The $50 Billion Company Gene Munster Wishes Apple Would Buy
It's earnings season and Apple is faring very well, the company smashed Wall Street's revenue expectations. Investment research firm Zacks held consensus expectations of $51.2 billion in revenue, but the tech giant reported $52.6 billion, 12 percent higher than a year ago.
According to Gene Munster, a long-time Apple watcher and managing partner at Loup Ventures, this is the company's best quarter in years.
"December of 2014 was the last time that Apple grew every product in every geography," Munster told Cheddar on Friday.
And since that time, the company has amassed a pretty big cash stockpile. For the quarter, Apple CFO Luca Maestri said the company “generated strong operating cash flow of $15.7 billion and returned $11 billion to investors through [its] capital return program.”
At the end of the quarter, the tech giant had nearly $270 billion on its balance sheet. That's bigger than the entire market cap of Wal-Mart...and the GDP of Venezuela!
And Munster has some ideas for what the company can do with that money. If Apple wanted to make an acquisition, for example, he thinks the best move would be American automaker Tesla.
"Netflix is always out there," as a possible target, he said. "It would make a lot of sense because it would play into its service business. [But] the company that I wish it would buy is Tesla." He cautioned though, that he doesn't think it'll happen.
"Elon Musk doesn't want to sell, but as a backstop, as you see the Tesla shares slide here, I think Apple would love to buy them at some point."
Unlike Apple, Tesla posted a big miss in its latest quarter, recording its largest ever loss of $2.92 a share.
Bambu Ventures's Kyle Pretsch dives into Lemonaid’s $10M buyout, down from 23andMe’s $400M price tag, and what’s next after Chrome Co.’s dramatic pivot.
Former Cisco Systems CEO John Chambers learned all about technology’s volatile highs and lows as a veteran of the internet’s early boom days during the late 1990s and the ensuing meltdown that followed the mania. And now he is seeing potential signs of the cycle repeating with another transformative technology in artificial intelligence. Chambers is trying take some of the lessons he learned while riding a wave that turned Cisco into the world's most valuable company in 2000 before a crash hammered its stock price and apply them as an investor in AI startups. He recently discussed AI's promise and perils during an interview with The Associated Press.
Grove Collaborative’s CEO shares how the company is reinventing everyday goods with sustainability at the core and working toward a plastic-free future.
Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens shares plans for affordable housing, community-led growth, and why private and public grocery stores could be key to food equity.
Tesla reported a surprise increase in sales in the third quarter as the electric car maker likely benefited from a rush by consumers to take advantage of a $7,500 credit before it expired on Sept. 30. The company reported Thursday that sales in the three months through September rose 7% compared to the same period a year ago. The gain follows two quarters of steep declines as people turned off by CEO Elon Musk’s foray into right-wing politics avoided buying his company’s cars and even protested at some dealerships. Sales rose to 497,099 vehicles, compared with 462,890 in the same period last year.
Tom’s Guide Editor-in-Chief Mark Spoonauer breaks down Apple & Amazon's latest product drops—what's hot, what's hype, and what really matters for users.
