Tim Cook Admits That Apple Has Too Much Cash

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If you follow the business side of Apple, then you know the electronics giant has a massive amount of cash-on-hand, more than the GDP of many small countries. Many investors have pushed for Apple to buy back some stock or to issue dividends to investors, while some Apple Store employees have pushed for them to get bigger paychecks with all the Apple cash. Apple has mostly been silent on the issue of their massive cash reserves, but now Apple CEO Tim Cook has spoken out about the money, and even admitted that Apple does have too much cash.

Speaking at Apple’s annual shareholders meeting, Tim Cook admitted that Apple did have “than we need to run a company”, and said that Apple’s upper echelon was in “active discussions” regarding what to do with all that money. Apple has over $97 billion in cash and short-term investments, which is more cash than the US Treasury has on hand, and also more than the Gross Domestic Product of 125 smaller countries around the world.

Investors are pushing heavily for Apple to issue dividends, or to smaller extend, buy back some stock from the public so the Apple shares that remain publicly held become more valuable.

Tech bloggers and industry analysts have suggested for a while that Apple’s hordes of cash exist to help the company acquire smaller tech companies. We’ve seen the past few years Apple and Google (and other companies) fight over smaller tech companies which may be developing interesting technologies or valuable patents. With Apple having a Scrooge McDuck-sized fortune, it certainly makes it easier for Apple to outbid companies like Google and Microsoft.

What do you think? Should Apple give the money back to investors? Give it to the employees? Issue refunds to the customers? Share your opinion in our comments section.