“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
Where does the US$10BN cash number come from?
Checking Apple’s annual reports on Reuters 3000 Xtra
Cash & Equivalents
24Sep05 3,491m
25Sep04 2,969m
27Sep03 3,396m
28Sep02 2,252m
29Sep01 2,310m
30Sep00 1,191m
25Sep99 1,326m
25Sep98 1,481m
26Sep97 1,230m
27Sep96 1,552m
29Sep95 756m
30Sep94 1,203m
24Sep93 676m
25Sep92 498m
27Sep91 604m
‘Cash & Cash Equivalents’ are not Total Assets, but a component of Total Assets. For these figures are:
Total Assets
24Sep05 11,551m
25Sep04 8,050m
27Sep03 6,815m
28Sep02 6,298m
29Sep01 6,021m
30Sep00 6,803m
25Sep99 5,161m
25Sep98 4,289m
26Sep97 4,233m
27Sep96 5,364m
29Sep95 6,231m
30Sep94 5,302.75m
24Sep93 5,171.41m
25Sep92 4,223.69m
27Sep91 3,493.6m
So where does 10 billion dollars of cash come from? Is that ‘The Mac Observer’s forecast of Sep06 position?
Buster,
No kiddng? so did I
But I still think that if they buy anything it would be a gaming company.
or maybe they’ll buy alienware from dell…now I’m just bloviating
me – …just make the Universal Binary for OS X a priority and the Windows versions the red headed step child that comes out 6-9 mo. later.
Reverse discrimination, good idea, another step closer to being like the the rest of the industry that has excluded Apple. Let’s roll in the mud with the other animals, or maybe the answer is a higher road?
btw – do you know what “red headed step child” takes it’s origins from?
Corel+Apple=A wake up call for Adobe and Microsoft. An Apple revised version of Painter, DRAW, and Wordperfect. Spells $$$$$$ no matter what language u speak.
Sun Microsystems+Apple=A wake up call for IBM and HP. Java, Staroffice+Wordperfect(see above), Solaris, and most of all a better foothold on the server market.
The best features of Sun, Corel, and Apple combined. My nips are hard just thinking of it all!
Pete Peterson,
Stop with the buyer’s remorse crap already. Two threads of that is enough.
If you don’t like what is being sold…don’t buy it.
I bought one vacuum cleaner when I really wanted a Dyson…I had buyer’s remorse. So I sold it on eBay and bought the Dyson I really wanted. Turns out that someone out there really wanted the vacuum that I didn’t.
Buyer’s remorse is relative. Some people won’t be happy no matter what they get, you seem like that type.
I’ll repeat what others have said before: i predict Apple will do something with wireless and mobile computing. It’s about extending their existing strengths. Laptops make up about 50% of sales and ‘analysts’ keep saying the ipod will get buried by cellphones so Apple will create a couple of kick ass products in those spaces coupled with a wireless infrastructure.
This article really got me thinking, so instead of writing a five-page comment here, I posted it on my blog:
Apple’s Rainy-Day Fund
For the six month period ending April 1, 2006 Apple increased their Cash and Cash Equivalents by 2,855m ending the period at 6,346m.
$10 billion in cash? Maybe by the end of the year – but that’s speculation. But for now Apple is still over $3 billion short of this reporters claims. Adding their short-term investments to their cash still only brings them up to just over $8 billion.
Source: Apple 10-Q for Quarterly Period Ended April 1, 2006 (PDF)
Definitions:
Cash & Cash Equivalents are assets that are completely liquid assets. Money that could be used immediately to buy-back stock or pay shareholder dividends.
Short-Term Investments are cash assets that a company puts into investments with a duration of less than one year. These assets are not as readily available as cash, but they do earn a higher return.
Cash and Cash Equivalents plus Short Term Investments give shares immediate value.
LastOneStanding,
Red heads have long been discriminated against, the Egytians killed them. Moses, King David, and Esau are referred to as “ruddy” which some translators believe means “red headed”.
It is one of the few biggoted remarks that can still be made.
The red head reference refers to an adulterous relationship in which a women forces her husband to raise her bastard as his child under the law. The obvious red hair is noted by all, so the beatings are a result of the step father’s hatred and embarrassment. In older socities it was even required as a warning to others to not stray, or at least stay away from redheads. Unfortunately, since red hair can skip generations there are those who were beaten and disowned under false accusations.
LastOneStanding,
Why red headed step child? Why not slope eyed Jap, or zipper faced gook?
Oh, how about towel headed step child? I like that one.
See, all you have to do is use a different bigoted statement to piss off a lot more people.
Check their last 10K filing:
http://yahoo.brand.edgar-online.com/fetchFilingFrameset.aspx?dcn=0001104659-06-031303&Type=HTML
and search for “Total current assets”
Oops. 10-Q
(You’re welcome.
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And the number is at 11 Billion now according to that, since that includes other semiliquid assets. Actual cash is only $7ish Billion, but the whole number is often considered “Cash On Hand.”
Jerry T,
How about “pissy little geek whining in a forum”?
“How about ‘pissy little geek whining in a forum’?”
Whoa. Now you’ve done it. That describes nearly every single poster ever including me.
THAT’S NOT FAIR ! ! ! Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh ! ! !
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Apple buying TiVo wouldn’t shock me at all…and then sync the TV with the Video iPod…or soemthing like that…
10,000,000,000? If I were apple, I would buy a really big house. I’m talking 10B big. Maybe on the moon?
“I would buy a really big house.”
How about the Gates Mansion? Then, Steve could kick Bill out and lock the, um . . . well, you know. Melinda can stay. He’ll need a maid.
oh shaddup,
That’s true, he did seem like a whiner to me too.
You on the other hand…if you’d like a mouth full of Millwall let me know. I can help with that.
88
Jerry Y – I was simply curious what it meant. The web seems to cofirm what Schmutz said. Thank you for validating the rest of my post. Hatred and anger hasn’t exactly resolved any of the current world problems, have they?
A stock dividend would be nice. About as likely as Vista shipping with all of its promised features, but nice.
10,000,000,000? That is one big twinkie.
Fast Forward: 2007
Apple buys Digg.com and YouTube.com
The origins of the phrase “red-headed step child are not all that clear.
The two scenarios it is most commonly are attributed to:
(1) the army of (mostly) red-headed children scattered about England after viking raids
(2) the (often) red headed offspring of afro and caucasian americans born between the early 1700s and roughly 1930.
In either case, the red hair indicated often violent infidelity, and the child was often the focus of the resulting embarrassment and anger.
These are just popularly attributed scenarios, not necessarily actually how the phrase came about.
Actually, it’s just occurred to me that the phrase was used incompletely. I think the full expression is: “beaten like a red-headed step-child”. I think the original post, probably should have substituted with a phrase like: “white elephant” or “albatross” instead.
Not that it’s that important
Why on earth would anyone buy Micro$oft?
Buy SAP instead and Apple will rule The World. Buy both Adobe and SAP ASAP.
“Founded in 1972 as Systems Applications and Products in Data Processing, SAP is the recognized leader in providing collaborative business solutions for all types of industries and for every major market.
Serving more than 34,600 customers worldwide, SAP is the world’s largest business software company and the world’s third-largest independent software provider overall.”