Ask HN: What should Apple do with their $97.6B in cash? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: What should Apple do with their $97.6B in cash?

3 pointsbluedevil2k8 comments

This is a somewhat whimsical question, unless Tim Cook is reading this. But, if you were in charge of Apple and had $97B of cash on hand, what would you do with the money? What would be your strategic motivations? If you chose acquisition, what companies would push the Apple corporation forward?

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So Apple's whole theory is to control the hardware and software, which they've done successfully on music and phones. But, they've failed on TV, and I think that's because content is King when it comes to televisions. The content providers, i.e. software (CBS, ABC, NBC, Fox, Viacom) ultimately dictate the terms to the hardware companies (DirecTV, Comcast, Apple). In order to dominate the TV market, Apple needs to buy their way into the content area, and then use that new combination of software/hardware to pressure the remaining players to play by their rules.

So, here's my proposal - CBS, #1 TV station, tons of good content, with a market cap of $19B. Viacom, $26B in valuation. Probably can get both for $60B. Then Apple controls roughly 1/3 of the TV content, and could throw all their shows on their Apple TV (iTV) bypassing the satellite and cable companies. They could also force ABC, NBC, and Fox to play by their terms.

1. Steve Jobs did say (according to the biography) that he cracked television. This could include making it work not just on the technology side.

2. Apple isn't really the type of company that wants to own content i.e. the books, the music, etc... They don't need to and I can't see them wanting to, even with TV/Movies. They would rather license.

3. I wouldn't call TV a failure yet. They obviously haven't thrown their hobby into the forget pile just yet.

1. Keep accumulating a boat load of cash

2. Acquire a web company (like Facebook) with that massive war chest. Zuck may not be willing to sell now but once FB goes public, may be a different story (not sure).

Apple doesn't have much of any web services/presence unless you count iCloud which really isn't the same thing as FB, Google, or Amazon.

The fact that they don't really compete aside from content delivery now I guess, makes anti-trust less of an issue. The resources and things Apple could do with social baked in and expand would be amazing. It certainly would help them expand into other territories in the future.

[My Standard Answer] Buy Disney. It is the company with which they would have the most synergy and an investment about which people would not ask, "What's up with that?"

I would set up coding and design schools in areas of the world where students do not have access to fancy IT equipment and software etc. Then I would set up small incubators in those areas to foster entrepreneurship. Then I would give each Apple employee 15 days of per year to travel to those areas.

Trade it all in for a cube of gold a little over fifteen feet on a side.

It would be difficult to misplace, and hard to steal without people noticing.

A mixture of investments (angel and otherwise), bonuses and philantropy.

I'd develop the technology for asteroid mining.

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