Apple is a behemoth of the market, and an unbelievably rich company. Elon Musk is a rare genius and visionary, but also a cash-strapped entrepreneur. Do you see where we're going with this?
Here's a case for appointing Elon Musk as the next CEO of Apple. A thought experiment, if you will. Let's see where it takes us.
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Apple's market value is expected to hit $1 trillion this year. At the end of December 2017, the company had $285.1 billion cash in hand. That's an insane amount of money. More money than the foreign exchanges of Germany, UK, France, and then some. Apple can throw around all that money to buy anything it desires.
Apple's wealth has been built on its unique ability to sell products and services to hundreds of millions of consumers -- be it iPhones and Macs or apps and songs on its online stores. No one does this better than Apple, and the numbers are there for all to see.
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Tesla and SpaceX are two Elon Musk-defining companies. But they're in a bit of a mess as far as money is concerned, especially Tesla.?Tesla lost a record $671 million in the third quarter of 2017, burning through $1.4 billion of cash in all, according to Forbes. Investors are steadfast in absorbing Tesla's short-term setbacks, focusing instead on the big vision for the future. But concerns are definitely rising, especially with Tesla's Model 3 delays -- its mass market electric car.?
While SpaceX is in a far better financial state than Tesla at the moment, it takes only a couple of rockets to explode for its stock to take a hit, as well. After all, SpaceX didn't turn a profit until last year, and the space race is one of extremely high risk -- but also huge rewards for the market leader.
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Apple can easily buy both these companies and take them to the next level with some much needed cash infusion, and sort out any supply chain issues there maybe in SpaceX or Tesla's production cycles. Apple will also overnight have two future technologies companies on the threshold of making a big dent into their respective markets -- not a bad position to be for Apple, obviously.
Apple maybe the most wealthiest company in the world right now, and continues to remain unmatched in the art of selling its products and services. However, analysts and consumers are getting weary of the Cupertino giant's inability to make ground-breaking innovations unlike the products and services it launched in the previous decade. Apple has set the bar so high for innovation in the past that it's finding difficult to match or surpass in present times.
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Of all companies if Apple starts struggling with sluggish sales of the 10th anniversary iPhone X, even considering to shutdown production of iPhone X, then we know something's wrong with the market.
We all know how Apple was pretty much synonymous with the late Steve Jobs, while he was alive and well. If Apple is a world leader right now, it's largely down to the efforts and vision of one man, and one man only -- Steve Jobs. He had a charismatic presence, captivating the media and putting them under a spell.
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While Tim Cook maybe an efficient operations guy, he is no Steve Jobs. But you know who comes very close to the Apple co-founder, in terms of his larger than life presence? Elon Musk.
Musk is more than just a media darling, he shows the same visionary genius traits that Steve Jobs exhibited as he took Apple to the top of the world. Obviously, through Tesla, SpaceX (and PayPal before that), Elon Mush has proved that he can not only run companies well, but find solutions to some of the world's biggest problems through groundbreaking innovation.
Apple seems to have hit its peak in the consumer gadgets and services market, it has nothing more to prove as it's a roaring success -- and has been for some time. But now Apple's struggling to innovate. With a charismatic genius like Elon Musk at its helm, Apple could get into bigger, more lucrative markets (especially space travel and electric cars) which are at the threshold of a huge disruption.
Win win for both Musk and Apple. And consumers, too, one would imagine.