epistasis, It depends on your definition of consequential. To me, having $40B in marketable securities & cash is a huge burden. Investing it in Motorola allow

epistasis, It depends on your definition of consequential. To me, having $40B in marketable securities & cash is a huge burden. Investing it in Motorola allows them to get a return on that cash which is fairly safe, but not without risk. While $12B off the balance sheet is a big number, it is not consequential to their operations or anything else they are thinking of doing. Unless they are going to acquire someone even larger.