Apple Could Buy Facebook, Twitter, Zynga, Others with Its $51B
October 27, 2010
What popular high-tech company that holds major sway over the mobile Web has more money in the bank than Google’s $34 billion? That would be Apple, with a whopping $51 billion in cash reserves as of the company’s fourth fiscal quarter. Clearly, Apple’s smash-hit iPods, iPod Touches, iPhones and new iPads are helping the company build quite a bank for itself even as they change the way consumers access the Web while on the go. Apple CEO Steve Jobs mentioned on the company’s Q4 earnings call Oct. 18 that Apple is saving money for "strategic opportunities." Read: acquisitions, folks. "We’d like to continue to keep our powder dry because we do feel that there are one or more strategic opportunities in the future," Jobs said. Of course, that comment sent financial analysts and Apple-watching pundits into a frenzy of speculation. It certainly got eWEEK thinking about what Apple could buy with all of that coin. So, without further ado, here are companies Jobs and Co. should mull snapping up.