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I agree that the Facebook idea is implausible. I think dividends are unlikely too. There's no reason anyone at the company would be worrying about the stock pri

I agree that the Facebook idea is implausible. I think dividends are unlikely too. There's no reason anyone at the company would be worrying about the stock price right now, so the question is whether Steve Jobs thinks he might be able to find a use for $50b at some point in the future. That might be to buy something he has a use for, or it might be just to intimidate any potential partner or competitor. Has it made a difference to Apple's recent history that everyone knows it could buy Adobe? Do the CEOs of AT&T and Verizon have to face the possibility that Apple could buy Sprint and run its own network? I say yes, and I say Jobs likes it that way, and his comments should be interpreted in that light.

mattmaroon 16y ago
That's exactly my point. Adobe's market cap is $15b. Sprint $13.6b. $50b (and rapidly growing) is far more than they need for a very large acquisition, or even two, and they've never shown any appetite for large buys. Not to mention that they could probably easily borrow the amount they'd need to buy either of those so cash on hand is irrelevant as a threat. There aren't many companies with a market cap higher than half of what Apple is sitting on, and unless you think they're going to get into department stores or oil, most of those few are disqualified. They're at the same point Microsoft was at in 2003, they have more money than they can plausibly employ. Investors would far rather receive some of it to deploy themselves in other venues, or in more Apple shares. Jobs will cave soon and begin dividending. Or perhaps he has a large stock buyback in mind.