How can Apple “return” capital to shareholders if those shareholders never supplied Apple with capital in the first place? As I pointed out in my earlier post, the only funds that Apple ever raised on the public stock market was $97 million (about $274 million in today’s dollars) at its IPO in 1980.
.. finance professors at business schools throughout the nation teach MBAs and executives that, for the sake of economic efficiency, a company should “maximize shareholder value.” I disagree with this priority. MSV is based on thefalse assumption that, of all participants in the public corporation, only public shareholders run the risk of receiving no return on their contributions to the firm and therefore only they are entitled to profits if and when they materialize.
.. When you defended Apple’s tax practices before Congress, you said: “We pay all the taxes we owe, every single dollar.” The issue for the nation is, however, whether our governments — federal, state, and local — have enough tax dollars to fund all of the public investments in infrastructure and knowledge that a prosperous nation needs.