MacDailyNews - Where Mac news comes first

How about using the money to further build the company's infrastructure, stores, advertising, new product development, promising acquisitions and by the way, to hammer any patent violators into the ground so hard and fast that they can't breathe.

Give all the money to meeeeeee!

Feb 28, 08 - 10:30 am Comment from: auren

"its lack of plans for its cash is starting to ring hollow."

Interesting article, unitl this last statement. Does anyone honestly think that a company like Apple would NOT have plans for $18.5 B?

Get real here folks, do you think Steve Jobs is going to wake up some morning and say 'oh, shit' I forgot about the cash reserves, maybe we ought to think of something to do with it?'

The real statement here is that Apple hasn't gone PUBLIC with its intentions, and that's just the way Apple plays the game.

What an ultra- Maroon! as Bugs Bunny would say. A stock buyback us usually used when the company is floundering and needs to float the stock quickly.

Apple has been doing everything right. I am not sure who is keeping the stock price low, but thanks to them, I was able to buy a few shares at way lower than what it was.

Just a thought.

A dividend would be better. There is scant evidence that buy-backs enhance shareholder value.

Buy-backs are a sign of a company in its decline.

Yeah, this is just more armchair analysis from people with their own agendas, and more importantly, pages to fill.

Apple needs to quickly expand at this point, not waste the biggest pile of cash in the companies history by giving it back to the investors to spend on more beamers and trips to Spain.

Feb 28, 08 - 10:35 am Comment from: IKON

$21 per share is peanuts, you'll see.

Not this crap again.

Apple should do this. Apple should do that. Apple should buy this. Apple should sell that. If I have to suffer through one more article by some self-important asshat pundit, I'll hurl chunks.

There's a good reason why Arik Hessendahl is a writer, not a corporate CEO. He couldn't cut it in that world. So even though he's never been a CEO or CFO of a Fortune 500 corporation, he and others like him feel they know everything and can make judgments on what Apple should do. In response, I have this to say:

F*ck you, Arik, and others like you.

Apple has succeeded brilliantly by creating markets on its own. The company is growing because of innovation and creativity, not by making large, typically disastrous acquisitions and mergers that are full of "synergies" and usually end up with companies led off the track of what they do best, lost profits and wasted corporate equity. (Maybe that's why Microsoft's desire to acquire Yahoo doesn't worry me - I see a train wreck coming. Obviously, Arik and those like him don't.) Investment genius Peter Lynch calls it deworsification.

When Apple has made acquisitions, they have typically been with small companies in which the news seemed hardly noteworthy. But if you look at the various acquisitions Apple has made over the years, they have been typically opportunities to buy technology and knowledge on the cheap that the company has turned into huge profits. As an investor, THAT is the kind of strategy I want to see a company follow. The pundits and journalists want the big sexy mergers that make for great headlines. But if you look at these celebrity marriages, they typically last as long as Eddie Murphy's last one. By then, Arik and his comrades have moved on to the next big story to hype. Yep, synergy. That's what we need.

Eighteen billion sounds like a lot. But if you factor in the strength of the dollar, or the lack thereof, in real terms, that amount is not really much different than the traditional $4-5 billion that Apple once had in its coffers. Cash is king, and a company with no debt and a lot of real cash on their books is not only a far better investment, but also positioned to ride terrible storms that could hit any company. It happened once to Apple. Perhaps old scars don't heal easily.

I hope Steve Jobs and Peter Oppenheimer laugh at the Arik Hessendahls of this world. When we look back, I think they'll be vindicated.

nothing wrong with a buyback - a smart co. knows when it is undevalued and greattimeto reward the shareholders - keep in mind SJ expressed deep concern in a n open letter about the losses to investors and employees. IBM is notin decline and it did it - also iPhone subscription is bringing in significant cash flow - time for a buyback i say!!!!!

Stock holders own a company.

How much of the profit that Apple reports each quarter is to the interest off its cash hoard? In other words, without the cash hoard profits would Apple be not looking so pretty?

All this money sitting around shows that Jobs can´t figure out how to grow the company faster. I am sure there are lots of CEOs out there that could figure out how to make more ROI using $18 billion than putting it in CDs in a bank.

while i see a buyback at as a lesser option (as was already stated it signals a company in decline and the postive effect on the stockprice is not certain) i see apple starting to pay dividends as a better way to increase stockholder-value. any mature company does it. share your revenue with your shareholders. at a rate of say 30% of each quarters earnings apple could make their stockholders more happy, likely increase the stockprice and still acumulate roughly one billion each quarter for the major acquisition they are obviously planing.

@Bite me Arik: "But if you factor in the strength of the dollar, or the lack thereof, in real terms, that amount is not really much different than the traditional $4-5 billion that Apple once had in its coffers"

LOL. $18.5 billion = $4-5 billion.
Pure genius....not.
To paraphrase your words: "If I have to suffer through one more reader feedback by some self-important asshat pundit, I'll hurl chunks."

Apple needs to cash on hand to take advantage of strategic opportunities, defend against frivolous lawsuits, etc. In a fast changing tech space it is moronic for a company to be fully invested and not liquid... and that goes for your own stock portfolio... you need to have 10-20% of your portfolio in cash or you are making a classic amateur investor mistake.

sorry, i wanted to say: share your earnings ...

Simply AIN"T GONNA HAPPEN...and rumors of this create expectations and hurt the stock in the long run.
I can see more investment in R&D;while keeping only a few irons in the fire.
Make Japan's standards happy with a huge iPhone upgrade and release it there.

how about pay their employees more??

and sure apple needs to have a lot of cash on hands for whatever happens, but 20bn? that is ridicilious. i don't not what they want to buy (i hope it is sony ) if they don't plan to buy something give at least 50% of that money to your stockholders. it is theirs anyway. sometimes the management of some companies (looking at you apple) seems to forget that.

Apple has always had a cash hoard. Apple's prior cash hoard is the only reason it is still in existance.

Feb 28, 08 - 11:18 am Comment from: OZZ

My Time Capsule now shipping. Italy...

I think Apple should announce all of their possible acquisitions right now. That way the stock holders will know what plans Apple has for this huge stockpile of cash.

Oh, wait! If everyone knows the targets, then the price of the targets will go through the roof.

Maybe that's why Apple is keeping future acquisitions a big secret.

DUH!

In 2 years from now .... Apples own telecomsystem in space.

Feb 28, 08 - 11:33 am Comment from: Tommy Boy

<font size=+3>STOCK BUYBACKS ARE FOOLISH WASTE OF MONEY!</font>

Buybacks only benefit short-term investors who are looking to cash out. Dividends reward long-term investors who show faith in a company.

These business types are like the Missouri River- they are wide but are as shallow as a mud puddle.

Apple's reserve is largely in real estate and other investments. To leave it in US $ would be insane. Unlike the residential market, the commercial Real Estate market is doing fine.

What you have is a bunch of day traders and stock flippers dying for a hit in a down market. These people are not investors, care nothing about the company or it's customers and would short-sell their sister if they could.

eff em.

Ditto what "Bite Me Arik" said. There isn't a management team on the planet to match what Apple's team has accomplished in the last 11 years. Being second guessed by a journalism major is ludicrous.

To be fair, I don't know if Hesseldahl is an Apple fanboi, neutral, or rabid hater, but it doesn't really matter. He, along with 95% of all the tech writers, pundits, analists, and so called journalists are NOT on the Apple Board of Directors. They don't know whats going on.

Just dig back through any of their past crap like iPod is doomed, iTunes MS will close after one year, iPhone is fatally flawed, blah blah blah. Looking at their past and current inability to accurately predict or forecast ANYTHNG about Apple will let you know, they have no clue about what Apple should do with their cash.

Remember the .com bubble burst economy wrecking fall out at almost at the same time as 911? Apple kept introducing amazing products, and upped their R&D;efforts. These same self proclaimed experts said that it was a stupid use of their money since the economy was slow. That same R&D;and new product development during a slow economy laid the foundation for todays success.

Using that as a model, if our economy really is slowing, (thats still debatable at this point) Apple needs to really kick up their R&D;into overdrive, to put them that much MORE ahead of companies who are scaling back R&D;.

Apple knows what they are doing. And the entire share buy back is the biggest load of FUD I've heard in a while.

Manage the top line and the bottom line will follow. Apple will use it's money to keep creating beautiful products.

DO NOT WORRY ABOUT THE CASH. APPLE KNOWS WHAT IT IS DOING.

Well said 'Bite Me Arik'

F*ck ALL these self important armchair critics that have these "bright" ideas for a company that is being hugely successful..

They should all shut up and put their heads back into their necks.

Feb 28, 08 - 11:57 am Comment from: aaplsaur

A share buyback would not benefit Apple or investors. If investors want to sell their shares, they have had plenty of opportunities to do so. The only two options that make sense to me are to continue hoarding cash until the appropriate investments are mature, whether they be new product ideas or corporate acquisitions, or to pay small dividends. The shareholders do own the company and voting shareholders may eventually elect a board that is likely to return some of the profit made from investors investments.

I think they should hold on to as much cash as possible to strengthen the company in the market. Not the stock market, the electronics market.

Pan Ik said
"Stock holders own a company.

How much of the profit that Apple reports each quarter is to the interest off its cash hoard? In other words, without the cash hoard profits would Apple be not looking so pretty?

All this money sitting around shows that Jobs can´t figure out how to grow the company faster. I am sure there are lots of CEOs out there that could figure out how to make more ROI using $18 billion than putting it in CDs in a bank."


What a load..... Stock holders may own the company, but that doesn't mean they know how to run it. They are investing (In any company, not just Apple) their trust that the CEO and board know what they are doing.

Which CEOs could do better? Mikey Dell? Mark Hurd? not likely.

Seen that!?! NASDAQ goes down... and Apple up !??!
Strange logic...

Feb 28, 08 - 12:18 pm Comment from: ericdano

Steve Jobs plans on buying the state of California, and then succeed from the rest of the Union. Then, he can impose a Microsoft stupidity tax on Microsoft hardware and software, and he will also be the new country where most all of the world's tech movers and shakers live. It will be good. The country of Appletopia.

Feb 28, 08 - 12:19 pm Comment from: ken1w

> its lack of plans for its cash is starting to ring hollow

How does he know there is a "lack of plans"?

Feb 28, 08 - 12:41 pm Comment from: silverwarloc

@ken1w:

You're right on the money!

Feb 28, 08 - 01:36 pm Comment from: Mac-nugget

And is less then each of the Waltons have in the bank. Wal-mart, sell cheep, sell a lot.

Feb 28, 08 - 01:40 pm Comment from: Demon

Tech companies do not pay dividends in general terms. Stock buy backs drain cash reserves and annoy long term investors (short term investors profit). Apple is too well managed to not have plans for the cash they have. Apple like most companies in Tech will not take on debt unless it has too. Apple should as a matter of good business have about a 10 Billion Dollar cash reserve. When in reality means they have about 8-10 Billion spendable cash 8-10 billion is chump change in Tech dollar terms. 10 Billion doesn't buy you enough R&D;to design a new vibro from the stock wanker's bird.

Feb 28, 08 - 01:48 pm Comment from: Charel

So all you bright sparks, clamoring foe a buyback or dividend know better than Apple what to do with the money and how to get a better return. Well, bless you my angels, but I am not convinced.

Therefor, let Apple keep its cash for a little while longer and make all its shareholders a bit richer before you clamor for a refund.

Feb 28, 08 - 02:11 pm Comment from: Tyler

Wow, it's kinda ironic when you read a mac-fan-boy site for investing advise. I never advise anyone to do that.

Apple stock has been killed over the past 2.5 months. Everyone knows this. (There are a lot of reasons this happened, some of which Apple has no control over, such as the market in general.)The author is right in sense - A buy back program would boost stock price. About every company I invest in has a stock buy back program. Some big, some as small as buying back 1 million shares per quarter(regardless of stock price). Apple could probably care less what anyone on this forum writes/thinks becasue we don't have 100s of millions invested like big investment companies. If Apple wants a lot of those investors to stick around, and also get new investors, a buy back program sends out the message that Apple is going places - I am so sure of it I am going to put X money back into stock of my OWN company. Investors like to see things like this. I don't think the Author was talking about Apple spending 18 Billion on apple stock - That would be terrible. I actually would not be supprised if Apple doesn't start a buy back program over X amount of years - If there isn't one already in place.

Granted I am a mac fan and have always been - But some people on this site need to chill the F out, and think with common sense - Or at least reaserach something before you write your ignorant comments.

18.5 billion a lot of money? Anyone remember when the Pentagon announced they couldn't locate another 2.3 TRILLION. No? thought not, coincidentally (or not) it got buried by the next day's news.