Today during Apple’s Q1 2012 earnings report, CFO Peter Oppenheimer revealed that Apple has a staggering $97 billion in cash, with over $60 billion currently held offshore. Oppenheimer said multiple times during the call that Apple was not letting its near-$100 billion in cash “burn a hole” in its pockets.
Tim Cook and Oppenheimer were very tight-lipped about what Apple plans to do with its gigantic cash reserve moving forward, noting that the company was “thrilled” to acquire the “fantastic tech talent” at flash memory firm Anobit.
Coincidentally, AAPL stock blew past its previous all-time high during after-hours trading today at over $450 per share. Apple has trumped Exxon Mobile again with a overall valuation of over $420 billion to become the most valuable company on the planet. Based on this past quarter’s iPhone sales, Apple is also the top smartphone manufacturer in the world.
Alex Heath is a journalist who works for Tech Insider. He’s the former co-host of The CultCast. He has been quoted by the likes of the BBC, KRON 4 News, and books like “ICONIC: A Photographic Tribute to Apple Innovation.” He lives in Lexington, Kentucky. If you want to pitch a story, share a tip, or just get in touch, additional contact information is available on his personal site. Follow him on Twitter.
29 responses to “Apple Promises To Not Let Its $97 Billion In Cash “Burn A Hole” In Its Pocket”
They’re going to spend it all by going thermonuclear on Android.
Another thing that’s predictable are legions of Apple-sites fanboying a company that is stockpiling cash.
haterz gonna hate
Thank god we can then live in a world with one smartphone, one vision, one man, one ideology. Ironic this coming from the company that gave us the “1984” ad.
Why are you fanboying a giant corporation?
Re: ArrowSmith
Good post.
As an Apple fan, I would hate for Apple to have a monopoly. I want them to do well, perhaps even to be the world leader (it seems they now are), but not take over. That would be bad for everyone, even Apple itself. I hope Android continues to do well, and that RiM and Windows Phone really become good competition.
With Apple’s continued exponential EBITA, revenue and market-share growth monopoly is inevitable. Android has peaked and will die on the vine. RIM is about to go belly up and Windows Phone is stillborn. By 2016 it will be iPhones and cheap feature phones for poor people.
Here’s some ideas for the cash pile:
1) Pay dividends to the shareholders.
2) Raise the wages and working environment of your employees, especially those in China.
3) Become the world’s leading renewable, low-carbon, and sustainable manufacturer.
4) Pay more to source materials, especially rare earth minerals, from conflict-free regions.
5) Reduce the 30% cut taken from devs and book publishers to 20% or less.
6) Expand the retail stores at a greater pace.
7) Buy patents.
8) Buy external talent.
9) Develop or buy services to replace all the Google-provided ones.
10) Build your own factories instead of relying on Foxxcon, et al.
Since suggestions 2, 3, 4 and 5 are about taking social responsibility and doing things which will not directly lead to making more money, I doubt they will happen. Most of the cash will probably be spent on suggestions 6 through 10.
Apple should buy RIM then bury it in the ground. Damn that’s a lot of cash.
Agree completely. It’s a comment I’ve made repeatedly on this site, as recently as Sunday. Two things, though. First, the feds would never allow it. Second, if the administration and Congress would lower the corp tax rates to something approaching reasonable, rather than the world’s highest, Apple could repatriate that $60 billion and do some incredible things in this country that would make it the most powerful, not just the most valuable, company on earth.
Tim Cook’s keynote speech for tomorrow morning has leaked, here it is:
“Today we celebrate the first glorious anniversary of the Information Purification Directives.
We have created for the first time in all history a garden of pure ideology, where each worker may bloom, secure from the pests of any contradictory true thoughts.
Our Unification of Thoughts is more powerful a weapon than any fleet or army on earth.
We are one people, with one will, one resolve, one cause.
Our enemies shall talk themselves to death and we will bury them with their own confusion.
We shall prevail!
They gona spend all that money to sue Smasung!
Apple sucks, I can take a Galaxy note for any of apple products. I own a iPhone4 now dumping time left 5weeks.
I’d like to see them take that money and build a usable iCloud interface that isn’t technologically 20 years behind Hotmail.
What’s amazing is that with all that money they couldn’t have iCloud stream your own music collection to your iOS device or Mac. Technologically backward is right. Apple sells boutique products at premium prices to the mass consumer dupes who don’t know any better.
Centuries from now historians will closely scrutinize the 2009-2012 era when Apple generated ungodly sums of cash and how it happened.
It will not happen if the companies try to innovate. So Samesung is not helping…
Please explain how Samsung is “not helping”.
To be clear, I’m a fan and iCloud user. But let’s be honest here, even hotmail is far more advanced than iCloud mail. The web interface is easily the most primitive of any current email service. It’s really too bad, because I’m sure they could really make it great if they tried or cared.
Yes, that would be the smart thing to do. Spend 49 billion dollars on building a better iCloud service.
Meaning no developement of new devices with significant “innovation” packed into em. Awesome Apple. You dissapoint me yet again…
Success is great and to see a company like Apple Inc. do so well is superb! However, giving back to the needy of this “planet” as being the most valuable companyy on this “planet”, Apple Inc sure is a FAIL. Charities and the needy of our country and the rest of the world need REAL help, not iPhones and iPads. Bill Gates, Warren Buffet among the the other hard working humane individuals know how to help our country and the rest of the world…while Steve Jobs (yes, was a truly hard worker and sure as heck deserves credit for being such a success worldwide) and Apple Inc. have lost sight of how to TRULY help this planet so to speak. Apple’s technology and gadgets are great by all means and always will be, but that’s not and never has been in question.
Their charitable donations are what matter in a truly “valuable” company aside from how much is the back account. Maybe someone will make an application that grows food for the hungry? We can’t change the world overnight, but companies like Apple among the rest can sure significantly help.
It goes to show Apple has utter contempt for their customers. They gouge them for all their worth based on the hardware and pretty UI and smooth transitions but when it comes to the BEEF of software they come of FAR short compared to Microsoft. Why is it a huge surprise? Microsoft has been writing software since their beginning and they’re the best at it. Windows Phone OS is the best mobile OS period.
“Their charitable donations are what matter in a truly “valuable” company aside from how much is the back account.”
Why is that? At what point does a company’s or individual’s success oblige him to give to charities? Maybe that should apply to you, too–no? And btw, what charities? Have you ever peeked inside most charities? Aside from the Salvation Army, which is phenomenal, most charities either get a dismal percentage of donations to the intended, with the rest going for salaries and “overhead”, or the money is pissed away to no advantage. I’m not saying that good isn’t done by some or even many charities, but offering people the tools to not need charities is the greatest work there is–the whole, give-a-man-a-fish-or-teach-him-to-fish idea. I’ve yet to read anything about Bill Gates’s educational initiative to make me think that all those billions have bought anything worthwhile.
If you cannot see the incredible innovation that Apple has CONSISTENTLY displayed since its inception, you are either blind or have zero ability to observe what’s in front of you. The iPad and iPhone 4S alone are amazing examples of continuously evolving technologies that are pushing the boundaries of technology. I just upgraded my original 2007 iPhone to a 4S a couple of days ago and I’m blown away by the speed and Siri. Yes, Siri still needs some development, but she’s completely transformed my use of the iPhone.
Please think before you write ridiculous posts like this. Go down to an Apple store and actually look at the products, find out about them and ask about the technology and how it can work in your life. It sounds like you have an agenda and are just trolling.
I’d hate to live in your world, as it seems to contain nothing but doom and gloom, with worse things to come. According to you, Apple is all bad but is destined to become a monopoly and there’s nothing that can be done. I laugh.
I’ve been a Mac user since 1989 and have weathered years of Apple being called “dead” hundreds of times by pundits. I’ve seen the word “beleaguered” in thousands of articles — and now that Apple has risen to the most valuable company in the world and selling products that are wildly popular everywhere, I can only cheer. Their products are fun, friendly, highly usable and elegantly designed. They’re premium products and work accordingly. Apple’s products positively impact every aspect of my personal and business life. I could buy other products from other companies–and if I thought they were better I certainly would. I’m not tied to the Apple brand with “loyalty”, but with quality, functionality and superior service I’ve received for over 20 years.
Should another company come along that makes better products, I’ll become a fanboy of them, but until I see that, I’ll stick with Apple because I simply like their products. They help me earn a living and make my life much more enjoyable.
You’re speaking to a former jailbroken iPod touch 3g and iPhone 4 owner. There has been hardly ANY innovation since ios’s inception. Sure, its faster thanyoure old original iPhone. As it should be being 4 years newer. My point is there has been nosignificant innovation in user experience whatsoever since the original. Unless you count having wallpapers on your home screen and the notification pull down bar that they copied off of android. Hardly any significant new capabilities.Its the same damn device it was 4 years ago. And the fact that we know they will continue to sit on their wallets just shows they have no significant plans for the near future .
You do realize Apple bought Siri? Buying out a company is not “innovation”. All of Apples innovations are actually innovations through other companies. Do they make the “retina” display, erm nope they don’t. Who innovated tech that allows for such high pixel density, certainely not Apple? Oh yes the drop down notification menu pulled straight from Android or unlock to camera ripped of from WP7.
That’s innovation alright.
Apple just wouldn’t be there, were it not for scientific developments that have been made available to humanity for free. So why not pay back? Why not open up a research center, a university, or more?