Tim Cook's Improbable Victory In Washington [View article]
Lopakaii,
Any company, that earns money abroad must pay taxes in each country where it works. It's a simple matter of respect and ethics. There is no free lunch and especially in taxes matters. Today corporations like Apple, Amazon or Starbucks abuse of EU tax weakness, tomorrow it will certainly turn against them. It's already being publicly discussed by political opposition parties in countries like UK, France, Spain, Scandinavian countries, etc to set restrictive and punitive measures against the corporations that evade taxes in EU. Some politicians offer to close the frontier to these products or set huge importation taxes. Without even mentioning a huge boycott campaign going against US companies like Apple or Starbacks in Europe. I wonder how a couple of saved billions today will impact on their earnings in 5 years from now and if this tax evasion really worth it! Image is essential for consumer companies and once it's lost, it's really hard to gain it back.
Apple (AAPL) releases Tim Cook's official statement (.pdf) to the Senate ahead of his Tuesday appearance at a hearing on corporate tax payments. Among other things, Apple claims it paid ~$6B in federal taxes in FY12 and a 30.5% effective federal tax rate, and that its foreign units don't engage in the practices the hearing focuses on (the shifting of IP to offshore havens, revolving loans from subsidiaries, etc). The company proposes a tax system that's "revenue neutral, eliminates all tax expenditures, lowers tax rates and implements a reasonable tax on foreign earnings." (previous) [View news story]
Ben,
Samsung works in a completely different environment. One huge family controls Samsung, LG, Huyndai, Kia (among others), the biggest Korean banks and is part of the Korean government. In other words, it's not how a democratic state should function. Samsung is going to be advantaged no matter what, cause they still work like if there were no anti-trust laws and like if there wasn't any conflict of interest notions. Moreover, you should know that the United States are a founder and a member of the WTO. An organization, that aims to prevent any unloyal move like the one, that you'd like to be applied, that would tend to advantage national corporations. So I don't think that any Government should advantage their own corporations in any way, as long as they are WTO members. I'd push instead countries like South Korea, China or Japan toward a more ethical business models.
Google (GOOG) roundup: 1) YouTube's video upload rate has passed 100 hours per minute. That's up from 72 hours last year, and 48 the year before. The milestone comes as YouTube expands live streaming support, and announces plans to unify its design across devices/platforms. 2) In July, Dell (DELL) will begin selling Project Ophelia, a $100 USB flash drive-shaped device that allows any monitor with an HDMI port to be turned into an Android PC. Dell is also working on "a keyboard-like technology for users to type when Ophelia is docked to a screen." [View news story]
There are limits to everything. With a $999 price tag for a simple Apple screen you can easily imagine how much a 40" iTV would cost. I'm not sure that many people could afford that.
Apple (AAPL) releases Tim Cook's official statement (.pdf) to the Senate ahead of his Tuesday appearance at a hearing on corporate tax payments. Among other things, Apple claims it paid ~$6B in federal taxes in FY12 and a 30.5% effective federal tax rate, and that its foreign units don't engage in the practices the hearing focuses on (the shifting of IP to offshore havens, revolving loans from subsidiaries, etc). The company proposes a tax system that's "revenue neutral, eliminates all tax expenditures, lowers tax rates and implements a reasonable tax on foreign earnings." (previous) [View news story]
Apple and other corporations don't pay taxes anywhere. They don't pay taxes in the US nor in the EU. Repatriation is simply one side of the coin and since they don't pay taxes abroad it wouldn't kill them to pay taxes to bring the funds back to the US. It could hardly be considered as being a double taxation. Everyone pays taxes. Personally I pay 60% on my salary and 34% on my companies. So how comes that corporations shouldn't do the same? It's a plain greed and I just don't understand how anyone can defend them.
Apple (AAPL) releases Tim Cook's official statement (.pdf) to the Senate ahead of his Tuesday appearance at a hearing on corporate tax payments. Among other things, Apple claims it paid ~$6B in federal taxes in FY12 and a 30.5% effective federal tax rate, and that its foreign units don't engage in the practices the hearing focuses on (the shifting of IP to offshore havens, revolving loans from subsidiaries, etc). The company proposes a tax system that's "revenue neutral, eliminates all tax expenditures, lowers tax rates and implements a reasonable tax on foreign earnings." (previous) [View news story]
Chabig,
I don't live in the US, so I'm under a different fiscal system and I don't have any mortgage either. However, I'd like to bring to your attention that there is a huge difference between a fiscal deduction, that every citizen can use and that has been put in place by the Governement in order to boost the economy and a monstrous scheme, that Apple uses. Apple simply transfers its funds to Holland, then to Belgium and finally to Ireland in order to pay a scandalous and greedy 6% tax rate without benefiting to any economy and creating any jobs. Do you know anyone who'd pay 6% of taxes and would pretend that it's legal?
Google (GOOG) roundup: 1) YouTube's video upload rate has passed 100 hours per minute. That's up from 72 hours last year, and 48 the year before. The milestone comes as YouTube expands live streaming support, and announces plans to unify its design across devices/platforms. 2) In July, Dell (DELL) will begin selling Project Ophelia, a $100 USB flash drive-shaped device that allows any monitor with an HDMI port to be turned into an Android PC. Dell is also working on "a keyboard-like technology for users to type when Ophelia is docked to a screen." [View news story]
That's how you kill any smart TV for just $100. The one who would definitely be late for the party is Apple, if they eventually release their TV. I doubt that an iTV would cost $100 more than a simple flat screen TV and would offer more functions than Ophelia.
Apple (AAPL) releases Tim Cook's official statement (.pdf) to the Senate ahead of his Tuesday appearance at a hearing on corporate tax payments. Among other things, Apple claims it paid ~$6B in federal taxes in FY12 and a 30.5% effective federal tax rate, and that its foreign units don't engage in the practices the hearing focuses on (the shifting of IP to offshore havens, revolving loans from subsidiaries, etc). The company proposes a tax system that's "revenue neutral, eliminates all tax expenditures, lowers tax rates and implements a reasonable tax on foreign earnings." (previous) [View news story]
Pocahonta,
It must be fun to believe in fairytales at your age... In the real world, what is called "tax planning" for multinationals is a plain and simple tax evasion for a common citizen. If any person would use the same shady schemes as the corporations do, that person would already be sitting in jail. People get prosecuted for much less than that. You can't "optimize" your taxes and pretend being completely rightful. Either you pay all your taxes, either you evade them. And excuse me, but pretending that Apple thinks about their shareholders by not paying their taxes is a complete nonsense.
Apple (AAPL) releases Tim Cook's official statement (.pdf) to the Senate ahead of his Tuesday appearance at a hearing on corporate tax payments. Among other things, Apple claims it paid ~$6B in federal taxes in FY12 and a 30.5% effective federal tax rate, and that its foreign units don't engage in the practices the hearing focuses on (the shifting of IP to offshore havens, revolving loans from subsidiaries, etc). The company proposes a tax system that's "revenue neutral, eliminates all tax expenditures, lowers tax rates and implements a reasonable tax on foreign earnings." (previous) [View news story]
It might surprise some people, but corporations aren't some extra-governemental entities without any State and allowed to do anything they want. They *should* obey the laws like any other small business does. Apple uses any possible loopholes, any existing tax shelter and fiscal heavens to optimize their taxes and thus to steal money, mainly from the US government, but not only. Some might say that everything that isn't illegal must be tolerated, however I doubt that Apple or any other multinational corporation should be encouraged and be proud of publicly evading taxes and moreover be invited with a red carpet to the Congress in order to expose what their vision of taxation would be. It's like watching Madoff talking about his vision of market regulation. The real economy is built on the small business. People who work in their country, who pay every penny, that they owe to the State and hire national workers without enslaving some Chinese students. But somehow, I doubt that an owner of some bookstore or some restaurant would be invited to the Congress, even though, these people might know much more about the business than some IT geek, whose only merit is to have been close to Steve Jobs. Apple is American only when it comes to its image, but it is certainly not American anymore when it comes to paying its fair share and I find it shameful, disrespectful and morally reprehensible.
"There are only four sources of high-quality maps," Google, Waze, Navteq, and TomTom (TMOAF.PK),says Rolfe Winkler, and given Facebook's rumored $1B acquisition of Waze, TomTom may become an attractive takeover target for the likes of Apple (AAPL) and others who, while able to drive a hard bargain on map licensing fees, may prefer to bid for the Netherlands-based company rather than worry that a rival will acquire it. TomTom trades at an EV/EBITDA ratio of just 6x. (From December: Rabobank puts AAPL/TomTom odds at 30%) [View news story]
Apple decided to use their own programming codes and data in Plans, but they leased TomTom's maps, graphics, 3D images, guidance, etc. So basically, everything that people liked about Plans came from TomTom and everything that they hated came from Apple.
Nokia (NOK) is investing in Pelican Imaging, whose technology promises to improve autofocus, depth, and splicing for phone camera images, a move NOK hopes will help it win back customers from Apple and Android users. Array cameras, which mesh multiple optics into one image, "are on the cusp of being commercialized. It's very complicated to do this algorithmically, and Pelican is one of the companies that has mastered this technology," Nokia says. [View news story]
Meanwhile Apple "invest" $50b in their own shares. I just hope that Apple will have enough money left to keep paying Nokia for their patents during the next 5-10 years.
Apple (AAPL) files a S-3 shelf registration for the issuance of debt. The details are few, but the company indicated at its last earnings report its intention to take on debt to fund capital returns. Shares +0.8% premarket. [View news story]
Wrong supposition. I've been short all the way down from $575 till $419 and even that ridiculous old market trick of "annoucing" the shares buy back doesn't make me think that the share will go much higher in the near future. It only shows that Apple's overpaid board lacks of initiative and unlike Jobs, they are more concerned about their stock options value rather than about the company's future. That's a perfect example of the Solow's model.
Apple (AAPL) files a S-3 shelf registration for the issuance of debt. The details are few, but the company indicated at its last earnings report its intention to take on debt to fund capital returns. Shares +0.8% premarket. [View news story]
Apple (AAPL) files a S-3 shelf registration for the issuance of debt. The details are few, but the company indicated at its last earnings report its intention to take on debt to fund capital returns. Shares +0.8% premarket. [View news story]
One of the most shady companies on the market at the moment. Somehow I start to have doubts about their "mythic" $120b of offshore funds... Shares manipulations, tax evasion and accountability manipulations at their best. Anyhow, that's how Job's 0% debt pride goes down.
Some Apple (AAPL) commentary: 1) Horace Dediu estimates the iPhone and iPad's component costs respectively rose 29% and 65% Y/Y in FQ2, well above rev. growth of 3% and 40%. This, along with a mix shift towards iPads, is mostly responsible for Apple's gross margin drop (rather than price pressure). 2) Tero Kuittinen sees similarities between 2013 Apple and 2007 Nokia. "The strongest parallel is in the weird way both companies started fighting the consumer preference for larger displays … and then dug in as margins began eroding rapidly." Tim Cook may have just hinted a bigger iPhone will eventually arrive. But how long will it take? (yesterday) [View news story]
Chemguy,
The thing Apple fans and Apple board didn't realize yet, is that it's a free competitive market and not some communist regime. While Apple was opening new markets they could show themselves arrogant and disrespectful towards everyone. Today, 6 years later, each company has it's own iPad and iPhone equivalent to offer, while Apple products become even more irrelevant each day. Today it's not up to the customers to fit to the Apple products, but it's up to Apple to fit to the demand of their customers. A large part of people (and personally I'm not among them) prefer big smartphone screens. What's the point of fighting people's preferences? It's simply a lost cause and the annoying advices like "hold your phone differently"(Jobs) or "buy glasses" just destroy years of marketing and make people move to some other, less sectarian brands. That pointless and unjustified arrogance as well as Apple's uncompromising position will simply prove to everyone how pathetic Apple became without Jobs at the steer. Just another descending company, in the middle of its crash after a decade of glory, following the classic market cycle.
Apple (AAPL) -3.4% to $392.50 as the Street continues digesting the light FQ3 guidance provided with its FQ2 beat. BMO's Keith Bachman has cut shares to Market Perform after recently expressing concerns about iPhone mix. "We think the challenges of 1) increased competitiveness in the smartphone market, which we believe will pressure ASPs and margins – will largely offset 2) improved capital allocation." In a set of charts analyzing Apple's results, Dan Frommer points out the iPad is now 20% of sales, and iTunes/Software/Services 9% (the iPhone is 53%). (previous) (transcript) [View news story]
Jack Baker,
Could you remind me Nokia's share in the nineties/early 2000 and Blackeberry's share during 2004-2007, please? You offer a very weak and desperate argument here. It's not because Apple had a good decade that it's going to continue indefinitely.
Tim Cook's Improbable Victory In Washington [View article]
Any company, that earns money abroad must pay taxes in each country where it works. It's a simple matter of respect and ethics. There is no free lunch and especially in taxes matters. Today corporations like Apple, Amazon or Starbucks abuse of EU tax weakness, tomorrow it will certainly turn against them. It's already being publicly discussed by political opposition parties in countries like UK, France, Spain, Scandinavian countries, etc to set restrictive and punitive measures against the corporations that evade taxes in EU. Some politicians offer to close the frontier to these products or set huge importation taxes. Without even mentioning a huge boycott campaign going against US companies like Apple or Starbacks in Europe. I wonder how a couple of saved billions today will impact on their earnings in 5 years from now and if this tax evasion really worth it! Image is essential for consumer companies and once it's lost, it's really hard to gain it back.
Apple (AAPL) releases Tim Cook's official statement (.pdf) to the Senate ahead of his Tuesday appearance at a hearing on corporate tax payments. Among other things, Apple claims it paid ~$6B in federal taxes in FY12 and a 30.5% effective federal tax rate, and that its foreign units don't engage in the practices the hearing focuses on (the shifting of IP to offshore havens, revolving loans from subsidiaries, etc). The company proposes a tax system that's "revenue neutral, eliminates all tax expenditures, lowers tax rates and implements a reasonable tax on foreign earnings." (previous) [View news story]
Samsung works in a completely different environment. One huge family controls Samsung, LG, Huyndai, Kia (among others), the biggest Korean banks and is part of the Korean government. In other words, it's not how a democratic state should function. Samsung is going to be advantaged no matter what, cause they still work like if there were no anti-trust laws and like if there wasn't any conflict of interest notions.
Moreover, you should know that the United States are a founder and a member of the WTO. An organization, that aims to prevent any unloyal move like the one, that you'd like to be applied, that would tend to advantage national corporations. So I don't think that any Government should advantage their own corporations in any way, as long as they are WTO members. I'd push instead countries like South Korea, China or Japan toward a more ethical business models.
Google (GOOG) roundup: 1) YouTube's video upload rate has passed 100 hours per minute. That's up from 72 hours last year, and 48 the year before. The milestone comes as YouTube expands live streaming support, and announces plans to unify its design across devices/platforms. 2) In July, Dell (DELL) will begin selling Project Ophelia, a $100 USB flash drive-shaped device that allows any monitor with an HDMI port to be turned into an Android PC. Dell is also working on "a keyboard-like technology for users to type when Ophelia is docked to a screen." [View news story]
Apple (AAPL) releases Tim Cook's official statement (.pdf) to the Senate ahead of his Tuesday appearance at a hearing on corporate tax payments. Among other things, Apple claims it paid ~$6B in federal taxes in FY12 and a 30.5% effective federal tax rate, and that its foreign units don't engage in the practices the hearing focuses on (the shifting of IP to offshore havens, revolving loans from subsidiaries, etc). The company proposes a tax system that's "revenue neutral, eliminates all tax expenditures, lowers tax rates and implements a reasonable tax on foreign earnings." (previous) [View news story]
Apple (AAPL) releases Tim Cook's official statement (.pdf) to the Senate ahead of his Tuesday appearance at a hearing on corporate tax payments. Among other things, Apple claims it paid ~$6B in federal taxes in FY12 and a 30.5% effective federal tax rate, and that its foreign units don't engage in the practices the hearing focuses on (the shifting of IP to offshore havens, revolving loans from subsidiaries, etc). The company proposes a tax system that's "revenue neutral, eliminates all tax expenditures, lowers tax rates and implements a reasonable tax on foreign earnings." (previous) [View news story]
I don't live in the US, so I'm under a different fiscal system and I don't have any mortgage either. However, I'd like to bring to your attention that there is a huge difference between a fiscal deduction, that every citizen can use and that has been put in place by the Governement in order to boost the economy and a monstrous scheme, that Apple uses. Apple simply transfers its funds to Holland, then to Belgium and finally to Ireland in order to pay a scandalous and greedy 6% tax rate without benefiting to any economy and creating any jobs. Do you know anyone who'd pay 6% of taxes and would pretend that it's legal?
Google (GOOG) roundup: 1) YouTube's video upload rate has passed 100 hours per minute. That's up from 72 hours last year, and 48 the year before. The milestone comes as YouTube expands live streaming support, and announces plans to unify its design across devices/platforms. 2) In July, Dell (DELL) will begin selling Project Ophelia, a $100 USB flash drive-shaped device that allows any monitor with an HDMI port to be turned into an Android PC. Dell is also working on "a keyboard-like technology for users to type when Ophelia is docked to a screen." [View news story]
Apple (AAPL) releases Tim Cook's official statement (.pdf) to the Senate ahead of his Tuesday appearance at a hearing on corporate tax payments. Among other things, Apple claims it paid ~$6B in federal taxes in FY12 and a 30.5% effective federal tax rate, and that its foreign units don't engage in the practices the hearing focuses on (the shifting of IP to offshore havens, revolving loans from subsidiaries, etc). The company proposes a tax system that's "revenue neutral, eliminates all tax expenditures, lowers tax rates and implements a reasonable tax on foreign earnings." (previous) [View news story]
It must be fun to believe in fairytales at your age... In the real world, what is called "tax planning" for multinationals is a plain and simple tax evasion for a common citizen. If any person would use the same shady schemes as the corporations do, that person would already be sitting in jail. People get prosecuted for much less than that. You can't "optimize" your taxes and pretend being completely rightful. Either you pay all your taxes, either you evade them. And excuse me, but pretending that Apple thinks about their shareholders by not paying their taxes is a complete nonsense.
Apple (AAPL) releases Tim Cook's official statement (.pdf) to the Senate ahead of his Tuesday appearance at a hearing on corporate tax payments. Among other things, Apple claims it paid ~$6B in federal taxes in FY12 and a 30.5% effective federal tax rate, and that its foreign units don't engage in the practices the hearing focuses on (the shifting of IP to offshore havens, revolving loans from subsidiaries, etc). The company proposes a tax system that's "revenue neutral, eliminates all tax expenditures, lowers tax rates and implements a reasonable tax on foreign earnings." (previous) [View news story]
"There are only four sources of high-quality maps," Google, Waze, Navteq, and TomTom (TMOAF.PK), says Rolfe Winkler, and given Facebook's rumored $1B acquisition of Waze, TomTom may become an attractive takeover target for the likes of Apple (AAPL) and others who, while able to drive a hard bargain on map licensing fees, may prefer to bid for the Netherlands-based company rather than worry that a rival will acquire it. TomTom trades at an EV/EBITDA ratio of just 6x. (From December: Rabobank puts AAPL/TomTom odds at 30%) [View news story]
Nokia (NOK) is investing in Pelican Imaging, whose technology promises to improve autofocus, depth, and splicing for phone camera images, a move NOK hopes will help it win back customers from Apple and Android users. Array cameras, which mesh multiple optics into one image, "are on the cusp of being commercialized. It's very complicated to do this algorithmically, and Pelican is one of the companies that has mastered this technology," Nokia says. [View news story]
Apple (AAPL) files a S-3 shelf registration for the issuance of debt. The details are few, but the company indicated at its last earnings report its intention to take on debt to fund capital returns. Shares +0.8% premarket. [View news story]
Apple (AAPL) files a S-3 shelf registration for the issuance of debt. The details are few, but the company indicated at its last earnings report its intention to take on debt to fund capital returns. Shares +0.8% premarket. [View news story]
Apple (AAPL) files a S-3 shelf registration for the issuance of debt. The details are few, but the company indicated at its last earnings report its intention to take on debt to fund capital returns. Shares +0.8% premarket. [View news story]
Some Apple (AAPL) commentary: 1) Horace Dediu estimates the iPhone and iPad's component costs respectively rose 29% and 65% Y/Y in FQ2, well above rev. growth of 3% and 40%. This, along with a mix shift towards iPads, is mostly responsible for Apple's gross margin drop (rather than price pressure). 2) Tero Kuittinen sees similarities between 2013 Apple and 2007 Nokia. "The strongest parallel is in the weird way both companies started fighting the consumer preference for larger displays … and then dug in as margins began eroding rapidly." Tim Cook may have just hinted a bigger iPhone will eventually arrive. But how long will it take? (yesterday) [View news story]
The thing Apple fans and Apple board didn't realize yet, is that it's a free competitive market and not some communist regime. While Apple was opening new markets they could show themselves arrogant and disrespectful towards everyone. Today, 6 years later, each company has it's own iPad and iPhone equivalent to offer, while Apple products become even more irrelevant each day. Today it's not up to the customers to fit to the Apple products, but it's up to Apple to fit to the demand of their customers. A large part of people (and personally I'm not among them) prefer big smartphone screens. What's the point of fighting people's preferences? It's simply a lost cause and the annoying advices like "hold your phone differently"(Jobs) or "buy glasses" just destroy years of marketing and make people move to some other, less sectarian brands. That pointless and unjustified arrogance as well as Apple's uncompromising position will simply prove to everyone how pathetic Apple became without Jobs at the steer. Just another descending company, in the middle of its crash after a decade of glory, following the classic market cycle.
Apple (AAPL) -3.4% to $392.50 as the Street continues digesting the light FQ3 guidance provided with its FQ2 beat. BMO's Keith Bachman has cut shares to Market Perform after recently expressing concerns about iPhone mix. "We think the challenges of 1) increased competitiveness in the smartphone market, which we believe will pressure ASPs and margins – will largely offset 2) improved capital allocation." In a set of charts analyzing Apple's results, Dan Frommer points out the iPad is now 20% of sales, and iTunes/Software/Services 9% (the iPhone is 53%). (previous) (transcript) [View news story]
Could you remind me Nokia's share in the nineties/early 2000 and Blackeberry's share during 2004-2007, please? You offer a very weak and desperate argument here. It's not because Apple had a good decade that it's going to continue indefinitely.