Filed under: Apple Corporate, Apple Financial, Apple
What should Apple do with twelve BEEEL-lion dollars?
This is the question posed by Arik Hesseldahl in today's Byte of the Apple column for BusinessWeek: what should Apple do with its $12 billion in cash and short-term investments? His suggestion: rather than spending more money on acquisitions (such those that led to Logic, Final Cut and Shake), the big A could start a venture capital fund that would help Mac software startups, and established vendors looking to port to the Mac, with seed money to get products off the ground and out the doors.Hesseldahl points to other tech giants that run their own VC operations, among them Intel, Qualcomm and Motorola. Perhaps it is time for AAPL (back up to $87/share at today's close, erasing a good chunk of Tuesday's losses) to turn some of that spare change into "changing the world, one software company at a time."
[via The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Pat said 2:14PM on 3-02-2007
Offer free 2 year warranty, free hotlines, ...
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Me said 10:15AM on 3-02-2007
Save it for when Alcatel sues them over the stupid mp3 patent?
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Owen said 1:05AM on 3-03-2007
Acquisitions can be good. I think that Apple should buy Adobe and make all their products mac-only. Or buy AutoDesk - almost all architects use AutoCAD and it's Windows-only. Either (or both) of those companies would strengthen Apple's pro software lineup.
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Nick Schoeneberger said 10:47AM on 3-02-2007
How about use it to buy Pathfinder or pay enough developers to re-make the finder?
How about get a bit of cash together and figure out a creative way to get Autodesk to put out AutoCAD on OS X. Lets get those last few apps that people use as excuses not to switch on OS X!!
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Will said 12:49PM on 3-02-2007
With a 12 Billion dollar profit, they should pay a portion of it out in dividends, and then re-invest the rest into R&D or into short term investments.
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Ardfry said 11:06AM on 3-02-2007
I'd like to see them spend some $ on XCode/gcc C++ support to bring it up to industrial strength.
I doubt it could handle the port of AutoCad. Apple's answer to its crappy C++ support is always that you should rewrite everything in Cocoa. And people wonder why the biggest players don't port their apps to Mac. Fortunately Adobe has been pushing the limits on XCode, so there is hope that it will get better.
Apple's passive-aggressive attitude is great for building a brand with artist types, but it's working against them in the world of Big Software.
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nibbles said 11:11AM on 3-02-2007
spend 6 billion developing a p.o.c. operating system
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SubGenius said 12:35PM on 3-02-2007
Buy Sun
Buy Elgato
Buy NetFlix
Buy Tivo
I like the software VC idea as well.
Nick, you'll have your new Finder soon enough.
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Steve Hoffman said 1:06PM on 3-02-2007
How about a stock dividend? ;)
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Michael Rose said 1:15PM on 3-02-2007
#6 -- it's not a profit, it's cash on hand (accumulated over >1 year)
Dividend: well, split up that $12B over the nearly 900M outstanding shares and it's about $14 per share... not that much. Interestingly, though, it implies an operational valuation for AAPL at about $68-74 per share -- that's the value of the actual business, as opposed to the value per share of the cash. Subtract fixed assets like real estate, buildings, equipment etc. and the valuation goes down more.
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Edsel said 1:30PM on 3-02-2007
Save the cash.
An Edsel prediction.... In the year 2015, AAPL buys MSFT.
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The Jeremy said 5:47PM on 3-02-2007
I like the VC idea, but I want to see Apple part with some cash and pick up some smart acquisitions, such as:
1. TiVo. $400 million tops. Even better, share the acquisition with Google and thus cut the stock accumulation expense nearly in half. Let Google use the TiVo aggregate data for AdSense. All the other reasoning is included in the hundred or so postings I've done on here (and on PVRWire) as to why this is a good acquisition.
2. Atari (aka InfoGrames USA). This is a good investment for many reasons. First, it is a big game publisher, and the OS X platform needs games and a publisher committed to at least releasing games for it. Second, the classic Atari arcade titles are perfect content for the AppleTV and the iPod/iPhone. Third, the "Atari" brand could be used to launch a division that makes OS X computers but meant for gamers. This division could become the AlienWare and FalconNorthwest of the OS X platform.
3. Midway Games. Midway Games owns 50% of the Atari legacy since they took over what was formerly known as the Atari Games Corp, which was the original Atari arcade division and owner of the rights to all the arcade games that bore the name "Atari" (or "Atari Games") post June 1984. This acquisition strengthens the previously mentioned one, not to mention includes a major gaming publisher as well. Thus Apple would own two big publishers which again could help out the OS X platform.
4. Creative. Just buy them up and break them up into pieces. Now that Apple Inc. and Apple Records have settled, the Mac platform can benefit by having beefier audio system chipsets included. Apple could also take control of EAX and the Aureal A3D techniques and intellectual property and integrate them into OS X. Aside from the Soundblaster division, the rest of Creative could be split up and sold off. If Creative still owns 20% of THX, it could be sold off to Pixar. Cambridge Soundworks could be sold off to Harmon Kardon, Polk, Kliptsch (sic), Bose, or any other audio company. Etc. etc. etc.
Related to VC:
Invest more in OpenGL and get that platform up to parr with Microsoft's DirectX. Apple and Sony should look into better funding this if either party hopes to nullify Microsoft long-term.
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en said 1:36AM on 3-03-2007
Second the Adobe. They might only be able to get 51 percent with 12 B--isn't the market cap about 20 billion for Adobe? But enough of this "15 months-to-develop-Intel-native-versions" crap!
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XR said 4:57AM on 3-03-2007
AutoCad is the reason a 24" iMac is not sitting on my desk right now. Simple as that.
I know a few designers/architects that use only macs and they use Microspot MacDraft or IMSI TurboCAD, but they all say that AutoCad seperior enough to justify switching back to Windows.
Conclusion? Make the mac THE platform of creative people, buy AutoDesk, and make a OS X version of it!
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PapayaSF said 2:43AM on 3-04-2007
Buy Live365.com and integrate Internet radio into iTunes, GarageBand, Apple TV, and the iPhone.
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Eleventeen said 10:23PM on 3-06-2007
Bugatti Veyrons for everyone!
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