Greenlight Company Presentation
The innovation is so deeply embedded in Apple's culture... It's
deeply embedded in the values -- it's in the DNA of the company.
And so I feel fantastic about it. There's no better place for
innovation.
Greenlight Capital, Inc.
- Apple CEO, Tim Cook
28
Now that we have evaluated the four conventional means of distributing money to shareholders, let's
take a step back and consider Apple's history.
Apple was once in a hole so deep, it had to go to Microsoft for money.
Apple innovated its way out. It innovated in hardware, in software, in retail, and in supply chain
management. And the strength of that innovation has left it in the fortunate position of sitting on $137
billion in cash and growing.
But when a third of the value of the company is cash, managing it requires the sort of attention one
would normally reserve for operating the business. And in contrast to the rest of Apple's business,
where innovation is the norm, Apple's attitude toward managing its cash has been exceedingly non-
innovative. It's the one place where Tim Cook's predecessor was adamantly opposed to innovation.
Like Apple, we agree that one should take a conservative approach to managing cash. Fortunately,
being conservative and being innovative are not always at odds with one another.
28View entire presentation