Quote:
Originally Posted by oilyfan
That does not make sense.
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Sure it does. Why use your own money when you can use someone else's at a rate of interest barely higher than inflation? Especially if you are a multi-national where you might get to write off the interest as costs for an overly-profitable division, and you are investing in capital projects you can amortize to further depress their profits long-term.
When people say Apple has "cash", it's not like they have a big vault full of it like Scrooge McDuck, where their executives go to swim in money. Freeing up that "cash" to use has an associated cost, so it can make perfect sense to leave it where it is and borrow money sometimes, especially with the historically low interest rates they can get.