With $12 billion or whatever they're keeping out of the $16 billion, plus the $4 billion on hand, I guess they could try to eat Twitter if they get really bored

With $12 billion or whatever they're keeping out of the $16 billion, plus the $4 billion on hand, I guess they could try to eat Twitter if they get really bored. But you're right, the extra $12 billion doesn't do much for them, other than perhaps provide defense capital for patent problems (it'd take a helluva patent problem to start eating multiple billions though). Wall St. will now expect an annual profit, so even using the cash to grow the company massively with new costs (employees, buildings, etc.) will be frowned upon. They'll obviously still be expected to operate moderately within their cash flow means.