So, this scares me just a little bit.  It was not that long ago when Apple was bleeding – nay, hemmoraging – money from every pore.  It had piled up wads of money in previous years which pretty much kept it alive  long enough to buy back Steve Jobs and rescue the company from its failed product strategy.

I’m hoping the rumors are just that – rumors.  IMHO Apple, while making amazing products and therefore making amazing money right now, could just as easily fall out of favor with finicky consumers and find itself in an all-t00-familiar position all over again.  It will need that hoard of cash to reformulate and adapt, just like it did before.

I’m all for dividend distribution in general as well, but not for companies like Apple.  Or Microsoft, for that matter.  These companies are not in a business that is constant or stable – technology is still ever-adapting and ever-competitive, and realignments are common.  That takes cash.

Besides, WTF would Apple do with Twitter anyway?  Honestly, I’m still at a loss for what Twitter is exactly for, anyway.  Marketers tell me it’s an amazing channel, but people don’t go to Twitter so they can be marketed to, they go there to communicate.  Just like on Facebook.  Just like they did on MySpace.  MySpace fell out of favor, as will Facebook, and will Twitter.  I would say Twitter is well on its way, now that “tweeting” is a mass-market phenomenon and no longer a tool of the hipsters only.  That’s usually when these things start to become boring.

Electronic Arts?  That kinda makes sense.  MacOS has always had a big gap in its games category.  Most popular games are developed for the Windows platform (though recently EA has committed to developing for the Mac, and of course World of Warcraft (Warcrack?) is on the Mac, thankfully).  But I think that gap can be filled without spending the savings account.

My $0.02 on the matter, FWIW.

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