What To Do With All That Cash?
from the wait-it-out? dept
Despite the troubled tech economy, the big tech companies (Microsoft, Cisco, Intel, and Oracle) have plenty of cash on hand. Now, some investors are beginning to push them to do something with that cash. Having it sit around earning 2% isn’t what they bought into the company for. Some are putting pressure on the companies to offer (or increase) their dividends. Other than that, the options are generally to use the cash for more R&D, buy back shares off the market, or buy up other companies. All of the companies have been known to do a combination of these things, and they still have plenty of cash left over. One fear is that with so much cash, they may end up over spending on other companies. Of course, having a lot of cash around makes for a nice buffer in case the economy continues to sink.
