“What would you do with $12 billion? You might have two ideas in mind, neither of which is necessarily exclusive of the other: First, do some good; and second, make sure that money keeps growing,” Arik Hesseldahl writes for BusinessWeek.
“It’s the kind of question that the financial minds over at Apple (AAPL) have to consider, for that is about the amount of cash the company had on its balance sheet the last time it reported earnings on Jan 17,” Hesseldahl writes.
Hesseldahl writes, “If the last year is any judge, Apple’s cash position—the combination of its cash on hand and short-term investments that can quickly be converted to cash—is growing at a rate of about a billion and change per quarter. It’s high time Apple spread some of that cash around, and I think one good way to start would be to launch a venture capital fund.”
Full article here.
Keep $2 billion on hand, pay $500 per Windows machine with the purchase of a new Mac (one per family), and net 20 million switchers – doubling the Mac OS X user base – before the start of summer?
…adobe
Developers would welcome an Apple Venture Fund, if the developers’ lawyers are skillful.
What about a dividend for the shareholders?
Buy RealPlayer and kill it.
“It’s high time Apple spread some of that cash around…”. Everyone wants to tell Apple what to do. Unbelievable.
Give it to me, I’d say.
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”tongue wink” style=”border:0;” />
MDN MW: “TRYING”, as in trying to get rich the quick and easy way
Buy Adobe and halt all PC support. just my2¢
One thing I don’t want to see Apple do is hand that money back to share holders in the form of a divident payment. If you want a “dividend” payment, invest in a utility company. Apple is a forward thinking growth stock, not a settled into a rut divident payment company.
If they do anythinig at all with that money it should be to push the envelope forward in markets that they are already doing well in, or that make sense along side what they are already working on. Namely multimedia, music, movies, digital content creation distribution and consumer markets.
Stuff like Apple TV and iPod and iPhone and things that make sense to go along with them.
Buying Adobe I don’t think makes sense for Apple right now, maybe someday but I think Apples efforts and money are better spent elsewhere, currently.
Huh? Start a VC fund? Puleeze. Right now the VC marketplace is flooded with money. What Hesseldahl suggests is called “deworsification” by investment genius Peter Lynch. Companies do best when they stick to their knitting. $12 billion might sound like a lot to you and me, but put this in perspective to Apple’s sales and earnings. That $12 billion is an insurance policy that keeps Wall Street more at ease. If not for a good pile of cash at the company’s low point in the 90s, Apple could have collapsed before Steve Jobs came back and resurrected the company.
Ask any successful investor or CFO and they will tell you: cash is king. It’s the first thing anyone looks at on the balance sheet, the second being long-term debt. Yes, it would be great to see Apple start paying out dividends. That often helps a stock as an investment, and in fact, many of the best stocks for long-term holdings are those with strong dividends. But in Apple’s case, don’t hold your breath.
Something tells me that Mr. Hesseldahl was looking for something for his Thursday column deadline.
In short: there’s nothing to see here, folks. Please move along.
Open a North Carolina Development office!
“It’s the kind of question that the financial minds over at Apple (AAPL) have to consider”
He states this fact as if Apple’s financial team, Steve, etc. woke up one day and said, “Holy buckets, we’ve got a lot of money in the checking account!”
I’m sure Apple does a lot of good work that doesn’t get publicized, and quite frankly, what Apple does with its money is Apple’s business. Apple obviously spends plenty on R&D, so the real issue is how much does Apple want to have in the bank as a war chest?
Better hold on to some of that (okay, most of it) for future law suits.
Step 1 : Buy Autodesk.
Step 2: Make a Mac version of Autocad.
Step 3: Sell Autodesk for a substantial gain, but retain a significant share and a seat on the board.
Step 4: Watch architects and designers worldwide flock to the Mac platform.
I am still sad Apple didn’t buy Macromedia. At least they could buy Corel for 305 Millions (a bargain) and Creative. Buying Autodesk would be a dream come true, the 30″ display will be out of stock in a months. Most of my friends with macs are still using Windows for two reasons:
1. AutoCAD
2. AnyDVD & CloneDVD
They should do a mega Naming Rights deal for a new stadium (in Europe) to reinforce their presence here.
Then with the rest they should pay back their shareholders
No foolish acquisitions please
Just a thought
Java
Buy Adobe and use it as leverage over Microsoft’s head.
@ buy…
I think my brain would explode.
Here’s a suggestion that will warm the hearts of all long term Apple employees:
Set aside a cool million dollars as an investment trust for each employee with over 15 years of service with the company. After they complete 20 years, they are fully vested with the trust and can begin to draw on the interest generated by the trust starting on their 62nd birthday.
The employee will then receive a lifetime pension from Apple based on the annual interest generated by the trust (probably at least sixty thousand a year) until their death. When the employee dies, the original million goes back into the pool for the next employee who becomes eligible.
With twelve billion in the bank, Apple could easily set aside four billion for the current day employees. This would fund four thousand Apple careerists upon their retirement, and four thousand more after they die, and four thousand more after they die, and so on.
This would not reduce the Apple’s total amount in the bank by one penny, and would likely increase employee retention enormously. Apple’s desirability as a place to work would climb even higher, making it easier for them to hire (and keep) the best and the brightest from all over the world.
Heck, Steve-o alone could fund three thousand pensions on this plan out of his own pocket and still be one of the richest people in the country for the rest of his life.
Yes. Buy Adobe. Buy Adobe. Buy Adobe.
Can you imagine the shock if Microsoft makes a surprise deal to buy them?
Protect yourself (and us), Apple.
Buy Adobe.
(And open an Apple Store in Alaska, with the pittance that will be left.)
Buy RIM, PocketMac and LG phone division. Sell iPhones as highest end, Blackberrys as middle and Chocolate as low-end phones. Add iTunes capabilities to all phones.
Does Apple *need* to increase employee retention? From what I hear it’s a pretty fantastic place to work. So is Adobe, BTW.
C’mon now, $12 Billion wouldn’t be enough to buy Adobe. Sorry folks, but they’re actually worth $23.1 Billion as of midday anyway.
I think the acquisition of Adobe would be an absolute coup for Apple.
how much would Adobe cost? that would be great if they could buy them.
How Bizarre !!!
>>>>>>>>>>
MacDailyNews Take: Keep $2 billion on hand, pay $500 per Windows machine with the purchase of a new Mac (one per family), and net 20 million switchers – doubling the Mac OS X user base – before the start of summer?
<<<<<<<<<<
I posted something in jest at arstechnica almost two years ago suggesting something very similar …
>>>>>>>>>>
http://arstechnica.com/journals/apple.ars/2005/6/3/444
…
Posted June 03, 2005 @ 8:03PM by Scott Schor
Prognostications:
…
4. iDeal promotions – trade in your old win98 or win2000 towers with original install disks plus $350 and receive new mac-mini in return. You are immediately qualified as a participant in a class action lawsuit against the original issuers of the license disks. (I think the legal argument might be … the license was only for one workstation, not all of the phishers, scammers and other sinister intruders allowed onto your private computer space due to defects in manufacturing of the original licensed software. Note: I’m not a lawyer and clearly I haven’t thought this one all the way through.) Apple can resell the old towers to fortune 1000 companies still too timid to rid themselves of their original investments in hardware, hopefully covering costs with a small profit.
<<<<<<<<<<
Kreskin?
Who knew?