Gary--
Apple currently has plenty of cash on hand. Three quarters ago, they had $1.2 billion in cash and short term investments, two quarters ago that was bumped up to $1.35 billion, and the last reported quarter they had $1.6 billion in easy to access funds! Apple is hardly cash poor. I think the MOST cash Apple ever had on hand at the end of any quarter was $1.8 billion (under Amelio, before the NeXT purchase). In essence, though, their cash position has increased over the past few quarters.
This is something I tend keep a close eye on, seeing that I agree with you that if a company has no money to play with, it won't be able to compete. It'll be interesting to learn what their cash position is like in the latest quarter, especially after the massive advertising campaign, but I have a feeling it will have gone up even more, especially if they post large profits.
Notwithstanding the $47 million profit last quarter, a lot of the increase in their cash reserves can probably be attributed to good investments (the market has been really good lately). Also, don't forget that Microsoft is paying Apple an undisclosed sum of money over the next 3 years (beyond their stock investment of $150 million), a fact which was not publicized at the MacWorld Expo where the Microsoft announcements were made, but was indicated by one sentence in Apple's press release about the Microsoft partnership. Supposedly, this money was to settle all outstanding patent lawsuits between Microsoft and Apple, and to insure no further patent lawsuits for the next 5 years. The amount Microsoft is paying Apple is unknown, but rumors/guesses have ranged from $200 million to $1 billion.
In short, though, Apple does have a good amount of cash. If I have any of the above numbers wrong, please pardon my dusty memory.
Paul Arthur |
