Apple Now Debt Free, Says Internal Memo

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.)

Comments

want confirmation?

[Anonymous Coward]

when's their next SEC filing deadline?

Good for everyone

[AvantLegion]

A healthy Apple is important for the computer industry. Even if you don't use Apples, you benefit from the PC industry's price undercutting of Apple's products. Apple is only "expensive" in the sense that everyone else endeavors to be cheaper.

Choice is good - including platform choice.

Market share isn't everything!

[SoTuA]

If found true, this tidbit of information goes to show that market share isn't everything... unless you do business in commodity goods. Apple computers have been always marketed at a niche of people who are aware of the fact that quality & luxury costs a little more. You can be a successful company with only 5% of the market.

Who needs the market share when you've got a cool 4 billion bucks in the bank, and the mind share - apple equals style and coolness, like it or not.

Now back to my beige box... :(

Re:Lets see...

[SpamJunkie]

This isn't being in the black. Being in the back means being profitable and they've been profitable long before now. This isn't a sign of business strength either, since many companies keep some debt around just so they have some flexibility when it comes to reporting their financials.

This is more of a business decision to run a debt-free company. With 4.8 billion cash on hand they could have been debt free before now.

As opposed to Red Ink Republicans?

[DrMorpheus]

Since the Bush Administration and the Republican dominated Congress has managed to outspend every liberal administration/Congress since the beginning of the twentieth century.

But you go right ahead and keep the faith. Obviously reality isn't bothering you enough to change your thinking.

Re:debunk

[SuperBanana]

Steve Jobs owes me thousands of dollars for the mental anguish I've experienced when trying to use the imac's original "hockey puck" mouse

Yeah, and your mother owes you millions for dropping you as a child, since those of us who weren't dropped, went to the store and bought a $40 optical scroll-wheel mouse ;-)

(Sorry, pet peeve for those who complain about the fact that a computer, designed+marketed to be EASY TO USE, comes out of the box with only one mouse button but is perfectly capable of using a fancier one if your heart desires).

This is good news for all computer users.

[newdamage]

Regardless of your choice of architecture or OS, this news is great for consumers and technology users. I may not use a Mac, but as long as Apple is out there, out of debt, and profitable I don't have to worry about Microsoft having free reign over the direction of the computer industry. XP Pro works fine for me right now when I need to get real work done (sidenote: please, Linux, work completely on laptops soon!), but if Gates & Co. decide to slide farther down some restrictive draconian path of DRM I know that I can switch in a heartbeat.

We all saw what happened when AMD became a viable competitor for Intel, processor speeds dramatically increased and prices dropped.

Without Apple continuing to innovate and capture user mindshare we'd all probably be stuck using something along the lines of Windows ME.

Re:want confirmation? - SEC filling just happened

[RazzleFrog]

Most filing is quarterly not trimesterly. Their second quarter reports have historically been published in the middle of April.

Correction

[I8TheWorm]

Just a quick correction (not a Troll... I'm glad they're doing well)...

Also noted in the memo is that Apple has $4.8 billion in the bank at this time.
and
Apple has $4.8 billion in total assets

Are not synonymous. Assets include buildings, machinery, office equipment, which I'm sure Apple has laying around somewhere...

Re:Witness...

[Gherald]

Mac OS X for x86 would suck. Unless they put a lot of money into driver support or emulation of Win32 drivers, which is risky and inelegant.

The reason why OSX "just works" on Apple computers is because Apple has complete control over the hardware.

The x86 world is so heterogeneous that if an OSX for x86 was released, it would have so many compatibility problems that Windows XP would look elegant by comparison.

And before you say "If Linux can run well on the desktop OSX should be able to as well", the answer is NO, Linux does not work well as a desktop platform yet precisely because of all the unsupported hardware and software.

And before you say "OSX has a fairly large number of commercial software availeable that could give it an edge over Linux as an alternative x86 desktop", the answer is NO, all that software would have to be redesigned, recompiled and retested for x86 which would take a very LONG time.

You OSX-for-x86 folks are so naive, it ceased to be funny a long time ago.

Apple's current business model of making their own hardware _AND_ software is working very well. It is the only way they can stay alive in a Redmond dominated world, and still compete with free (libre) alternatives like Linux.