On Apr 4, 2006, at 8:52 PM, Hawaii Linux Institute wrote:
This week's BusinessWeek has a top 20 ranking of the cash position
(cash as % of market cap) for the largest 500 companies in the US.
Guess who ranks No. 1?
NOV€LL
At 58% ($1.69B/$2.92B), Nov€ll's cash position is not only at the
top but is way above everyone else. Wayne
Novell is planning to spend some $400M of that to "buy back" its stock.
http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D8GPDNE82.htm?
campaign_id=apn_tech_down&chan=tc
Typically companies "buying back" their stock are viewed with
suspicion by Wall Street. (Is there no better way to increase
shareholder value?)
Sun's market cap is $17.69B and has $2.45B in "cash and cash
equivalents"
http://www.google.com/finance?q=SUNW
http://www.google.com/finance?fstype=bi&cid=543040
Apple's market cap is $51.91B and has $8.7B in liquid assets
http://www.google.com/finance?q=AAPL
Microsoft: Market cap: $285B, and $34M in "cash and short term
investments".
http://www.google.com/finance?q=MSFT
http://www.google.com/finance?fstype=bi&cid=358464
Microsoft more >cash< sitting in the bank ($4B) than Novell's total
market cap.
