Apple could survive on current cash alone until 2018

During the 2Q 2011 Apple Results Call last Wednesday, we listened with rapt attention as the number for "Cash and Cash Equivalents" figure was announced. The number, as you may recall, was US$65.8 Billion. One question that many of us always ask is "What could Apple do with that money?"

Asymco analyst Horace Dediu always provides fascinating insights, and in a post yesterday he not only did a breakdown of the sources of that cash, but did some comparisons just to show how huge the cash stash is. The pile of simoleons is made of "only" $15 Billion in cash, about $14 Billion in short-term marketable securities, and the rest -- about $37 Billion -- in long-term marketable securities.

Dediu's comparisons are staggering:

• If Apple's revenue stream was cut off today, the company could sustain operations (research and development, sales, general and administrative expenses) for seven years
• Apple's folding money is worth half of Google's enterprise value
• Those funds place Apple's CFO office into the top 100 of fund managers in the world, bigger than any hedge fund manager
• The cash growth in the last quarter was higher than the market capitalization of many companies.

What's really amazing is that the rate of growth of Apple's hoarded lettuce appears to be increasing. What do you think Apple should do with all of that cash? Leave us your ideas in the comments.

[via The Apple Investor]

Apple could survive on current cash alone until 2018 originally appeared on TUAW on Wed, 27 Apr 2011 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.




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