Apple 2.0
How Apple sidestepped U.S. taxes: The Senate's version
May 20, 2013: 7:05 PM ETThe results of its probe of Apple's offshore taxes is now available online.
FORTUNE: By Monday afternoon, the day before Tim Cook's scheduled appearance before the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigation, both sides of the story were available online as PDFs: Apple's (AAPL) 17 pages of airbrushed testimony and the subcommitee staff's blistering 40-page retort.
As reader Jim Neal puts it: "Anybody who thinks this is going to be a cordial exchange of ideas has another think coming."
From the subcommittee's Executive Summary:
"The hearing will examine how Apple Inc., a U.S. multinational corporation, has used a variety of offshore structures, arrangements, and transactions to shift billions of dollars in profits away from the United States and into Ireland, where Apple has negotiated a special corporate tax rate of less than two percent. One of Apple's more unusual tactics has been to establish and direct substantial funds to offshore entities in Ireland, while claiming they are not tax residents of any jurisdiction. For example, Apple Inc. established an offshore subsidiary, Apple Operations International, which from 2009 to 2012 reported net income of $30 billion, but declined to declare any tax residence, filed no corporate income tax return, and paid no corporate income taxes to any national government for five years. A second Irish affiliate, Apple Sales International, received $74 billion in sales income over four years, but due in part to its alleged status as a non-tax resident, paid taxes on only a tiny fraction of that income.
"In addition, the hearing will examine how Apple Inc. transferred the economic rights to its intellectual property through a cost sharing agreement with its own offshore affiliates, and was thereby able to shift tens of billions of dollars offshore to a low tax jurisdiction and avoid U.S. tax. Apple Inc. then utilized U.S. tax loopholes, including the so-called "check-the-box" rules, to avoid U.S. taxes on $44 billion in taxable offshore income over the past four years, or about $10 billion in tax avoidance per year. The hearing will also examine some of the weaknesses and loopholes in certain U.S. tax code provisions, including transfer pricing, Subpart F, and related regulations, that enable multinational corporations to avoid U.S. taxes."
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Meet AOI, Apple's mysterious Irish subsidiary - updated
In a statement to the Senate, Apple explains -- sort of -- what it's doing in Cork.
FORTUNE -- There are three parts to the 17-page testimony Apple (AAPL) submitted Monday afternoon in advance of Tim Cook's appearance before the Senate Permanent Subcommitee on Investigations, scheduled for Tuesday:
The easy part: A recitation of how much Apple pays in Federal taxes ($6 billion in fiscal 2012), the number of jobs it has created MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - May 20, 2013 5:08 PM ET -
Man who doesn't work for Foxconn kills self. Apple's fault?
A suicide story that broke on Saturday had fallen apart by Monday.
FORTUNE -- The Agence France Press headline that moved over the business wires Saturday morning seemed like deja vu all over again:
Three new factory suicides at Apple supplier Foxconn
Citing only a statement issued by China Labor Watch in New York, the news agency reported that the deaths occurred at a Foxconn factory in the central city of Zhengzhou and MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - May 20, 2013 12:37 PM ET -
An Apple bear calls a bottom
Sees the Inverse Head and Shoulders pattern he's been waiting for.
FORTUNE -- Gotta love these technical analysts.
As William Meade pointed out in Saturday's ETF Daily News post, he never once mentioned Apple's (AAPL) fundamentals during the three months that he was advising his readers -- mostly hedge fund managers -- to sell sell sell.
Now the president of Pure Alpha Research (and former research director at Zacks in Chicago) has changed his MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - May 20, 2013 10:14 AM ET -
Charts of the day: Keep selling Apple and buying Google?
Eight months of what CNBC calls the Great Rotation has led to some odd imbalances.
FORTUNE -- Tuesday marks the eight month anniversary of Apple's (AAPL) all-time intraday high of $705.07 a share, set on Sept. 21, 2012.
Meanwhile, last Friday, Google (GOOG) hit its own all-time intraday high of $919.98 -- just a dinner for two at McDonalds from $925, Google's mean 12-month price target according to Thomson/First Call.
This coincidence may MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - May 20, 2013 7:54 AM ET -
Contrasts: Apple's Tim Cook and Samsung's Lee Kun-hee
The U.S. is suing Apple. Lee's government pardoned him. Twice.
FORTUNE -- With Tim Cook scheduled to testify Tuesday before a hostile Senate subcommittee and the Department of Justice's antitrust trial against Apple (AAPL) set to begin the following week, this might be a good time to contrast how the U.S. and South Korean governments each treat their country's most valuable company.
Apple:
Cook is expected to be questioned sharply next week MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - May 19, 2013 7:00 AM ET -
Photomontage of the day: The world of wearable computers
Forget those Galaxy S4 ads, says Credit Suisse, wearables are "the next big thing."
FORTUNE -- Computers one wears, rather than carries in a briefcase, backpack or pocket, are at an "inflection point" -- a market poised to explode from $3 billion to $5 billion today to as much as $30 billion to $50 billion in three to five years.
That's according to a Credit Suisse report snagged Friday by Barron's Tiernan Ray.
The theory is that MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - May 18, 2013 9:39 AM ET -
How devoted are Apple users to the Apple ecosystem?
Very, according to a new Forrester survey. Microsoft and Google don't fare as well.
FORTUNE -- According to a Forrester survey released this week, the vast majority of computer users (85% worldwide, 88% in the U.S.) have little or no loyalty to a particular mobile computing ecosystem -- the nexus of devices, software, services and sheer muscle memory that tie a user to one vendor or another.
Among those users who show MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - May 18, 2013 6:57 AM ET -
Galaxy S4: 10M in 4 weeks. iPhone 5: 5M in 3 days.
When Apple reported record iPhone 5 sales, the stock began a six-month free fall.
FORTUNE -- It's been years since Samsung reported any unit sales numbers at all for its mobile phones, so the tech press took notice Thursday when the South Korean manufacturing giant decided it had something to brag about.
Samsung Electronics co-CEO Shin Jong-kyun told reporters at an industry forum in Seoul that he is confident shipments of the Galaxy S4 MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - May 17, 2013 10:31 AM ET -
The big funds on Apple: Who bought and who sold last quarter
Total shares held fell 5.2%, but more funds increased than reduced their Apple holdings.
FORTUNE -- Any institution with more than $100 million in equities under management was required to file a Form 13f Wednesday telling the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission what stocks they bought and sold last quarter, and once again Apple (AAPL) was the No. 1 equity in their portfolios.
Although several news sites -- including CNBC, CBS and MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - May 17, 2013 9:46 AM ET
