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

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.