Microsoft and its cash

[Night201]

Today, Microsoft continues to dominate the PC software industry, holding more than $52 billion in cash and short-term investments despite the stagnation in high-tech spending.

What exactly does it mean when a company has "cash"? Is there some huge vault that has $52 billion in cash or is it in some other form?

 

means it can spend 52 billion and it wont have to cut back anything in order to do so.

 

[Kevin]

There is a huge vault filled with $100 bills and all the execs get to swim in it whenever they please. Kind of like Scrooge McDuck in Duck Tales...

 

[kapster]

i love duck tales.

memories...

 

[VBboy]

I love duck with wine

 

[xirtam]

I think by cash, they mean liquid holdings.

And you used the wrong form: "it's" is a contraction, "its" is possessive.

 

[VBboy]

Originally posted by: xirtam
I think by cash, they mean liquid holdings.

And you used the wrong form: "it's" is a contraction, "its" is possessive.

LOL, I'd lose my mind if I corrected everyone's its, it's, their, there, and others.

 

[ViRGE]

"Cash" is typically defined as being 2 things. First, it's all the straight-up money they have sitting in banks right now, and second, it's all their investments(stock shares and what-not) that they can sell right now(so-called short-term investments). If they pooled these resources, they would have $52 billion in money they could spend.

 

[xirtam]

Originally posted by: VBboy

Originally posted by: xirtam
I think by cash, they mean liquid holdings.

And you used the wrong form: "it's" is a contraction, "its" is possessive.

LOL, I'd lose my mind if I corrected everyone's its, it's, their, there, and others.

"Its" worth it to make them lose "theres"

 

[Night201]

Originally posted by: xirtam
I think by cash, they mean liquid holdings. And you used the wrong form: "it's" is a contraction, "its" is possessive.

Fixed. Sorry, I was typing quick. I don't really care "too" much about grammar when posting.

 

[xirtam]

Originally posted by: Night201

Originally posted by: xirtam
I think by cash, they mean liquid holdings. And you used the wrong form: "it's" is a contraction, "its" is possessive.

Fixed. Sorry, I was typing quick. I don't really care "too" much about grammar when posting.

Its ok. Theirs really no need to worry about it. Aye just like to point it out.

 

[KeyserSoze]

"Well tickle my tailfeathers." --Scrooge McDuck





KeyserSoze

 

[brxndxn]

It means that they've overcharged their customers by $52billion. Since they are a monopoly, they should be run like a government agency. That means - NOT FOR PROFIT. Otherwise, they should be broken up and shreaded as to prevent monopoly, oligopoly, future monopoly, future oligopoly, or consumer rapism.

 

[JeffreyLebowski]

hell with $52billion in cash, you'd think they'd incorporate a spell checker and grammer checker into their web browsers.

 

[XZeroII]

Originally posted by: brxndxn
It means that they've overcharged their customers by $52billion. Since they are a monopoly, they should be run like a government agency. That means - NOT FOR PROFIT. Otherwise, they should be broken up and shreaded as to prevent monopoly, oligopoly, future monopoly, future oligopoly, or consumer rapism.

Overcharged? 90% of that came from smart investing, not raw profit. If you are going to make yourself look like an idiot, do it right and make the evening news.

 

[ElFenix]

Originally posted by: JeffreyLebowski
hell with $52billion in cash, you'd think they'd incorporate a spell checker and grammer checker into their web browsers.

case in point.

 

[C'DaleRider]

Originally posted by: brxndxn
It means that they've overcharged their customers by $52billion. Since they are a monopoly, they should be run like a government agency. That means - NOT FOR PROFIT. Otherwise, they should be broken up and shreaded as to prevent monopoly, oligopoly, future monopoly, future oligopoly, or consumer rapism.

Nothing illegal about being a monopoly.........and to consider that another company can enter the OS arean anytime soon is a pipe dream. The barriers to entry are enormous. Top that off with MS's Office suite completely dominating the business arena, despite having had significant competitors, such as Corel, WordPerfect Suite, and Lotus. The business world runs the software side of the market, not home consumers. When business wants to change, it will. But, in this environment today, there are just no serious alternatives to MS products.......the others have essentially withered away from MS's marketing a decent product.

Before the flame, name another PC OS that my 72 yo mother can load without any huge learning curve. This is Linux's obstacle........too open source and too many fingers in the pie.......too many versions to be homongenous across all computers running them, and WAY too hard for Joe Schmoe to want to spend time even attempting to learn. Comppound that with too many devices not being Linux compatible, and you have a geek OS that's till not ready for prime-time playing.

 

[imported_Tomato]

MSFT can suck my butt. :|

 

[Mister T]

Originally posted by: ViRGE
"Cash" is typically defined as being 2 things. First, it's all the straight-up money they have sitting in banks right now, and second, it's all their investments(stock shares and what-not) that they can sell right now(so-called short-term investments). If they pooled these resources, they would have $52 billion in money they could spend.

not stocks man... short term investments are not equities... probably invested in commercial paper and short dated treasuries.

 

[Actaeon]

Originally posted by: JeffreyLebowski
hell with $52billion in cash, you'd think they'd incorporate a spell checker and grammer checker into their web browsers.

How ironic...

Correction:

Its spelt Grammar.

 

[Spyro]

Originally posted by: xirtam

Originally posted by: Night201

Originally posted by: xirtam
I think by cash, they mean liquid holdings. And you used the wrong form: "it's" is a contraction, "its" is possessive.

Fixed. Sorry, I was typing quick. I don't really care "too" much about grammar when posting.

Its ok. Theirs really no need to worry about it. Aye just like to point it out.

Don't you mean "I just like to point it out"

 

[Yossarian]

Originally posted by: Actaeon

Its spelt Grammar.

Even more ironic is that I count 4 errors in that sentence alone

 

[rh71]

I was looking through the 2002 Fortune 500 list... you'd be surprised how little PROFIT is actually in the REVENUE among some of the firms...

Some company on the list made ~$150mil in REVENUE, but PROFIT was -$230mil, which means they used an additional $80mil to get to that much revenue.

HAHAHAHAHA.

 

[ViRGE]

Originally posted by: rh71
I was looking through the 2002 Fortune 500 list... you'd be surprised how little PROFIT is actually in the REVENUE among some of the firms...

Some company on the list made ~$150mil in REVENUE, but PROFIT was -$230mil, which means they used an additional $80mil to get to that much revenue.

HAHAHAHAHA.

They would have burnt through $380mil altogether to make that $150mil in revenue, hence the -230.