Poll: How should Apple spend its $15 billion cash reserve?

by Steve O'Hear

December 7th, 2007 | Posted in Other | Comments

How would you spend Apple’s 15 Billion cash reserve? Apple has more cash in the bank than IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Intel and Google. “Apple’s $15.4 billion stash is indeed the biggest of the group, putting the iPod maker in the elite ranks of well-heeled Fortune 500 tech companies.”, writes Fortune’s Jon Fortt. While the company’s coffers can’t quite match those of Microsoft and Cisco, unlike the latter two, Apple doesn’t pay a dividend to its stockholders, nor does the company buy back much stock or make major acquisitions.

Fortt then goes on to ask the billion dollar question: “So what does CEO Steve Jobs have in mind for all those greenbacks?” A number of options are suggested, including sharing some of the fruits of Apple’s labor with shareholders or making strategic purchases.

How would you spend Apple’s dosh? Take our poll or leave a comment below.

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last100 is edited by technology journalist and consultant Steve O'Hear. Aside from founding last100, Steve has written for numerous publications, including The Guardian, ZDNet, ReadWriteWeb and Macworld, and also wrote and directed the Silicon Valley documentary, In Search of the Valley.

Bloggeer

Well, they could buy like 5% of Microsoft shares, just as MS did when Apple was in a very bad shape some years ago ;-)

Steve O'Hear (editor)

@Bloggeer

LOL, very good!

tino

buy nintendo

Zach

They should look to purchase DivX - market cap of only $540 million.

Zach Beauvais

(Not the Zach above)
Nothing, so long as the market is moving in their favour, that $15b should accrue intrest and rest. They'll need it soon enough, and there is nothing worse than a tech company out of cash. Because they are moving forward (and have all that dosh put away) there is no reason they should be spending it all.

However, if they did start to lose market share again, and needed something to perk up a bit; they need another killer idea, like the iPhone. Apple shouldn't work like Google-acquiring start-ups and integrating- they should do what they do best: produce high-quality hardware which work very well with their software that people really want. I think people really want a sub-notebook that could replace portables but which are easy to use. Perhaps work on home-based systems like the MS Surface -- iHome!

Reckon? (http://www.zachbeauvais.com)