Apple's Cash On Hand: 9 Things The Company Could Pay For (SLIDESHOW)

Apple Inc on Tuesday announced record-setting earnings for the fiscal quarter spanning the months of October through December 2011.

Among the highlights were iPhone sales: 37 million in total, which the AP reports as “double the figure of the previous quarter and more than twice as many as [Apple] sold in last year's holiday quarter.”

The company also sold 15.43 million iPads during the quarter, which is a 111 percent increase over the same quarter last year, per Apple's official press release. Apple also sold 5.2 million Macs during the last three months of 2011.

The company posted a quarterly revenue of $46.33 billion and a quarterly net profit of $13.06 billion.

“We are very happy to have generated over $17.5 billion in cash flow from operations during the December quarter,” said Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer, per the release.

Oppenheimer went on announce another stunning statistic: Apple now has $97.6 billion cash on hand. According to TechCrunch's live blog of the earning's call, Oppenheimer said that the money wouldn't "burn a hole in [Apple's] pocket," though he didn't hint at how the company would spend it.

Check out our slideshow below to see a few things Apple's mountain of cash could pay for.

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• Facebook

  <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/25/facebook-trades-shares_n_1230034.html?ref=technology" target="_hplink">Rumor suggests</a> that the social network may IPO at or around a $100 billion valuation.

• 216 Missions To Mars

  <a href="http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/pao/faq/faqanswers.htm" target="_hplink">The Kennedy Space Center estimates</a> that the average cost of a mission to Mars is $450 million.

• A Year Of American Students' Loans

  Apple could just about cover the more than $100 billion in student loans that are <a href="http://www.finaid.org/loans/ " target="_hplink">issued each year by the federal governemnt</a>.

• Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Writedown Loan

  <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/23/fannie-freddie-writedown_n_1224608.html" target="_hplink">From Reuters</a>: "The regulator for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac told lawmakers that forcing the two mortgage firms to write down loan principal would require more than $100 billion in fresh taxpayer funds."

• Rival Phone Makers

  Apple can afford to buy Samsung, HTC, Nokia, RIM, LG, Motorola and Sony Ericsson, which in November 2011 <a href="http://www.asymco.com/2011/11/24/apple-could-buy-the-mobile-phone-industry-updated/" target="_hplink">had a combined value of $78 billion.</a>

• California's Budget

  <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/24/apple-market-value_n_1229605.html?ref=technology" target="_hplink">Reuters reports</a> that the State of California has a projected budget of $97.6 billion for the next year.

• Germany's Budget Cuts

  The European nation plans to make <a href="http://www.marketwatch.com/story/germany-plans-976-billion-in-budget-cuts-2010-06-07" target="_hplink">$97.6 billion in budget cuts</a> before 2014.

• Cleaner Air

  <strong>Cleaner Air</strong> In September, President Obama withdrew pollution-lowering regulation due to prohibitively high cost. The measure <a href="http://www.environmentalleader.com/2011/09/02/obama-axes-ozone-rule-revamp/" target="_hplink">would have cost U.S. businesses from $20 to $90 billion.</a>

• The World

  With a loan of less than $3 billion, Apple could pay off <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTmXHvGZiSY" target="_hplink">"Austin Powers" villain Dr. Evil, who demanded a $100 billion ransom on the world.</a>

• BONUS: 17 Years Of Foreign Aid

  Between 1946 and 1963 the United States <a href="http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1368&dat=19630121&id=D3ZQAAAAIBAJ&sjid=_RAEAAAAIBAJ&pg=5665,1077014" target="_hplink">paid out $97.6 billion in foreign aid.</a>

Comments

[seojimjames]

04:55 PM on 01/30/2012

how about paying the kids that actually MAKE apple products a decent wage with decent work conditions ? wow what a weird idea .....all that cash...when it would only take a little more to treat their "employess" like real humans....what a total disgrace.

[llen]

10:07 AM on 01/27/2012

They made all this cash off the backs and deaths of Chinese workers. No wonder they won't do anything about the conditions in China, it would effect there glutinous bottom line.

[old broken record]

04:14 AM on 01/27/2012

one thing that apple could buy, but won't, with it's mountains of cash is the freedom of the slaves it employs in china

[mistergg69]

10:45 PM on 01/26/2012

APPLE please send all conservatives to Newt's moon colony with all your profits...OBAMA 2012

[danny saunders]

03:49 PM on 01/26/2012

How about Apple buy a decent wage for their Chinese slaves?

[Al Schrader]

06:31 PM on 01/26/2012

To Behaviour: You can't expect success overnight. It took me decades to discover the graviton (2,002), and another 9 years to find the particle that makes matter itself (it's not the Higgs Boson).
I had to do all of this work myself and with zero funding. I had to build the experimental apparatus myself. Of course, now that apparatus is worth more than the entire Apple company. But, all of this work for decades was worth every minute. Now that I'm finally finding answers, sometimes I can't sleep at night when I've got all of the pieces and I know it just a matter of time until I find the answer. Finding out what heat really is kept me up until 2am. But, I found it. And finally figuring out and finding what matter is really made of
while others are spending billions and have zilch. That's almost too hard to describe.
Being the first is the sweet part....Alfred-

[Behaviour Problem]

07:09 PM on 01/26/2012

It's not that I'm concerned about "success". It's just the part that begins to self destruct itself, ultimatly leaving me with "the bag". Everytime I think I should do things for others it's just a meaningless void. Like Apple's money. It just points back to myself and that I should only be concerned with "me" because you cannot really teach others but they just learn by watching you!

[Kathy Bishop]

12:59 PM on 01/26/2012

You forgot to mention lowering their corporate and individual income taxes and bringing back all that offshore money so they have money to invest in making the economy stronger.

[Claudia L]

11:44 AM on 01/26/2012

How about jobs for Americans?

[GirlFriday123]

10:57 AM on 01/26/2012

They could pay for decent working conditions for their Chinese laborers.

[WomenOnGuard]

08:48 AM on 01/26/2012

Apple: W'd like a factory of apple products here in the USA.

[Austin Hoffmann]

08:01 AM on 01/26/2012

jesus christ apple is a BEASTT!!! i just learned If you stack every single dollar bill in Apple's $97 billion cash reserves, you would reach 6,583 miles into space...can you say EL-Ohhhh-EL?!!!! HAHAHA

pic/vid:
http://www.peeje.com/apple-stack-cash-213/

P.S. WOOT APPLE!!! 8=D

[Claudia L]

11:45 AM on 01/26/2012

Why did you go out into space. I was hoping it would pass my house.

[Austin Hoffmann]

09:10 PM on 01/26/2012

lol

[Claudia L]

11:46 AM on 01/26/2012

Let me be your first Friend & Fan.

[RC Andrews]

07:32 AM on 01/26/2012

Uncle Scam has been running jobs out of this country since your hero FDR's days of meddling in the "free" market.

Get over it or stop voting for Big Government it is the very thing that created this mess and all the other messes strangling this country into non existence.

And I also bet I can find an abundance of Chinese made garbage in your yards, driveways and homes because we aren't given a choice anymore.

Are we going to ban Toyota or BMW from selling us automobiles seeing how China manufacturers lots of those giants parts and not too mention they will be selling China's hybrid cars?

I don't think many of you realize exactly how much of the planets goods and garbage China produces for the planet from every continent.

But you go on right a head and keep voting for more of that Big Government so many of you have become addicted to.

[onewhothinks]

11:58 AM on 01/26/2012

The US economy grew out of the Great Depression under FDR. FDR led us through WWII. And he was from a time when being a Republican didn't mean irrationally going for the throat of any Democrat in the spotlight. So find someone that deserves criticism to complain about, like Hoover, who's insistence on the "invisible hand" of the free market's power only allowed things to get worse and worse.

[RC Andrews]

12:41 PM on 01/26/2012

You obviously don't know anything about the factual history surrounding The New Deal.

Also how convenient of you to leave out the messes Wilson created and is quite possibly where it all went so terribly wrong.

But as a libertarian I blame all the democrats and republicans for ALL the messes and current messes we are in.

You act like democrats are some kind of savior party, which is so far from the truth it is taking all I have to not throw up with your lack of knowledge about your precious party.

All of you need to stop voting and procreating because you have bankrupted the country with your constant meddling in foreign affairs / policing the world and have done nothing but made us all slaves to your addictions to governemnt control.

[ProgressiveInTexas]

06:57 AM on 01/26/2012

The one thing they should buy: A manufacturing plant in the United States....

[gregory57]

05:59 AM on 01/26/2012

11. A social conscience.

Chinese slave labor is the reason Apple is obscenely profitable.

[Cheerilee53]

02:59 PM on 01/26/2012

lol Apple isn't the only one, pal.

[gregory57]

03:02 PM on 01/26/2012

Does that absolve them from their responsibility?

And I'm not your pal, buddy :P

[gregory57]

03:04 PM on 01/26/2012

Does that make it easier for you to use your iphone and airbook?

[popshugo]

04:58 AM on 01/26/2012

Apples large profits could pay for better working conditions and pay for the Chinese labour force who work under deplorable conditions.

[BurtonDesque]

03:21 AM on 01/26/2012

How about they pay all their workers decent wages instead?