MS out of the creative space because the Windows version wouldn’t be as good. Unfortunately, Adobe will never do this because Windows has no equivalent to the Core tech.
I think Ray has the answer
Ampar, I like your organ grinder suggestion, but you forgot to mention selling the video on iTMS.
Apple could merge with Google and take over the internet.
“Buy Adobe. Clean out the dreck. Discontinue Windows versions of Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Illustrator, InDesign, Premiere, etc.”
ITS ABOUT $$$! GET OVER IT! MACS ARE NOT FAITH BASED MACHINES! ARHAHRHRHRHHRHRHRHR!
Metryq: Naaah. Let YouTube give it away!
Apple buys Adobe. But all Windows apps are recoded to perform no better that Mac Word 6.0 with the same feature parity as current Adobe Mac apps. And Photoshop for Windows is RGB and BMP only since so many Windows users already think they can publish a full color brochure from Excel or PowerPoint. Then, promise upgrades for a few years while working only on next-gen Mac apps.
“Self-abusive animatronic taxidermy”
Isn’t that a Seattle band? I think I saw them on TRL.
“I disagree. It would force all creatives to the Mac.”
And I’m sure all their brand-new customers will be extremely gleeful about having to buy all new computers! (Just like all the Emagic customers.)
Few things would foster more ill-will against Apple.
Ray……Buying out Clearasil will defnitely change the face of computing.
Ha ha I laughed so hard at that I farted.
Ray
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@botox
http://images.apple.com/pr/library/2000/oct/consolidatedfinancialstatem.pdf
total assets in sept 1999 were 5.2 bln,
total liabilities in sept 1999 were 2.0 bln,
that´s 3.2bln in 1999
I guess that was quite some less in 1997 (and not 4 – 6 bln) , but I can´t find any older numbers. anybody help me out?
Matt
http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=107357&p=irol-SECText&TEXT=aHR0cDovL2NjYm4uMTBrd2l6YXJkLmNvbS94bWwvZmlsaW5nLnhtbD9yZXBvPXRlbmsmaXBhZ2U9MTEwNTE2NiZhdHRhY2g9T04=
aaah, I found the 10-k from 1998:
page 34: CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS
says:
total assets in sept 1997 were 4.2 bln,
total liabilities in sept 1997 were 3.0 bln,
for a total of 1.2 bln
I guess that´s a pretty good job Jobs did:
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Going from 1.2 bln to 10.0 bln (give or take a couple of hundred millions
Matt
Apple isn’t going to be acquiring some small-time gadget manufacturer who makes television tuners. They need distribution channels, manufacturing plants, brand identity, and more importantly, a company whose own painstaking efforts to produce quality products is matched only by Apple’s.
Adobe doesn’t advance Apple’s agenda. Five years ago that kind of move would have been seen as brilliant but at the end of the day that kind of acquisition will have squandered the cash surplus.
At one time, Apple owned the desktop publishing market and at a time when print-to-paper was the coin of the realm but has since been supplanted by electronic media and the digital landscape.
Adobe would only provide Apple with modest increases in revenue and market share but only if they spent millions more promoting the desktop computer and therein lies the rub.
The desktop has become a ball and chain.
If Apple wanted to turn the technology world upside down and send shock-waves throughout the industry they would acquire a consumer electronics giant like Sony or Matsushita.
They could then spend millions promoting the virtues of the digital cocoon that provides total immersion into an environment of textures, sight, and sound.
MDNW: really
I am for sale; but I am not cheap.
I think for a simple billion or two I could be swept up.
Steve, give me a call.
It’s obvious, Apple + Intel.
That is one merger that really would change the face of computing.
How ironic if Apple were to buy Dell. After all of these years of Apple users telling PC users NOT to buy Dell, and to buy a Mac instead! Funny.
But this would be a good move. Think about it. Apple is aiming at Dell with their lower prices and higher quality boxes. Dell just purchased Alienware. Apple could use the Alienware machines as high end gaming machines — shipping with OS X and Windows — and dump the rest of the Alienware line. Dell machines would cease to exist, and Apple would just need to give Dell users customer service for a period of time.
Dell’s current users would be forced to purchase an HP (or some other crappy brand) or an Apple the next time they bought a machine. There is no hope for HP in that scenario, since their machines are even poorer quality than Dell machines.
Apple buys Microsoft…. and Dell…. there we go…
release one final update for windows, all it does is display an apple logo, and prints out directions to your nearest apple store.
Apple Windows Vista 2.0… they WERE SERIOUS!!!