On-hand Cash of Apple, M$ and others...

[nanarchy]

heruamon said:

famousringo said:

The main reason why Apple has the most cash is because they are very picky about how they spend it. In the past 10 years, Apple has made only 1/4 as many acquisitions as tech rivals Google, Microsoft and IBM. Apple also spends a similar fraction on R&D by maintaining a sharp focus on key products rather than trying to chase the competition into every market.

It keeps Apple nimble, and maintains the integrity of its corporate culture, because trying to integrate a new acquisition into your structure and strategy can be a tricky business.

A good example would be Microsoft's Danger acquisition. Microsoft spent an estimated $500 million on the company, and who knows how much additional money for two years of bad management before the team brought the Kin to market.

By comparison, Apple brought the original iPhone to market for an estimated $150 million dollars and the acquisition of a two-man touch gesture company called FingerWorks. Instead of buying a whole sandwich, Apple bought some secret sauce and built the rest from stuff it had in the fridge.

Might be also that M$ pays a hefty divisdend ever quarter, whereas Apples doesn't...you know...$1.1 bllion kinda adds up.

^^this, MS pays a dividend and on top of that they did a special one time large dividend payment a few years ago as well (about 30 billion). with those MS cash pile would be at ridiculous levels today, in excess of a 100 billion.