What Will Apple Do With All That Cash?
Image credit: Barry Falls/BusinessWeek
Apple’s giant stash of cash is a constant source of speculation in the tech world. Now standing north of $25 Billion, Apple has the money to acquire all but a few hundred companies in the world, and it makes people nervous that the Cupertino Kings won’t snatch up someone big.
Our friend Brian over at Epicenter has an interesting piece of speculation, rating the most likely and least likely acquisition targets Apple could go after during the current downturn. It’s a thought-provoking read, and it’s accompanied by a really fun poll in which readers suggest who Apple should take on. The Dell entry is priceless.
For my part, I always think that the big questions about Apple’s cash and who the company will acquire tend to be misguided. Over its entire history, Apple has shown again and again that it will buy small organizations that possess a specific technology or capability that Apple lacks. That’s the story with NeXT, it’s the story with Logic, and it’s the store with PA Semi. Other than that, Apple invests in its own ideas and its own new efforts, because Steve Jobs believes the solutions Apple needs to triumph don’t exist yet. Apple spends way more time doing its own thing than it does snapping up outsiders.
And a portion of that $25 billion is going straight back into Apple’s future – the company still needs to build that brand new campus in Cupertino, right? Not to mention, new aluminum milling processes aren’t cheap to implement, either…
