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Thursday, July 21, 2011

Apple's $76B Question: What to Do With the Cash?

Apple announced its quarterly earnings Tuesday, and -- big surprise -- they were stellar. But one of the numbers not discussed much in analysis of its results was the more than $76 billion Apple holds on its balance sheet. This includes $12.1 billion in cash and cash equivalents, $16.3 billion in marketable securities, and $47.8 billion in long-term marketable securities. More remarkable still is that, based onApple's earnings, that figure could reach $100 billion by year's end -- after all, the upcoming two quarters include back-to-school and the holiday season.


What Apple will do with all of that money has been discussed for two or three years as the balance has grown. Apple has made few acquisitions of any size. Its stock rose to near $400 after it released results. With a market cap in excess of $360 billion, it could easily use its stock as currency if it wanted to purchase of another large company.

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4 comments:

Fruitland Generic Citizen said...

I'll tell you what they WON'T do - pay taxes on it. All with the blessing of Congressional Republicans.

But we must cut Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security to make sure Apple, GE, Band of America and other U.S. corporations don't pay a dime in taxes.

G. A. Harrison said...

Fruitland Generic Citizen -

They've already paid taxes on it! This is cash, not earnings!

Call Obama. He'll send you some more of that funny money!

Anonymous said...

Maybe they can make an iPhone screen that doesn't shatter when you drop it.

Anonymous said...

3:13
So by youy reasoning, we should tax all of apples earnings because they are inovative and people desire their products.
What would be their reason to invest in any new inovative products if they don't have the money due to taxes and they won't realize a gain due to taxes?
Think about what your saying man!