You claim that two years ago the company was generating cash at the rate of 2 B$/quarter, and this year at 1.3-1.6 B$ per quarter.
If that was all there is to it, then over the past two years we should expect to see evidence of at least 12 B$ more "stuff" kicking around than they had two years ago. Minus any of what they spent to buy back shares. We know they've spent 3 B$ on share buybacks, so that leaves us expecting 9 B$ more now than they had two years ago. That is, if you are indeed correct in your views.
Not really John. I said that last year we had some 2 billion quarter(s), but I didn't go into Edgar to look. Doesn't mean 8 billion for the year- could be one billion on some other quarters in the same year or none. I'm not sure, and don't have time to look right now, sorry.
The problem with these companies and the options compensation model, is that it is like a sink that is draining water while the faucet is flowing water in. I don't think anybody disagrees with that- except maybe yourself and some others here who might reject that model to begin with. People like me think its an overall positive for the long term prosperity of the company. Anyway, I don't doubt that over the past 3 years or so Cisco has done nothing but tread water in terms of their overall financial picture- the real aim for a company like Cisco now should be to GAIN SHARE.
But back to the original issue here. Remember what it was? You were the one who brought it up. You said, that Cisco had earned Seven Billion TOTAL over its lifetime as a company, and because of this, you felt that 14 billion or so cash on hand came from options exercising ONLY. I dispute this, I don't think you can get 14 billion from options exercising even on 16K employees (too much $$) and I think the cash on hand cisco has currently is due to cash flow and Cisco banking the $$. Some came from options exercises but not all. A few of the billion, maybe, MAX.
Whether Cisco added to their cash on hand this year was not the issue, at least to me John. I'm not going to argue with you about it, because I don't care really. All I want is for Cisco to gain share in a climate like this.
Lizzie |
