“Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer’s quip that Google is spending ‘a lot of money’ on its proposed acquisition of Motorola Mobility is not simply a catty remark, nor does it merely reflect a philosophical difference between the two companies, as CFO Journal suggested Thursday,” Michael Hickins writes for The Wall Street Journal.
“Oppenheimer’s remark is aimed directly at one of Google’s principal assets – its share price. In essence, Oppenheimer was telling Google shareholders that its management had overspent for this acquisition; if its shareholders agree, Google management would have one slightly less effective weapon in its arsenal,” Hickins writes. “Even in an all-cash deal where the acquiring company’s share price doesn’t directly come into play, buying a company with a higher P/E multiple would be dilutive to the acquirer’s earnings, and thus markedly less attractive to shareholders.”
Full article here.
Related article:
Apple CFO Oppenheimer says Google spent ‘a lot of money’ on Motorola Mobility – August 17, 2011
I knew it, Apple is EVIL!
The expression is ‘overreaching itself in a panic buy’.
Google is successful because of a canny monetisation of a clever idea. It is not a well-run company and it has no business intelligence in the sense of true smarts.
They subscribe fully to the false doctrine of ‘Information wants to be free’ and so stealing others’ ideas is cool and a valiant liberation of good stuff. How easy it is to steal the work of others’ imagination and investment and then give it away free to gullible retards who think you are splendid guys for doing so?
Google sells it MO as ubercool until you challenge them on their ethics or test the strength of their underpinnings. Then they bleat like silly cry-babies. Boo Hoo. Woe is me. All the world is trying to get me.
I’m not interested in seeing Google’s share price slip back to Apple’s current share price. That does nothing for me as a shareholder. I honestly expected Apple’s share price to rise to meet Google’s share price but I can see that isn’t going to happen as Apple’s share price continues to retreat in the opposite direction.
Even as Apple continues to grab market share, cause rival companies to collapse and cause rivals to be stuck with unsold products, Apple share price still doesn’t advance. It appears to be a no win situation for Apple shareholders no matter what the company achieves.
To heck with Google. They’re throwing away money and it only makes sense that their share price is collapsing but with Apple it’s is a completely different situation with the same results.
Check back in about 30-45 days. AAPL will be up nicely. But I’m with you, it’s price is getting harder and harder to move up unless it’s earnings time. It does have enough things going in it’s favor to carry it for a couple of years easily. IPad,iPhone,Mac’s,iPod,China,Apple Stores,cloud, maybe tv, etc. and probably something completely new that will blow everybody away. And don’t forget the Orgazmatron!
Errr…. did I miss something. What happened to the title topic?
Share price is just a marker of perceived value. Google has far fewer (323M +/-) shares than Apple (927M +/-). If Google had as many shares in circulation as Apple, you would have to divide its share price by 2.86 approx. At a current price of $510 per share, such a dilution would result in a share price of $178.
By the same token, if Apple had only the 323M shares floating out there, its share price would be 2.86x higher. based on a current price of, say, $360; Apple shares would be worth $1029.
Could be but so many analysts have made this observation that I don’t know why his carries any more weight. I do believe that he and all the other analysts are correct but GOOG did have to make a move somehow. This just may have not been the best move. But time will tell. Maybe GOOG will come out of this better than we think? Their stock is down about a hundy in the last month or so. It is up today on a suckers bounce. AAPL is down today and I’m quite ready for it to start moving on up? It’s time!
If the economy levels out and starts to grow again, yeah. Otherwise it’s going to swirl the bowl just like the rest of the stock market.
Well it sure sucks today. Has been doing poorly compared to many tech stocks for a while other than at earnings. I believe like many, that it’s a stock that is manipulated. And I don’t mean heavily traded in blocks by mutual funds and hedge funds. Manipulated as in the super computer trading in milliseconds. Tough for the average retail trader or professional trader to fight and win.
blah blah blah…
Apple will reach Google’s record high before Google reaches $1000…
Apple is a $1000 stock
The gap between Apple and Google stock price is closing.
Regardless of the relationship between the price and the number of outstanding shares each company has.
Michael Hickins of The Wall Street Journal must be grinning about now. He takes a simple statement of fact voiced by Peter Oppenheimer, and weaves a wild story of a conspiracy by Apple to pull down Google’s share price. And you all are chittering about the ramifications as if there is a shred of validity to the basis of this fabricated story. The facts are this: Google DID spend a lot of money on Moto; and Oppenheimer said as much in response to a question about the acquisition. No grand plan. No conspiracy. Only another reporter needing to file a story.
+1
You’d think recent events alone would make for exciting reporting. But apparently Mr. Hickins isn’t excited enough by the facts, and feels the need to layer some fiction on top of it.
I’m with you. All he said was it’s a lot of money. He didn’t say it was too much money, only that $12.5 B, which, last I checked, was a lot of money.