

Ask HN: What should Apple do with their $97.6B in cash? - bluedevil2k

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?
======
bluedevil2k
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.

~~~
steventruong
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.

------
steventruong
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.

------
brudgers
[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?"

------
nurik
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.

------
Lawnb0y
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.

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

------
glimcat
I'd develop the technology for asteroid mining.

