In comp.os.linux.advocacy, Mark Kent
<mark.kent@xxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote
on Tue, 5 Feb 2008 18:24:10 +0000
<a7mm75-4b3.ln1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>:
> Mustafa Korn <korn@xxxxxxxxxx> espoused:
>>
>> "Hadron" <hadronquark@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
>> news:fo7d8o$2cu$2@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>>> Jerry McBride <jmcbride@xxxxxxxxxx> writes:
>>>
>>>> Roy Schestowitz wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Microsoft and the American way
>>>>>
>>>>> ,----[ Quote ]
>>>>> | An interesting side-note on the potential Yahoo-Microsoft deal:
>>>>> | Microsoft has only $17B in cash/liquid reserves, but has bid $44.6B
>>>>> for
>>>>> | Yahoo.
>>>>> `----
>>>>>
>>>>> http://warpedvisions.org/2008/02/03/microsoft-and-the-american-way/
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> $17 billion cash? Didn't they once sit on a $60 billion cash reserve at
>>>> one
>>>> time? Wow, where did all the cash go?
>>>
>>> Why would you want to know? What do you know about their purchases and
>>> re-investments? Hint : go look at the cash sheets. *snigger* Mark Kent
>>> will show you how.
>>
>>
>> Most of the fools here think that the best thing for a company to do with
>> "cash" is to hide it under a mattress or something. Somehow they think that
>> having a huge pile of money just sitting there is somehow making the most of
>> it. They are not familiar with concepts like investing the pile of cash and
>> buying other companies and investing in technologies in order to grow the
>> business.
>>
>
> Unfortunately, Scott (Mr Meyer, etc.), you don't seem to understand that
> investments appear on balance sheets as assets.
>
> The cash is *gone*.
>
Define "gone"; the 31-Dec-07 balance sheet suggests 7.5B
in "cash and cash equivalents", a further 13.6B in short
term investments, and another 13.1B in net receivables.
Throw in inventory and other current assets and one gets
37.8B, give or take. [*]
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bs?s=MSFT
This is down from 48.7B of current assets as of 2 years back,
and 40.2B as of the end of last FY:
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bs?s=MSFT&annual
but still disgustingly healthy -- at least at the moment.
One might also notice that they have *more* cash and cash
equivalents now than they did in 2005 (6.1B as opposed to
4.9B, on the annual report). Where they're getting it
from, I'm not entirely certain, though they've lost quite
a bit in short term investments -- from 32.9B to 17.3B.
That's the part that's apparently wandered off.
For comparison's sake, IBM has 46.6B of current assets,
but one would expect that; they get about half again as
much revenue as Microsoft (but with less gross profit and
net income).
[*] presumably, the cash and cash equivalents is what's in their
"wallet"; current assets is what's in their "checking account".
--
#191, ewill3@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
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