It seems as though Apple have made more money than they can possibly spend, according to recent reports. They currently have $142 billion in the pot but nothing to spend it on to provide a return for their shareholders. There's a lack of suitable companies for them to purchase and even their most recent investment, in the Beats subscription music service only cost a relatively paltry $3 billion. It's an interesting dilemma for them to be in. Here's a link to the article I read if anyone's interested: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-31016446
It really is a problem because despite what people think, there are a LOT of limitations on what they can buy before they start getting anti-monopoly investigations. From an outside perspective, I think it is terrible for consumers because right now, the only thing they are doing with their wealth is hiring lawyers and squelching competition. When you can patent, and successefully litigate ´rounded edges´ then there is a huge uphill battle for any competitor who wants to innovate on anything remotely resembling an Apple product. Small companies are not even trying to compete with Apple because they will have to spend millions on lawsuit after lawsuit. I think Apple is going to go the way of Microsoft, they will no longer be a tech company, they will be a PR department and a law firm.
If Apple could transfer in AMD's x86 license, they could bring in a nice return on products. This could enable them to move into the server space with ARM and x86 and be free from Intel.
Time to give it back to the shareholders! They are making a lot of money, there really aren't too many interesting acquisitions that they can make, and share repurchases are a bit questionable at these prices. So.. up the dividend! On the other hand, even with all this cash, they are still taking on debt. Which makes sense if they have something to spend the money on but right now it seems like they are taking debt just because they were being criticized for not having any!
They'll buy technology. Tim Cook is more inclined to do that than Steve Jobs was. Obviously, they've done it a bit already but it's time to do something on a bigger scale. They can continue to give cash back to the investors but that just suggests that the company is ex-growth, and no technology company wants that label.
That is happening to all the major companies, they have more than what they can spend, it's called capitalism, they just accumulate wealth and power with an undefined goal...
Apple will reinvest their billions back into their Chinese factories. Most factories could use updated equipment every five years. Additionally, they will plow money back into research and development to create better I-pads, and wearable wrist devices. Perhaps they will even develop medical devices.
Apple could raise its dividend in the near future by a small amount. Of course, any increase is a welcome increase for the shareholders. I could see Apple acquiring a few other companies without facing any monopolization accusations. The company is heading higher and higher as far as I'm concerned, though. I dont' see Apple slowing down anytime soon, and the shareholders are going to benefit alongside the company.
I just don't see where they can go in the short/medium term. Anything they look to acquire isn't going to set the markets alight unless its another large company and any move like that will attract monopoly investigation. Maybe split the company up and start to investigate other business avenues apart from tech..?
