Apple, the most valuable technology company in the world, may have failed to reach analysts profit forecasts for the last quarter for the first time since 2008, but it hasn’t stopped them swelling their cash reserves to an incredible $81.5 billion.
The company was helped by massive growth in profits in both China and Brazil.
The question is, what will Apple do with their war chest?
To put it into context, the $12.5 billion Google are paying for Motorola Mobility would barely make a dent in Apple’s reserves.
Apple has the potential to buy out most companies right now. They badly lack a social product, so there’s an opportunity there. But where else…what else do they need that could be properly integrated into their tightly controlled hardware and software lines?
Truth be told, I don’t know, but I’m going to be looking hard over the next few weeks. Especially as the next quarter profits are likely to be record breaking with sales of the iPhone 4S.
Apple’s piggy bank is only set to get bigger so they will have to start spending soon.
Incidentally, because Apple failed to make the profits analysts predicted, their stock actually fell by over 5%. As MG Siegler explains here, if you sold stock off the back of this supposedly bad quarter, you were a fool. It was actually Apple’s second best quarter ever…
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