Apple becomes the first $1T company • Hacker News Board

Re: Apple becomes the first $1T company

#181

Post by guntars » Thu, Aug 02, 2018, 5:16 PM UTC

chatmasta wrote: post #120

losteric wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A share is fractional ownership of the underlying company and all it's assets - that is what gives it value. A "cryptocurrency" is merely worth what someone else is willing to pay (hence speculative).

No, what gives a share value is that someone else is willing to buy it from you for a certain price. The fact that it represents fractional ownership is why someone is willing to pay a certain price to buy it from you. But fundamentally, the value only exists as long as there is a counterparty.

Yes, yes, and cash only has value because someone else is willing to give you something for it. Congrats, you've realized that it's all made up and nothing is fundamentally valuable!

Re: Apple becomes the first $1T company

#182

Post by RankingMember » Thu, Aug 02, 2018, 5:17 PM UTC

Steve886 wrote: post #125

Alright. Who's next?

Gotta be Alphabet

Re: Apple becomes the first $1T company

#183

Post by volkk » Thu, Aug 02, 2018, 5:17 PM UTC

bepotts wrote: post #154

sharemywin wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

because they're utilizing that money so well.

It's their money. If they have a $1 trillion cash sitting on the sidelines doing nothing that is their right to do so. Apple doesn't make money to support governments.

ultimately it's in their best interest to do so. a legitimate government with sane laws is a lot more lucrative for businesses long term than an authoritative one

Re: Apple becomes the first $1T company

#184

Post by mattnewton » Thu, Aug 02, 2018, 5:17 PM UTC

KaoruAoiShiho wrote: post #145

Is Samsung Electronics ridiculously undervalued or what? It generates more profit than Apple https://wccftech.com/samsung-posted-higher-profit-than-apple... yet is valued at only $290 billion instead of $1000 billion. What the heck.

It’s more about how likely those profits are to continue in the eyes of the market, not what they currently are. In this case, you’re comparing a company with a massive consumer moat (and massive cash reserves to defend it), where people will continue to buy the iPhone regardless of the suppliers Apple uses, versus a company largely without such a moat. Not saying it’s correct, but I am guessing the brand and moat it provides is a large part of the difference in valuations.

Re: Apple becomes the first $1T company

#185

Post by bduerst » Thu, Aug 02, 2018, 5:18 PM UTC

corysama wrote: post #127

reaperducer wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're not free. They just don't cost money. Arguably they're very expensive. This is a distinction most people don't grasp. I didn't, myself, until recently when a briefing from the legal department resulted in scouring the word "free" from eight web sites and replacing the word with "at no cost."

DuckDuckGo looking nicer every day.

DDG is essentially just a reskin of Bing.

Re: Apple becomes the first $1T company

#186

Post by IloveHN84 » Thu, Aug 02, 2018, 5:18 PM UTC

Without paying taxes, or a very small percentage, it's a fake achievement.

Re: Apple becomes the first $1T company

#187

Post by coldcode » Thu, Aug 02, 2018, 5:18 PM UTC

mrtksn wrote: post #36

coldcode wrote: post #14

When I worked at Apple in the mid-90's (BS before Steve) they lost $1B while I was there. I left and moved away because I didn't want to be there when it was sold or went out of business. Exactly one year later Steve came back. Oh well. Being there at the time not one person would have ever thought Apple could be viable much less worth $1T.

Can you tell us a bit more about the morale and employees opinions back then? Was there a prevalent theory about what's wrong and how to fix it?

Best thing the CTO did (Ellen Hancock) was to kill the Copland OS project, which then led to the ultimate decision to buy NeXT, which led to Steve coming back, which lead to $1T. Props to her for doing the right thing.

Re: Apple becomes the first $1T company

#188

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Aug 02, 2018, 5:18 PM UTC

rayiner wrote: post #87

pliny wrote: post #56

>“Apple’s $1 trillion cap is equal to about 5 percent of the total gross domestic product of the United States in 2018,” said David Kass, professor of finance at the University of Maryland. “That puts this company in perspective.” The comparison would be Apple net income (~$50B) vs. GDP, not market cap (which has units of USD) vs. GDP (which has units of USD per year).

Or, the net present value of the US economy plus assets, which is probably pushing a quadrillion dollars.

[deleted]

Re: Apple becomes the first $1T company

#189

Post by mikestew » Thu, Aug 02, 2018, 5:18 PM UTC

Fomite wrote: post #144

GlenTheMachine wrote: post #35

I went to grad school with a guy who, the day Apple stock hit $14 a share, decided to spend $500 of his grad student stipend to buy some. He figured Apple's cash on hand was worth more than $14 a share. I thought he was nuts. I was an idiot.

I bought some at about the same time. With splits, my cost basis is less than $1/share, and my % return is well north of 20,000%. Apple stock was the downpayment on my house.

AAPL allowed us a period of cost-free unemployment for six months. This was back in the days when the stock was more go-go than it is even now. Wife and I had a period of about six months between jobs, and we had a lot of AAPL. We lived off the gains (and probably a call contract or two), and by the time we both had jobs again, we had more than we started with.

Thanks, Steve!

Re: Apple becomes the first $1T company

#190

Post by uncleartraveler » Thu, Aug 02, 2018, 5:19 PM UTC

azurezyq wrote: post #131

xenostar wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Or their kowtowing to the Chinese censors. And what exactly is the alternative option for them there? They can either follow the rules in China or completely lose all of their business. That is on China, not Apple.

And I'm really curious why people here are not mentioning Apple gave Chinese gov access to icloud data for Chinese people. Kind of double standard I have to say...

People savage Google yesterday for launching a censored search in China. Apple essentially gives iCloud to the Chinese government and the outrage levels don't seem to be the same.