$100 billion is a
lot. It's also a little more than Apple has on hand. According to Mashable's Todd Wassermann,
it's more like $97.7 billion.
That's still more than the U.S. Treasury had as of July, when
Apple's cash hoard was a mere $76.4 billion. And with two major product
launches since then -- the iPhone 4S and the new iPad -- Apple has
accumulated more raw cash reserves in a little under a year than the gross domestic
product of Jamaica and Iceland combined.
Some, like the comic artists at Geek Culture, have
facetiously made suggestions for what Apple
should do with all of the cash ... like give free health care to all of
Apple's employees and customers or increase the pay of the Foxconn
assembly line workers that make Apple products.
Here's what Apple is doing
with it -- what it has announced and what it is currently doing.
Executive compensation
Apple's late CEO, Steve Jobs, famously drew a $1 salary for much of his
career (despite having other perks such as over $1 billion in stock and a $90 million
Gulfstream jet). His successor, Tim Cook, received a base salary of
$900,000 plus over a third of a billion dollars' worth of stock
for 2011. He's not able to cash most of his stock for a few years,
though, to ensure he stays with the company.
Hoarding components and monopsonizing supply chains
Apple uses its cash hoard to buy hoards of components for its electronic
gadgets. More than that, it buys the world's stock of the most
cutting-edge components and signs exclusivity agreements that prevent
high-tech electronics manufacturers from making certain parts for anyone
else.
Buying back shares and paying dividends
Starting in July, according to Reuters' Poornima Gupta, Apple will start paying stockholders $2.65 per
quarter per share. It will also begin buying back its own stock.
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