It's buying startups that make military-grade robot dogs and artificial intelligence companies as it seeks to build a digital version of the human brain. To fulfill the great expectations it has set, Apple needs another breakthrough to match those earlier successes.īut what if, instead of struggling to invent its way to its next big thing, Apple simply bought it? Google recently spent more than $3 billion to jumpstart its hardware business - and the internet of things as a whole - by purchasing Nest. After birthing new product categories with the iPod, iPhone, and iPad, Apple has gone several years without creating something truly original. Apple's share price has dropped in part because of ongoing concerns that its innovation engine is sputtering. Though Apple's profits continue to rise, investors want more, and a stock buyback - intended to raise the value of the company's shares - is one way of keeping them quiet.īut what investors really want is something new. This is part of a larger repurchasing plan meant to shore up its share price and show investors it's actually doing something with the nearly $160 billion in cash parked in its bank account. Not a watch, not a TV - it's spending $14 billion to buy back some stock.

For Apple, it's what you spend in two weeks to placate a billionaire investor and other shareholders who think selling 50 million or so iPhones in three months just isn't good enough.Īfter reporting stellar first quarter results that nevertheless disappointed Wall Street again, Apple is taking a different tack. For some countries, that exceeds the annual GDP, dwarfing the value of all goods and services produced over the course of an entire year.

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