3 ms·

Apple still have $233,000,000,000 in the bank. More than the federal reserve, more than Google, Microsoft, and Facebook combined. They could buy their way out

Apple still have $233,000,000,000 in the bank. More than the federal reserve, more than Google, Microsoft, and Facebook combined. They could buy their way out of this I am pretty sure.

tcoppi 11y ago
Buy their way out of it? How? They obviously don't have anything profitable to invest their excess cash in, since it is either sitting in the bank or going to stock buybacks or dividend increases.
- ThomPete 11y ago
  http://www.marketwatch.com/story/apple-hints-at-big-acquisition-to-cure-growth-ills-2016-04-26 http://www.marketwatch.com/story/apple-hints-at-big-acquisit...
  - tcoppi 11y ago
    Yeah, because Beats has been working out so well for them. If they could get something to improve their cloud services competitiveness vs Google, maybe something like Dropbox, I could see that helping them long-term. Otherwise I don't think anything they could acquire would be anything more than a play at becoming a conglomerate ala GE at this point, there simply aren't many companies with a proven core product out there that can help Apple get out of this mess, except by expanding outward. Not that there is anything wrong with being a conglomerate, Alphabet/Google is basically on its way to becoming one too, and GE is wildly profitable, I just don't see Apple playing well in that space. They need to concentrate on something.
    - ThomPete 11y ago
      It worked fine for MS. I think Apple have no where to go than to buy companies. In fact most of their revolutionary products were products or technologies they bought. It's typical apple strategy, they are just worth so much now that it's hard to see their acquisitions as anything but a drop in the water. Until now I guess. They could buy Twitter, they could buy Box (or dropbox) or some other cloud solution, they could buy Stripe, they could buy Slack, they could buy so many companies and use their size to leverage those into something truly groundbreaking. So I don't think it's that far out.
beezle 11y ago
False. There is enough press about this - Apple has already spent a large chunk of that by issuing debt to pay for current buybacks and dividends (and avoid US taxes).
- ThomPete 11y ago
  Not sure what you mean is false.

Apple still have $233,000,000,000 in the bank. More than the federal reserve, more than Google, Microsoft, and Facebook combined. They could buy their way out of this I am pretty sure.

tcoppi 11y ago

Buy their way out of it? How? They obviously don't have anything profitable to invest their excess cash in, since it is either sitting in the bank or going to stock buybacks or dividend increases.

ThomPete 11y ago
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/apple-hints-at-big-acquisition-to-cure-growth-ills-2016-04-26 http://www.marketwatch.com/story/apple-hints-at-big-acquisit...
- tcoppi 11y ago
  Yeah, because Beats has been working out so well for them. If they could get something to improve their cloud services competitiveness vs Google, maybe something like Dropbox, I could see that helping them long-term. Otherwise I don't think anything they could acquire would be anything more than a play at becoming a conglomerate ala GE at this point, there simply aren't many companies with a proven core product out there that can help Apple get out of this mess, except by expanding outward. Not that there is anything wrong with being a conglomerate, Alphabet/Google is basically on its way to becoming one too, and GE is wildly profitable, I just don't see Apple playing well in that space. They need to concentrate on something.
  - ThomPete 11y ago
    It worked fine for MS. I think Apple have no where to go than to buy companies. In fact most of their revolutionary products were products or technologies they bought. It's typical apple strategy, they are just worth so much now that it's hard to see their acquisitions as anything but a drop in the water. Until now I guess. They could buy Twitter, they could buy Box (or dropbox) or some other cloud solution, they could buy Stripe, they could buy Slack, they could buy so many companies and use their size to leverage those into something truly groundbreaking. So I don't think it's that far out.

beezle 11y ago

False. There is enough press about this - Apple has already spent a large chunk of that by issuing debt to pay for current buybacks and dividends (and avoid US taxes).

ThomPete 11y ago
Not sure what you mean is false.