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New Apple CFO to Oversee Huge and Growing Cash Position

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in Off-Topic

Take two aspirin and call Warren Buffet in the morning?
Apple's new finance steward Maestri takes over $160 billion cash haul, a cash pile the size of Vietnam's economy .

By Sruthi Ramakrishnan and Edwin Chan,Reuters

SAN FRANCISCO Tue Mar 4, 2014 5:12pm EST
Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook noted that Apple's revenue had risen to $171 billion from $8 billion during Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer's tenure as CFO.

Cook and other executives had said the company intends to update shareholders and investors on their cash management strategy around April.

The company's growing cash pile has been a perennial source of discontent amongst investors, given much of it is parked overseas without significant returns and the company has proven conservative in pursuing acquisitions.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/04/us-apple-cfo-idUSBREA2315T20140304

Comments

  • scott
    edited March 2014
    The issue is that you have a Google who is spending on "moon shots" with Google X (wired interview: http://www.wired.com/business/2013/01/ff-qa-larry-page/) and maybe some of the investments (things like Project Loon, Calico, Google Fiber, self-driving vehicles, Glass, etc) work, some don't, maybe one will hit big down the road. Google is not only buying companies, but getting talent - Ray Kurzweil, Nest's Tony Fadell and other former Apple people at Nest, etc. As I've said before, I think the Google of 5-10 years from now will likely look different from the Google of today, and Eric Schmidt said as much on CNBC a few months ago.

    Apple is not making many moves at all, but is doing the level of business that companies would/do envy. Still, in a world where tech is moving so quickly people are looking for not only growth but the potential of it. With Apple doing little and choosing to follow rather than lead in some things (people wanted a bigger screen phone, Apple may be really getting around to it with the next Iphone), you're not going to see things change.

    The IBeacon development is interesting, but Qualcomm is also developing beacons and retail seems ultimately slow to make the changes that they ultimately need to do, whether it's IBeacons or EMV-compliant point-of-sale or whatever.

    Repeating the cycle over and over again - new Iphone, new Ipod, new Ipad, repeat in a market where there's increasing competition and people are - I think - finding that some cheaper (and yet similarly feature-rich) options are "just fine" is not helping either.

    Apple will make a significant move at some point, but until then I think the stock is going to wander. I also wonder whether the significant move will be voluntary or involuntary (activist shareholder - Icahn, etc.)

  • JohnChisum
    I believe Apple has a plan for their cash and it doesn't include Icahn. That said, at this rate they will need their own central bank.
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