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Apple Now Debt Free, Says Internal Memo

Posted by timothy on from the sprightly-even dept.

An anonymous reader writes "99mac.se publishes an internal memo from Steve Jobs to Apple employees today. According to the Memo, Jobs states that "Today is a historic day of sorts for our company." Apple used $300 million in cash to pay off the rest of their debt, and is now a debt-free company. A big turnaround from over $1 billion in debt in mid-1997. Also noted in the memo is that Apple has $4.8 billion in the bank at this time." (Since this is not coming straight from Apple, confirmation -- or debunking -- would be helpful.)

4 of 627 comments (clear)

  1. All this means... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    ...is that Apple will now increase spending on its secret relationship with Fisher-Price's R&D to come out with uglier and gaudier looking products.

  2. Re:First to say - Well Done by micromoog · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Have you not been paying attention at all for the past three years?

  3. Why?? by daperdan · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Why does Slashdot always pat Apple on the back for everything? They appear to take the best of the Open Source world and give nothing in return. To this day I can't run their quicktime movies on Linux:
    http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/

    I don't see a Linux option here. Also missing is a BSD download.

    You see countless posters protesting SCO's use of Apache and Samba yet very little is said of Apple charging 500 bucks for a server OS that is almost 100% open source with their fancy gui on top. Have they donated any of those management tools? No. What has been their contribution? Hardly anything...

    In a way they are worse that Billy Gates and his crew. They turn their company around by taking advantage of the blood sweat and tears of the Open Source programmers and don't give anything back.

    I know I'll get flamed for this but I need to vent my frustrations. Don't try and tell me that Darwin is their contribution because we all know it's crippleware.

  4. Re:First to say - Well Done by isa-kuruption · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Well, that's just hogwash. Pure conjecture, but I would expect that from someone who follows NPR, the radio station run by college professors and grad students. You know what they say about teaching, right? Those who can't do... teach.

    Anyway...

    As stated multiple times already in this story, borrowing and spending is a better way to do business.

    For example, if a small business has $15,000 in the bank, it may be better for them to keep that capital on hand and BORROW $15,000 (using the $15,000 they have as collateral), thus keeping the money AND making the necessary improvements.

    Companies, and the government, has done this for years. Apple is a good example of how to borrow money instead of spending cash on hand. Investment in business now means MORE money down the line, and guess what, it works for government too. Good examples would be the tax cuts by JFK and the tax cuts by Reagan. To be specific, the tax cuts instituted by Reagan was followed by an increase of collected income taxes by 99.1%. (Yes, that is almost TWICE as much as the previous year). This proves that investment now means higher returns down the line.

    Sorry to burst your bubble.