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posted by martyb on Tuesday May 02 2017, @08:36AM   Printer-friendly
from the could-give-$33-to-every-single-person-in-the-world dept.

https://arstechnica.com/apple/2017/05/apple-has-a-record-250-billion-in-the-bank/

When it reports its quarterly financial results on Tuesday, Apple will likely have a quarter-trillion dollars in cash in the bank.

That's a greater hoard than any other company in recent US history, according to The Wall Street Journal, which reported the numbers on Sunday. For comparison, Apple's cash pile exceeds the market value of Walmart and Procter & Gamble. The sum is more than the foreign cash reserves of the UK and Canada combined.

Some 93 percent of the company's cash and other liquid assets are kept overseas. The Trump administration has proposed a tax holiday to encourage companies to bring money back to the US, as well as a lower corporate tax rate, fueling more speculation about how Apple will use its money. Apple CEO Tim Cook has said he's interested in moving some of the company's cash stateside if tax conditions are right.

The article speculates about Apple buying another company, such as Tesla, Netflix, or Walt Disney.

From the WSJ article:

Mr. Cook has been somewhat more accommodating of shareholder desires than his predecessor. He started a dividend-and-stock-buyback program in 2012 that has since sent more than $200 billion to shareholders. And he has invested more in some areas, such as R&D.

But the CEO also stared down Carl Icahn in 2013 and 2014 when the activist investor bought a stake in Apple and demanded it increase buybacks. And Apple remains frugal in other realms, such as marketing. It spent less than $1.8 billion on advertising last year -- not even half the amounts laid out by smaller rivals Alphabet Inc. and Amazon.com Inc., according to company filings.

Apple also avoids large acquisitions. It bought at a rate of 15 to 20 companies a year over the past four years, generally spending several hundred million dollars on companies it can easily assimilate. Its biggest deal was the $3 billion it spent to buy Beats Electronics LLC in 2014.

The swelling war chest has fueled hopes for bigger deals to vault Apple in new directions such as self-driving cars and entertainment. At Apple's 2015 shareholder meeting, one investor asked Mr. Cook about buying Tesla Inc., which today is valued around $51 billion. The CEO didn't directly respond.


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  • (Score: 2) by bob_super on Tuesday May 02 2017, @05:18PM (5 children)

    by bob_super (1357) on Tuesday May 02 2017, @05:18PM (#502959)

    BMW would match their customers, but they are not for sale (special legal status keeps German control)
    Ferrari would match their marketing, but not their volumes.
    Tesla would match their tech ideals, but they committed the unforgivable sin of opening their patents ...

    Jaguar, maybe? Prestigious brand with major outsourcing connections...

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  • (Score: 2) by Nerdfest on Tuesday May 02 2017, @06:02PM (3 children)

    by Nerdfest (80) on Tuesday May 02 2017, @06:02PM (#502984)

    There are a lot of people who would not buy a Tesla if Apple owned the company.

    • (Score: 2) by fyngyrz on Tuesday May 02 2017, @06:25PM (2 children)

      by fyngyrz (6567) on Tuesday May 02 2017, @06:25PM (#503010) Journal

      There are a lot of people who would not buy a Tesla if Apple owned the company.

      Yes, but there are a lot of people who would buy a Tesla because Apple owned the company.

      That's one of the reasons why Apple has all that money in the bank.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 02 2017, @08:24PM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 02 2017, @08:24PM (#503116)

        yep, it's a pitiful thing that people are such ignorant slaves that apple is so successful. It says a lot about the shitty education around the world too if people are so dumb.

        • (Score: 3, Insightful) by fyngyrz on Tuesday May 02 2017, @09:22PM

          by fyngyrz (6567) on Tuesday May 02 2017, @09:22PM (#503172) Journal

          it's a pitiful thing that people are such ignorant slaves that apple is so successful. It says a lot about the shitty education around the world too if people are so dumb.

          You are mistaken if you think that's the only reason Apple is successful.

          I'm very happy with, and productive using, my Mac, which is a 12/24 core, 3 GHz, 64 GB tower with four big drives. I've got one ethernet port tied directly to my SDR, and the other on the LAN->WAN. I have lots of bright, clear, accurate monitors, a great keyboard and mouse, a raft of cool USB stuff, fabulous audio, the system is very stable, and I have all the software I need to do cross-platform development of some seriously high-performance applications. Apple made most of that happen, and made the rest possible.

          Is "just because it's Apple" sufficient? No. And I whole-heartedly agree, if that's all you have, you don't have much, or perhaps, anything. But Apple has (okay, had, in the case of the Mac Pro) things to offer that have value to some of us. That includes iOS and OS X / macOS and their respective application ecologies. It's not all "Apple customers are stupid", no matter how much you'd like it to be.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 03 2017, @01:14AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 03 2017, @01:14AM (#503380)

    I'm sure you are correct that, on paper, BMW is not for sale. On the other hand, if Cook made the right offer to the controlling Quandt family, that paper might be conveniently forgotten? For just one link, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_Quandt#Post-war_business_activities [wikipedia.org] Judging from a very small sample of people I know that have recent BMWs, the cars could use a big dose of quality control--these are very nice cars but they are in the shop all the time.

    Someone else mentioned JaguarLandRover (JLR) which is now owned by Tata, from India https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaguar_Land_Rover [wikipedia.org] I think the bosses at Tata like owning a chunk of British luxury. Turnabout is fair play?