It is estimated that at the end of this fiscal quarter, Apple will have no less than 70 billion dollars in its accounts, money that it could use at any time, for any purpose. In an analysis made by those from Asymco it was established that using the amounts available in the accounts, Apple could buy Nokia, HTC, RIM, Motorola, companies that account for 75% of the global sales of mobile phones. All these companies are worth 66 billion dollars, so with the remaining money, Apple could also buy the mobile phone division of Sony Ericsson, which is worth only 3 billion dollars.
The second quarter ends in less than two weeks. When it does, I expect Apple will have over $70 billion in Cash, Cash Equivalents, Short-term marketable securities and long-term Marketable Securities. That figure has been growing predictably. Also predictable has been the decline in value of Apple's mobile phone competitors. Most spectacularly Nokia and RIM. The enterprise values of the public companies selling 75% of all phones sold world-wide are as follows:
The monetary reserve of those from Apple is huge and for now it is not known what exactly the managers of the company collect money for, considering that many of Apple's competitors do not have a stock market capitalization as large as the money collected in the company's accounts in Cupertino. Regardless of what Apple is preparing for, it would have been extremely interesting to acquire at least one of the competitors, but we all know that such a thing will never happen.
