“Fourteen billion dollars. For some countries, that exceeds the annual GDP, dwarfing the value of all goods and services produced over the course of an entire year,” Marcus Wohlsen writes for Wired. “This is part of a larger repurchasing plan meant to shore up its share price and show investors it’s actually doing something with the nearly $160 billion in cash parked in its bank account.”
“But what investors really want is something new,” Wohlsen writes. “Apple’s share price has dropped in part because of ongoing concerns that its innovation engine is sputtering. After birthing new product categories with the iPod, iPhone, and iPad, Apple has gone several years without creating something truly original.”
MacDailyNews Take:
• iPhone was released 5 years, 7 months, and 19 days after iPod.
• iPad was released 2 years, 9 months, and 5 days after iPhone.
• Tim Cook has been Apple CEO for 2 years, 5 months, and 18 days.
“But what if, instead of struggling to invent its way to its next big thing, Apple simply bought it?” Wohlsen wonders, “If you’re reading, Tim Cook, we have a few suggestions.”
Wired‘s 10 companies Apple could acquire instead of buying back all that stock:
• Tesla
• Dropbox
• Uber
• Square
• Jawbone
• GoPro
• SpaceX
• FedEx
• Target
• Luxembourg
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]