How Apple should spend its $98 billion cash reserve: 4 suggestions

It's a problem just about any business would kill for: Apple's savings account is so flush it's making investors antsy Apple is sitting on top of the corporate world — and on a huge pile of cash, about $97.6 billion. As CEO, the late Steve Jobs was a stickler for hoarding the company's cash reserves for when Apple hit a rough patch, but it's looking like the tech giant will finally part with some of that money. New CEO Tim Cook hinted as much on Tuesday in his address to the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference. "I'd be the first to admit, we have more cash than we need to run the business on a daily basis," said the famously frugal Cook. But Apple will continue to spend its money judiciously, he added. "We are not going to run out and have a toga party." With a $100 billion toga party off the table, here are four things Apple might do with its mountain of cash:

1. Buy, buy, buy!
My advice, says Tom Taulli at InvestorPlace: "Get much more aggressive with acquisitions,"  Dealmaking is the quickest way to enter new markets, something Apple must do "to keep up the sizzling growth." Purchasing a company like Salesforce.com would allow Apple to conquer business-oriented cloud computing, to go with its consumer-oriented iCloud. Or, Apple could buy Sony, says Brier Dudley in The Seattle Times. "A steal for $19 billion," it would be great fit for a company entering the TV business: "Sony makes nice TVs, but it could use better software."

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2. Finally give investors a dividend
Cook told the Goldman conference that Apple shareholders "don't want us to act like we are rich." But after 17 years, "many shareholders wouldn't mind if Apple were to issue a dividend," says John Paczkowski in All Things D. Steve Jobs was adamant about Apple keeping its money for investing in the business, but "surely a meaningful one-time payment like that would have little impact to the company's earnings or cash flow these days." IBM, Microsoft, and Intel do it, "so why should Apple shareholders be denied?" says InvestorPlace's Taulli. "Dividends are a nice bonus for loyal shareholders."

3. Improve working conditions for its Chinese laborers
A dividend? "Keep dreaming," says The Seattle Times' Dudley. But maybe Apple would "pay a special dividend — to Chinese sweatshop workers who make Apple gadgets." A tenth of 1 percent of the company's $100 billion would go a long way toward creating "better conditions in Shenzhen," or starting a health care fund for those workers. Improving their quality of life is "the right thing to do," says Farhad Manjoo in Slate. But this goes beyond ethics. Apple's brand is crucial to its success, and the reports about its "dark underbelly" threaten its longterm profitability.

SEE MORE: The Steve Jobs FBI dossier: 5 surprises

4. Give it away
Not known for philanthropy, Jobs "even said he opposed giving away money," but Cook is more charitable, says Dana Kerr in CNET News. Since taking over, he's contributed $100 million of Apple's cash to local hospitals and disease-fighting nonprofit Product RED, and agreed to match up to $10,000 a year in charitable giving by employees. Note: On the same day Apple reported its "stupendous profits," Microsoft founder Bill Gates was challenging world leaders to fight poverty and disease, says The Seattle Times' Dudley. With $100 billion, "what could Apple do to make the world a better place for everyone?"

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The Empire State Building's $1 billion IPO: By the numbers

Want to own a piece of iconic Manhattan real estate? You're in luck "Soon, investors can take after King Kong and grab a piece of the Empire State Building," says Alex Veiga at the Associated Press. The owner of the tallest building in New York City plans to sell shares of the skyscraper to the public. The Malkin family, which owns the midtown Manhattan skyscraper, hopes the move will allow it to "simplify control" of its sizable real estate holdings, which include 12 office buildings in New York and Connecticut. Here, a brief guide to the IPO, by the numbers:

$1 billion
The target amount the Malkin family expects to raise in the sale

$57.5 million
Amount Peter Malkin paid Donald Trump for the property in 2002

$550 million
Amount the Malkins have since spent making the tower more energy efficient and eco-friendly

$175 million to $215 million
Additional investments expected through 2013

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$156.7 million 
Revenue earned by the skyscraper through the first nine months of 2011

1931 
Year construction was completed

1933 
Year King Kong premiered, featuring the giant ape perched at the Empire State Building's pinnacle

102
Stories in the Empire State Building

160
Stories in Dubai's Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world

1,050 
Elevation, in feet, of the Empire State Building's 86th floor observatory

1,250 
Elevation, in feet, of the 102nd floor observatory

2,716.5
Elevation, in feet, of the Burj Khalifa

10,000 to 20,000 
People who visit the Empire State Building daily

7.7 million
Square feet of rentable office space in the Malkins' dozen office buildings, including the Empire State Building

10.5 
Percentage of the Empire State Building's offices that are vacant, compared with an average of 6 percent in the surrounding neighborhood

Sources: Associated Press, Burj Khalifa, Digital Journal, Empire State Building, NY Times, Reuters 

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The $26 billion foreclosure fraud settlement: By the numbers

The government and big banks strike a deal over alleged foreclosure abuses. Where will the money go?

After months of difficult negotiations, government authorities announced Thursday that they have reached a $26 billion settlement with five of the nation's biggest banks over their flawed and fraudulent foreclosure practices. The deal is intended to help troubled borrowers by lowering their mortgage rates and the amounts they owe on their homes. It also will provide restitution to people hit by mortgage-related abuses, such as the "robo-signing" of documents to speed up foreclosures. Who will the deal help, and how much relief will they get? Here, a brief guide to the settlement, by the numbers:

$26 billion
Total value of the settlement

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$30 billion
Value of the deal if nine more mortgage-servicing institutions sign on to the settlement. To date, it just involves Wells Fargo, Bank of America, J.P. Morgan Chase, Ally Financial, and Citigroup

$17 billion
Relief earmarked for homeowners. The money will go toward lowering mortgage balances for people who are "underwater" — meaning that they owe more on their mortgages than their properties are worth

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$20,000
Approximate average reduction in each loan's principal

2 million
Underwater homeowners who could be helped under the settlement

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$700 billion
Total outstanding mortgage debt on the nation's underwater properties

$50,000
Amount those homeowners are underwater, on average

$3 billion
Relief that will come in the form of refinancing so that borrowers who are current on their mortgages, but underwater, can lower their payments by refinancing at today's historically low rates

$1.5 billion
Money earmarked as restitution to those who have lost homes to foreclosure

750,000
People who have lost their homes to foreclosure between January 2008 and the end of 2011 who will be eligible for payouts under the deal

$2,000
Average payment those people would receive

4 million
Americans who have been through foreclosure since early 2007

49
States that have signed on to the settlement. The lone holdout is Oklahoma.

$250 billion
Size of the tobacco settlement, a similar agreement between government and corporations, struck in the 1990s

Sources: Business Insider, NY Times, Think Progress, Wash. Post

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