Fortune Ponders Apple's $15 Billion Cash
Fortune Ponders Apple's $15 Billion Cash
by , 2:50 PM EST, December 7th, 2007
Apple has US$15.4B in cash. One has to start wondering what Apple will do with it, according to Fortune on Friday. Apple has made some small aquisitions on the past, however, that $15B could buy a lot.
Unlike some of the other big technology companies, like Microsoft, Apple doesn't pay dividends on its stock. So the money just keeps accumulating.
One clue would be to look at history. Apple has purchased some smaller companies to buy its way into key technology markets: PowerSchool for education and Emagic, a video effects company. Some of those acquisitions have not paid off, and Apple sold PowerSchool last year.
Another option is to buy back stock, but Apple has only set aside US$500M for that and spent only $217M of it, a small fraction of its cash. An often overlooked project is Apple's consolidated new offices which could cost $500M when completed.
A final possibility is that Steve Jobs could think big. "Consider this," Fortune proposed. "Just for kicks, with the money burning a hole in Apple’s pocket, he could easily buy TiVo, Netflix and Circuit City, and still have plenty left in the bank."
TMO notes, however, that Apple will probably focus on companies that know how to make big money, not lose it.
Observer Comments
Fri Dec 07, 2007 4:11 pm Subject: Buy me a 8-core Mac Pro
Sun Dec 09, 2007 3:27 pm Subject: Apple should buy Adobe!
Apple should buy Adobe.
The best way to guarantee the survival of the Mac platform and OS 10 revenue is to create a solid deterrent to Microsoft's possible threat to stop producing Office for Mac.
"You're going to stop offering Office on the Mac platform? Fine. We'll stop offering Photoshop and Dreamweaver on the PC Platform."
Owning Adobe would allow Apple to say this, effectively neutralizing the potential death threat that Microsoft now holds over Apple's head with regard to the Mac platform.
I can't think of a better way to secure the Mac's future against the MS threat that'll always be there unless and until Apple has the ability to counter with a similar threat of their own to aim at the PC platform.
How much could Adobe cost? Surely, with $15B+ in the bank, Apple can afford it ... and wouldn't it be a good investment, anyway?
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