

Why is Apple sitting on $142bn? - beardless_sysad
http://www.bbc.com/news/business-31016446

======
bweitzman
> He even admitted Apple would be happy to pay more tax, but only if there was
> a "dramatic simplification of the corporate tax code" including a
> "reasonable tax on foreign earnings that allows the free flow of capital
> back to the United States".

"I'd like to say I'm paying taxes without actually paying taxes"....

~~~
cylinder
Oh yes, I'm sure the major issue for the largest corporation in the world is
"complicated tax laws." They just can't figure out what all those darn big
words mean!

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kaonashi
Because they're a revenue generating machine in an age of suppressed demand.

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melling
With that kind of money you could invent the future, or one small piece of it.
Microsoft's HoloLens was a nice surprise, for example. Apple should take a big
jump in something.

~~~
joezydeco
Apple is probably working on a lot of things, but their current method is to
not show something unless it's shipping (or close to it).

[http://counternotions.com/2008/08/12/concept-
products/](http://counternotions.com/2008/08/12/concept-products/)

~~~
melling
Yes, I think everyone understands Apple's secrecy by now. Here's my favorite
expression of that:
[http://worrydream.com/Apple/](http://worrydream.com/Apple/)

Anyway, it doesn't count until it ships. You haven't actually solved a problem
until you've shipped a product that someone will pay for.

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chrisbennet
Are they hiring like mad? Isn't that what were told should happen if
corporations paid less taxes?

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IndianAstronaut
Is Apple really an outlier? Many Japanese companies do the same. Nintendo is
famous for its huge cash reserves. It can help a company see through regular
ups and downs of the market.

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biomimic
Minus $35B in debt:
[http://finance.yahoo.com/q/ks?s=AAPL+Key+Statistics](http://finance.yahoo.com/q/ks?s=AAPL+Key+Statistics)

~~~
thoughtpalette
From the article...

"In total, the amount of cash in the group is around $178bn. Some $35bn in
debt reduces that figure to the $142bn mentioned above."

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taurath
They could always end world hunger 4 times over (granted, so could many many
entities), but they'll probably use it to make more money.

~~~
melling
World hunger is a $30 billion a year problem? Americans spend $15 billion on
bottled water. If we stopped that we'd fix half the problem:

[http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/12/bottled-
water_n_374...](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/12/bottled-
water_n_3744480.html)

In fact, $30 billion is a rounding error in a $15 trillion economy.

Women's luxury market is $250 billion/year.

[http://discover.umn.edu/news/arts-humanities/university-
minn...](http://discover.umn.edu/news/arts-humanities/university-minnesota-
research-reveals-luxury-products-role-relationships)

Anyway, I really don't understand why you'd add noise to this conversation.

