Apple's $76B in cash reserves surpasses US government operating balance

[philw]

AppleInsider | Apple's $76B in cash reserves surpasses US government operating balance

By Josh Ong

Published: 09:00 PM EST

New figures from the U.S. Treasury Department indicate that the government has a total operating cash balance of $73.768 billion, less than Apple's own war chest of $75.876 billion.

As noted by Matt Hartley of the Financial Post, the news comes even as Republican and Democrat lawmakers debate over the federal budget and debt ceiling. The government's $73 billion number actually represents the "financial headroom" that lawmakers have before reaching an arbitrary debt ceiling, according to the report.

Apple reported having nearly $76 billion in cash on hand as of June 25, 2011. That's an impressive increase of $10 billion from the previous quarter, when the Cupertino, Calif., company had $65.8 billion in cash reserves.

Apple's war chest has grown quickly since 2005, when it had just $9 billion in reserves. As of the end of 2010, Apple's $60 billion stockpile gave it more cash than any other non-financial company in the U.S.

Shares of Apple closed above $400 for the first time earlier this week, before settling down some, eventually closing at $391.82 on Thursday. The company's market capitalization stands at $363.25 billion, behind only Exxon Mobil, which boasts a market cap of $403.93 billion.




As Apple's cash reserves have soared, several analysts and investors have called for a dividend that would redistribute some of the company's profits to shareholders.

However, Apple CEO Steve Jobs has said that the company's cash hoard is being saved for big moves. "We don't let the cash burn a hole in the pocket or make stupid acquisitions," he said last year. "We'd like to continue to keep our powder dry because we think there are one or more strategic opportunities in the future."

Patent acquisition may be one such strategic opportunity for Apple. The company recently paid $2.6 billion to outbid rival Google, which had $39.1 billion in cash reserves at the end of June, for a collection of more than 6,000 patents from Canadian telecom equipment maker Nortel. Apple teamed up with a consortium that included Microsoft, Research in Motion and Sony, pooling the group's resources in order to place the $4.5 billion winning bid.

Apple is also said to be weighing a bid for Interdigital, a company with a portfolio of 8,800 patents. InterDigital CEO William Merritt claims his company's patents are "deeper and stronger" than Nortel's collection.

http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/11/07/28/apples_76b_in_cash_reserves_surpass_us_government_operating_balance.html

I was thinking the other day after Apple released it's results  when will they out do the US Gov or buy them out

[Solus]

http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/11/07/28/apples_76b_in_cash_reserves_surpass_us_government_operating_balance.html

I was thinking the other day after Apple released it's results  when will they out do the US Gov or buy them out

Won't happen.  I'm sure BHO's Redistribution Team is working on ways to suck that kind of "unfair excessive profit" off for it's own programs.

[Pathfinder]

Won't happen.  I'm sure BHO's Redistribution Team is working on ways to suck that kind of "unfair excessive profit" off for it's own programs.

Unless the shareholders sue first to get all that wealth re-distributed - - - - - to them!!!!!!!!!!!!   

[alfsauve]

Back in the '90s Bill Gates was worried what would happen if they had a catastrophic loss of business (good protions of Windows, as well as Mac, software was based on other peoples ideas and both companies had to pay off a number of lawsuits back then.  Also the DOJ was saber rattling about anti-trust lawsuit).    I think Gates wanted enough cash (liquid assets) on hand that he could make payroll for 18 months with no sales.  I believe he figured they could re-invent themselves, if necessary.  Evidently Apple has the same idea.



WARNING:  WAR STORY
Back in the '80s I worked for Dr An Wang.  He invented Random Access Memory (RAM) as we know.   He also held the patent on the SIMM connector/design that most memory chips use to rely on.    Wang Labs also basically invented the "desktop" paradigm that every Windows and Mac user is now so familiar with.  It was called "Wang Information System".  Problem was it ran on proprietary hardware (IBM based micro-buss architecture).   I don't know about Apple but Microsoft paid millions to Wang out of court.  Problem was Wang settled for too little (both in dollars and recognition) because they were going out of business and didn't have deep enough pockets for a protracted court fight.

[MikeBjerum]

I call it a good business plan, and what others are saying here goes with what I believe.  They have cash reserves to survive bad times and lawsuits as needed.  There is nothing like attornys and politicians to separate a person or business from their money - look at MicroSoft and how they were rewarded for providing us with the product we rely on daily.

The only reason I think that Apple will have the cash longer is that unlike Bill Gates, Steve Jobs is a liberal.

[Sponsor]

[tombogan03884]

I call it a good business plan, and what others are saying here goes with what I believe.  They have cash reserves to survive bad times and lawsuits as needed.  There is nothing like attornys and politicians to separate a person or business from their money - look at MicroSoft and how they were rewarded for providing us with the product we rely on daily.

The only reason I think that Apple will have the cash longer is that unlike Bill Gates, Steve Jobs is a liberal.

Only with our money.

[tt11758]

Ain't it amazing how much money you can collect when you provide a product that is actually used by the people who PAY for it, rather than forcing the productive in society to pay for the products/services used by those who don't pay for them?