Not investing the money at a risk-adjusted profitable return is the same thing as taking money from shareholders. Think about it this way. If there was one owne

Not investing the money at a risk-adjusted profitable return is the same thing as taking money from shareholders. Think about it this way. If there was one owner in the company, and the CEO just couldn't figure out a way to invest the company's cash at a profitable rate (again, risk-adjusted), what would the owner do? He'd take it out of the company and invest it elsewhere or just buy something - because he owns the company and it's his money. When you have multiple shareholders, the concept is the same, it's just harder to hold management's feet to the fire. This is different than "sitting on cash" as a strategic decision. It is wise to do so - there might be investment opportunities or hard times down the road. But we are talking about excess cash - cash beyond the level that is reasonable to sit on for strategic purposes. To sit on excess cash (which is admittedly a judgement call) is to hold your shareholders' money hostage in an unprofitable manner. Given how much cash Apple has, I don't think it's unreasonable for shareholders to grumble a bit.