investment

Read Cult of Mac’s latest posts on investment:

Apple switches tactics after U.S. tax changes

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What’s it like to have your startup bought by Apple? Stressful
What’s it like to have your startup bought by Apple? Stressful
Photo illustration: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Apple is cutting back on the purchasing of corporate bonds as it prepares to bring home overseas cash. Changes to tax laws in the United States mean Apple no longer needs to hold so much money in foreign countries. Alphabet and Oracle are also cutting back.

Apple makes big investment in TrueDepth sensor maker

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TrueDepth Finisar
TrueDepth sensors in production at Finisar.
Photo: Apple

Apple has invested a substantial sum of cash in TrueDepth sensor maker Finisar.

The $390 million fund will allow for increased research and development spending, and high-volume production of vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs). It will also allow Finisar to open a new production facility in Texas, creating more than 500 jobs.

Launch your cryptocurrency portfolio and more [Week’s Best Deals]

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This week's best deals include lessons in the basics of cryptocurrency investing and digital marketing, along with stereo Bluetooth speakers and a massive backup battery.
Photo: Cult of Mac Deals

Summer’s drawing to a close. But the deals rolling into the Cult of Mac Store are showing no signs of slowing. This week, we’ve got a guide cryptocurrency investing for beginners started in, and a digital marketing masterclass. Additionally, we’ve got a stereo pair of portable Bluetooth speakers, and a powerful but slim backup battery. Everything is massively discounted, some by more than 90 percent. Read on for more details:

World’s largest investment firm goes even bigger on AAPL

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Apple is worth more than the entire US energy sector combined
BlackRock now owns 6.1 percent of Apple's outstanding shares.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

BlackRock, a.k.a. the world’s largest asset manager, has just made a massive investment in Apple, according to its latest Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

The firm upped its investment in Apple to a whopping 322 million shares, meaning that now owns the equivalent of 6.1 percent of Apple’s outstanding shares — with a current monetary value of $38.4 billion.

Samsung will take $5.3 billion hit from Note 7 recall

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Galaxy Note 7 water wet
The Note 7 is all washed up.
Photo: Killian Bell/Cult of Mac

Issuing a global recall for the Galaxy Note 7 is going to cost Samsung even more money than it expected.

Samsung released a statement to investors today revealing that its fiery phablet will hurt overall profits for the next two fiscal quarters, costing the company a total of $5.3 billion.

Apple invests $1 billion in Chinese Uber rival

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money
Apple just made a big investment in China.
Photo: Cult of Mac

Apple has invested $1 billion in Chinese Uber rival Didi Chuxing in a move that continues Apple’s push into China and confirms the company’s interest in shaking up the automotive industry.

According to Tim Cook, the deal “reflects our excitement about their growing business … and also our continued confidence in the long term in China’s economy.” Perhaps more importantly, it could give Apple strategic insights and competitive advantages when it comes to Apple Pay and a possible Apple Car.

Now is a great time to bet on Apple, says Goldman Sachs

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Apple store istanbul
Step right up and place your AAPL bets.
Photo: Apple

Stocks have been getting crushed all year, but according to Goldman Sachs, now is the perfect time to starting betting on Apple options.

Goldman Sachs’ options team has pointed out that Apple options prices are especially low right now compared to the the S&P 500, making it a great target for purchasing a ‘straddle’, which could score investors a big payday if Apple shares move higher or lower than currently expected.

Straddle options work by allowing investors to purchase a bullish and bearish option on a stock so that they make money off the volatility of shares. It’s an advanced investment for most traders to make and it’s not cheap, but Susquehanna’s Stacey Gilbert explains that it’s cheap relative to volatility expectations for the overall market.

Apple is ‘biggest destroyer of wealth this year’

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Apple stock
Apple stock is leading the way for losing investors money.
Screenshot: Evan Killham/Cult of Mac

We can add another award to Apple’s long list, although the company might not be too happy to accept it: The iPhone maker’s stock lost the most value of any tech company this year.

The news comes out of a study from USA Today that reports a shocking average 14 percent decline in value from 462 tech companies. That drop resulted in total losses of $529 billion, but Cupertino is the lead horseman in this year’s stockpocalypse.

Investor Dumps Apple Stock Because Steve Jobs Was A ‘Really Awful’ Person

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You're *just now* figuring this out?
You're *just now* figuring this out?

File this one under, “huh?”

CNBC reported Monday that billionaire hedge-fund investor Julian Robertson sold all of his shares in Apple because he’d recently read a biography of founder Steve Jobs, and found the former CEO of Apple to be a “really awful person.”

Robertson admits that the stock did very well for him, but would rather “let someone else make the money from now on,” as he said on CNBC’s investment show, Closing Bell.

Taxes On Capital Gains, Dividends, Blamed For Investors Fleeing Apple Stock

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Can you hear the whistling sound?
Can you hear the whistling sound?

What goes up must come down, in physics and in investment. Stock prices for Apple have hit a low recently, down about a fourth of it’s value. Analysts believe that upcoming taxes on capital gains and investment dividends have stock holders rushing to get rid of as much as they can to avoid record tax hikes.

“No individual investment can defy gravity,” said the deputy chief investment officer for Wells Fargo, Erik Davidson.

Apple Investing In Twitter? [Report]

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These do look pretty cool together.
These do look pretty cool together.

Ping never had a chance, but a recent report may show the way to Apple’s eventual success in the social media space. According to a report in The New York Times, “people briefed on the matter” say that Apple has been talking with the social media startup about making a strategic investment.

The numbers bandied about include an Apple investment stake of hundreds of millions of dollars, which might in turn increase Twitter’s high valuation of around $8.4 billion to a nicer-looking $10 billion.

Apple Just Bought A Ton Of Land In Texas For Austin Campus Expansion

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austinapple

Over the last couple of months Apple has been trying to secure a real estate deal that will allow them to expand their Austin, Texas campus and bring an additional 3,600 new jobs to the area. Recent records show that Apple purchased three large tracts of land adjacent to their current campus, that will allow the company to expand and make good on their plans to invest $304 million in the area.

Apperian Scores $9.5M in Funding as iOS Heads Down Road to Enterprise Adoption

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Credit: epicharmus/Flickr
Credit: epicharmus/Flickr

 

Signs are everywhere that Apple’s iDevices are gaining business cred. Apperian, a development firm making software that allows business to create and manage their own apps, just won $9.5 million in venture capital funding, according to a press release.

Apperian’s star iOS product is a cloud-based platform called EASE they claim is the first to allow large-scale creation and management of apps in a business environment — pretty key if you’ve got, say, 150 salespeople all needing access to the same sales app and whining for support every 15 minutes.

That Apperian managed to net the funding means that investors think EASE will increasingly allow iPads and iPhone’s to elbow their way into the enterprise world — traditionally the domain of RIM and the Blackberry. Apperian is also working on an Android-based version of EASE.