What Apple should have done with the $100 billion

Faced with a surplus of roughly $100 billion in cash, Apple Inc. announced this week that it will use the money to pay investors a quarterly dividend and embark on a three-year stock buyback program.

Bo-ring! The choice, which represents a departure from Steve Jobs’ no-dividends-ever policy may be nice for investors, but it has no entertainment value.

If only Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook had gone with one of the many interesting ideas proposed by our favorite Taiwanese animated news commentators, the good folk at Next Media Animation.

In a recent video, NMA suggests that Apple might be better served if Cook decided to give the money to the”Kony 2012”campaign, or use it to help pay down the American debt, or to resurrect Steve Jobs from the dead.

NMA also proposed that Apple buy Microsoft Corp. and put it out of its misery.

NMA is not the only media source offering more creative ways that Apple might spend its billions.

Chris Matyszczyk
, a member of the CNET blog network, writes that Apple could have used the money to build a high-speed train in California or use the money to help fund NASA, which has fallen on hard times lately.

Kit Eaton of the Fast Company blog thought Apple might want to use the money to invest in American infrastructure or in improving working conditions at iPhone maker Foxconn Technology Group.

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