

Apple Is Not Wasting Its Cash Aggressively Enough - rpm4321
http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2013/02/07/david_einhorn_sues_apple_over_its_cash_stockpile.html

======
goodcanadian
I am somewhat intrigued by this as an investor.

Simply sitting on the cash is not a very good investment. While having some
around is a good strategic move, $72 billion in current assets is probably
excessive. Besides, it is not like Apple would have a problem with debt
financing if they decided to make a major acquisition (a scenario that I find
unlikely, anyway).

What to do with the cash is a bit of a harder problem, though. The default
option should be to give it back to the investors as a dividend or share
repurchase. I would actually go with the latter as I think Apple is
oversold/undervalued at the moment. I was thinking of selling, but now I am
thinking of buying, again.

On the other hand, I am not particularly convinced by the "social good"
argument of the article; this is business, after all. The author is right,
though, that there is certainly an opportunity to try something wild (and
huge) which could change the world (and possibly make even more money for the
investors). That sounds like a very Steve Jobs thing to do. As a data point
rather than a serious suggestion, this is more cash than Robert Zubrin
suggested would be necessary for a Mars mission back in the mid-nineties in
his book, "The Case for Mars."

