What should Apple do with its $24.5 billion in cash and short-term investments?
Others, however, argue that with finance growing tight, thanks to the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the bail out of the nation’s banks, sitting tight is the right thing to do. “I’d sit there with all my cash,” says Roger Kay, president of Endpoint Technologies Associates. “The guys with the cash–banded bundles of 100 dollar bills–are in the best shape of all.” Apple, of course, is one of many tech companies with large cash piles. The key difference: Other tech companies have been more diligently spending their money on stock buybacks and acquisitions. IBM (nyse: IBM – news – people ), HP and Oracle (nasdaq: ORCL – news – people ) have all been snapping up companies at a steady pace.
