The tech giant should give cash back to shareholders
这个科技巨头应该把现金返还到股东们手中
NOT long after Steve Jobs died last year, wags eulogised the Apple co-founder with a joke: “Ten years ago we had Steve Jobs, Bob Hope and Johnny Cash. Now we have no jobs, no hope and no cash.” Apple may no longer have Jobs, but it fills investors with hope and is brimming with cash. Its market capitalisation recently passed $500 billion, and it has a whopping $100 billion or so of cash on its balance-sheet. 去年史蒂夫.乔布斯去世后不久，有人用这样的一个笑话打趣苹果这位创始人之一：“十年前我们有史蒂夫.乔布斯（Jobs）、鲍勃.霍普（Hope）还有约翰尼.卡什（Cash）；现在我们没有了乔布斯（工作），失去了霍普(希望)，还少了卡什(现金)。”也许，苹果是永远失去了乔布斯，但它还是能够给予投资者希望，并且它现在还手持大量现金。苹果的市场总值最近超过了5000亿美元，在其资产负债表上也还有大概1000亿美元的巨额现金。
That mountain of money is about to get higher. Apple aficionados are poised to snap up the new gadgets that the company unveiled on March 7th. These include a new iPad, the latest in the firm’s wildly popular range of tablet computers, and a revamped Apple TV device. 这座钱山很快就要再次拔高。苹果迷正随时等待着把苹果公司在3月7日发布的新产品收入囊中。这些新产品包括苹果广受欢迎的掌上电脑最新版Ipad，以及升级版的苹果电视设备。
If the new iPad, which boasts a super-sharp screen and lightning-fast connectivity, wins friendly reviews, it will give a big boost to Tim Cook, Jobs’s handpicked successor. But the extra cash it delivers will also increase pressure on Apple’s boss and board to explain what they plan to do with the company’s embarrassment of riches. Last month Mr Cook admitted that the firm has more cash than it needs for its operations. It’s a nice problem to have. 新的Ipad拥有超炫屏幕以及如闪电一般的连通性，如果它能够获得使用者的好评，这将使乔布斯亲手选定的继承人蒂姆库克（Tim Cook）的事业再进一步。但是，苹果在收获大量现金的同时，也增加了苹果老板和董事会的压力。因为他们面临着要解释他们将如何处理公司这笔现金的尴尬局面。上月库克承认了公司所持现在已经超出了运营所需，这真是个喜半参忧的事。
The obvious solution would be to give cash back to shareholders, either via dividends or share buybacks. This is a surprisingly sensitive subject. Mr Jobs was obsessed with hoarding cash, not least because of Apple’s near-bankruptcy in the mid-1990s. Returning money to shareholders would mark a big departure from the revered founder’s philosophy. Another reason Mr Cook will want to tread carefully is that some pundits see a tech firm’s decision to start paying dividends as a signal that its glory days are behind it. One oft-cited example is Microsoft, whose growth slowed after it began returning cash to shareholders in 2003. 最现成的解决方法是通过股息分红或股票回购的方式使现金回流到股东身上，但这是个出奇敏感的话题。乔布斯过去就很喜欢把钱藏起来，主要是由于苹果在20世纪90年代中期几乎破产。把现金返还给股东，将与这位备受敬畏的创始人的理念有所出入。库克在处理这件事情上瞻前顾后的另一个原因是，某些权威人士会认为，科技企业决议发放股息分红，意味着该企业将走向没落。微软就是一个老生常谈的例子。微软在2003年向股东返还现金后，发展开始减慢。
Apple is unlikely to suffer a similar fate. Demand for its iGizmos seems insatiable. That is why it needs to come up with ways to invest more of its cash sensibly. Tim Bajarin of Creative Strategies, a consulting firm, reckons Apple could ramp up its forward purchases of components and set up its own semiconductor factories, to give it a tighter grip on a critical link in its supply chain. It could open more physical stores—though their sales would only add to its cash pile. And it may have to fork out more on lawyers’ fees to fight patent lawsuits and deal with other problems, including allegations that it colluded with publishers to fix the price of digital books. 苹果不太可能会重蹈覆辙。人们对于苹果产品的需求似乎永远无法满足，这就是为什么苹果急需思考如何明智地投资所持巨额现金的原因。创意策略（Creative Strategy）咨询公司的蒂姆.巴家瑞（Tim Bajarin）预计，苹果可以把钱用在增加提前采购元件以及开办自营的半导体工厂上，这样就可以更严密的控制其供应链上半导体器件这一重要环节。它还可以多开一些实体店——尽管实体店的销售额还是会让其现金增加。苹果也许还得在争夺专利权的官司等事情上给律师支付更多的钱。它惹上的官非还包括对它与出版社勾结操纵电子书价格。
On the acquisition front, the firm has long shunned megadeals, preferring to swallow smaller firms with technology and people it covets. That policy is unlikely to change, though Apple may well accelerate its deal-making tempo. Among its likely targets are firms that offer video and other entertainment content, and others with data that could enhance services such as Siri, its virtual personal assistant. 从收购这一方面讲，苹果长期以来都避免进行大规模的交易，反而更倾向于收购拥有其感兴趣的技术以及欣赏的人才的小型科技公司。尽管苹果可能需要加快它的收购步伐，但不太可能会转变这种策略。它看中的目标是那些视频制作等娱乐设施的公司，还有能够加强苹果产品功能，如虚拟个人助手Siri（iphone4s上的一项语音控制功能）的公司。
None of this would put much of a dent in $100 billion. So Apple will probably start handing cash back to shareholders later this year. Working out how to do so will take time, not least because the firm holds much of its money outside America in order to avoid hefty US corporate-tax rates. 以上方法还是不能让1000亿美元“财尽其用”。因此今年晚些时候，苹果可能会开始向股东发放股息红利。但是，要制定相关的计划还是要花一段时间。主要原因是苹果此前为了避开高额的美国企业税，其所持有的现金很多不在美国本土。
Some Apple fans fret that if the company decides to pay regular dividends, it could end up regretting it. “Apple needs to watch out for dividend addicts,” says Aswath Damodaran, a finance professor at New York University who owns Apple stock. Such shareholders, he adds, will be obsessed with extracting as much cash as possible from Apple rather than with its mission of making mind-blowing products. Perhaps. But the point of shares is that they confer ownership. They are valuable only because shareholders expect—and are entitled to—a share of profits. Apple may have trouble finding a good use for its cash, but its shareholders will not.
Apple Computer Inc is the world's largest mobile phone maker, she is the world's largest PC maker and the world's largest listed company by market value, its core business is electronic technology products.I think Apple should make long-term plans, then most of the money can be used for developing new products, producting a more creative production and hiring more talented people is the key.So as to he can attract more customers and investors.
According to public data, Apple's cash balance nearly equal to 70% of total net profits of all China's central enterprises (900 billion RMB). Apple is a typical company with innovative characteristics. Nothing but continuous innovation makes it so successful.
Thank you for your sharing. To make the article easier to understand, I further summarize the main idea as follows:
I. (Paragraf1-2) The mountain of Apple's cash is getting higher and higher.
II. (Paragraf3) Apple's growing cash is a double-edged sword: on the one hand it can give Tim cook a big boost; on the other hand it pressures its boss and board about explaining what to do with the extra cash.
III. (Paragraf4) The obvious solution is giving cash back to the shareholders through dividends or share buybacks but this wound make a big departure from the founder's philosophy (take Microsoft as an example).
IV. (Paragraf5-6) Apple is not likely to follow Microsoft's fate because demand for its products looks insatiable and it is unlikely to change the policy of long shunning megadeal and preferring smaller firms with technology and people it covets.
VI. (Paragraf7-8) It will take time to know how to make the most of $100 billion because much of its money is outside America. And Apple may have trouble finding a good way to use but its shareholders will not.
First，Apple make a remarkable amount of DollaR through their unparalleled products，
then comes the problem of spending it。Some companies have Similar problems。
there are also battlefields for these entities。
But Anyway，It's happiness trouble，Isn't it？
The key problem for Apple is how to spend money efficiently. But Apple can't find better ways of using the cash. The company really don't need that much money! Unbelievably.
I dont know much about the Apple， maybe I'm not fashionable。
To the thing itself, I think Apple as a mature and ritional firm， it will think of the strategy thoroughly。 And I think now some controversial decisions can attract concern of people， and people like to talk about the popular thing in a certain time。 get it easy，Apple fans， you are always the little sheep。 Forgive my evil thought。
For those industries which need rapid development of high technology, I don't think paying much dividend is a wise choice.
First of all, they need to update their products as soon as possible, otherwise the profit is easily to turn into loss, which will cause cash shortage later. And investing in technology will bring tax benefit, while paying dividend often results in dual taxes: the enterprise income tax and the individual income tax.
Second, what investors expect most is the rising price of the stock, hoping to turn them billionaires over one night, which cannot be achieved simply by dividends.
The third reason is that dividend often acts as a signal to the market. Even if the company can afford high dividend this term, it doesn't mean the high amount can be sustained in the following years, and the fluctuation of dividends will cause negtive effect to the company's market value as well as impose heavy burden on the company to meet the requirement of large amount of cash to pay dividends.
To sum up, I don't think paying high dividends is a very wise choice to those companies in the high technology industry. If I were the CEO or CFO, I would try to find some investment opportunities to spread the industry risk and to increase the stability of payoffs.
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