….. and it would reward those of us “oldies’ who kept the faith through the years, both in adopting the Mac brand and staying with it, despite the ridicule of friends and colleagues… (Ha!) and purchasing and holding stock for many years. A client I have worked with for 10 years used to tease me about being “a Mac person.” Two years ago, he bought an iPhone and said he’d never go back….. when the family’s PC died earlier this year, he bought his son the promised Desktop Mac. and learned that Apple’s “plug and play” slogan really means what it says.

Nevertheless, his comments on Apple don’t warrant this hyperbole. It’s completely valid to question Apple’s cash stockpile. And as for a cash-financed company borrowing to finance a dividend, that is exactly what Intel did in June, during perhaps its strongest year on record. Hardly a desperate move by a company on its last legs:

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=2 0601103&sid=aPUbuCtDlPpQ

Apple has been pinned to the ground at several times in its history and each time it has roared back stronger than ever, after pouring its own cash at hand into new technologies.

From Dec 2000 until Dec 2003, eons by stock-trading standards, Apple bounced around $10 per present share, and as little as $6, held afloat only by the cash on its books. Attention Deficit Disorder-riddled investors wouldn’t have thought twice about tossing one of the greatest and most innovative corporations history has produced into the bankruptcy dustheap, if it weren’t for that pesky pile on the balance sheet.

What’s more, it is a shame Arends views writing as a disease! Can any human drive that is not foremost about money possibly be healthy?

I for one own shares of Apple Inc. but in small quantity but knowing that I can sell my shares now for 3 times my purchase gives me a nice warm feeling.

I like that apple tend to bring out great products that just work.

For Apple Inc. at this time start pushing out the door dividends for no reason and then have to borrow money from banks sound more of a wish for some for Apple to fold.

As a shareholder I at no time have cared about the dividends as I have about stock prices and company performance.

“Not paying dividends now because we have better uses for the money” makes a lot of sense. I was envisioning a company that had no intention to pay dividends in the future.

And, if one believes that paying a dividend is “equivalent to” share buybacks, why immediately go on to claim that, unlike dividends, share buybacks are a poor strategy if a company’s share price is high? Either two things are equivalent or they are not.

It’s the investor’s choice in a free market– you’re free to buy shares in a company that offer a comfortable dividend… or you can take a risk with one that doesn’t.

Microsoft is another example of a transition from high-growth no-dividend to steady earning dividend-payer (although they still have enormous piles of cash and the dividend is none too large).

Some companies try to change camp e.g. Ryanair and Freenet, but it is often painful/volatile as you change much of the investor base.