“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?
“They should do a mega Naming Rights deal for a new stadium (in Europe) to reinforce their presence here.
Formula-1 auto racing sponsorship, global presence and by far the most watched international sport. I can see the Macintosh-Apple Red Ferrari now.
MW-perform.
Donate to the Gates Foundation
What would I do with 12bil?
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Jessica Alba
If it is on deposit or on loan in US denominated securities they are losing money every time the $ declines relative to other securities. Putting some or all of it into precious metals wouldn’t be a bad idea right about now.
Buying AutoDesk and merging it with Apple-owned FileMaker wouldn’t be a bad idea.
Buy Adobe. Please, even just a tiny tiny piece of it!
They need that cash to make sure another company can’t buy them!!!! If apple was without that cash google could try a hostile takeover.
Buy the PS3… I’m sure they can afford it.
Feed, shelter and clothe the kajillion people on this earth that are in need.
What a novel thought.
Hg Wells sais it… open an Alaska store.
An Apple Store in Fairbanks would be perfect way to spend the looong winter.
1. Merge with Google.
2. Buy Dell.
3. Chop up Dell. Sell the parts. Refund the shareholders.
Keep the cash growing. Apple’s pile may be large, but a bigger company could try some sort of hostile takeover. They need to prevent that and have enough extra to buy me something cute for the prom.
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Pay for that new insanely great Apple complex expansion in Cupertino and give your creative teams room to breath. Expand into one product and market at a time in a slow but smart way.
Oh cool, they’re already doing that.
Then buy some small country, for the heck of it.
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1. buy Adobe
2. more Apple Stores
3. deeper and wider presence in Europe
[4. find new ways to market Macintosh user experience] [optional]
MW: can [as in: can be done]?
Caleb,
You mean buy “a” PS3. That wouldn’t leave much.
$500 each is a bit too much, but here’s what I’d do…
I’d give a $300 credit toward the purchase of any new Mac (limit one $300 credit per household please
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”wink” style=”border:0;” /> ) if they brought in any functioning Windows PC (i.e. it will at least power up, if it’s virus infested that’s absolutely OK)<u>along with</u> the original Windows install discs that came with it.
I’d also offer a $50 credit toward any future Apple Store purchase if customers simply brought in any legitimate original retail Windows 2000 or XP install CD (sorry, OEM versions or copies are not accepted). Again, limit one per customer please.
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All of the PCs and the Windows install CDs that were brought in by the customers would then be immediately destroyed and sent to a recycling center.
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Pay people to switch to the Mac? Yah, that’s low… we don’t need bribery. People need to make the choice for themselves.
Buy the BBC and kill its sycophantic lapdance with MS.
Simple.
Give it all to me.
Yah Baby!
Buy Adobe and/or the knowledge to develop a macbased ERP system to penetrate the corporate market……a Apple Navision or SAP system….but then different, very different!
MacB
I like the $500 for a windows machine…
I need a new iMac and could use the discount
set aside a small portion and give a raise to U,S. based employees and to the slaves in China assemblying apple products.
How about Nintendo?
Those Wiimote patents probably look pretty tasty.
1. Keep R&D investments strong, funding the best ideas for production.
2. Continue to invest in Apple Stores.
3. Spend a bit picking up companies that are a good fit and will add significantly to the company.
4. Send some of the EOL Macs & iPods (plus some from the refurbished inventory) to the wounded solders going through long rehab for lost limbs, etc. in the military & VA hospitals. The cost for that would be far cheaper than the price those guys & gals have paid.
5. Keep MOST of the case, however, for downturns in the market. Also, the world today is rather fragile, especially with terrorists growing day by day. A company that has strong cash holdings will be able to survive another 9/11 – or something worse. Those with weak cash holdings are going to be lucky to survive. I would put this as priority one.
I’ve said it before:
AutoCAD (maybe SolidWorks)
AND
Adobe
Those two would be a nail in the coffin for Microsoft’s dominance. Instantly Apple would have the “business” street cred it so needs to be adopted by all those reluctant IT departments. Whether they want them or not. AutoCAD more so than Adobe.
Hey, I have an idea!!!
Milk the Mac for what it’s worth and give the stockholders his money back!!