With $97.6 billion, Apple has more cash than ...

Apple has nearly $100 billion in cash. $97.6 billion to be precise. That is a lot of iDough. Even for Warren Buffett. Perhaps it's time for Apple to, I don't know, use some of it?

Unless Apple is planning to build an army of Siri-voiced iBots, it's hard to defend why the company needs that much cash. Even company executives admit that it may soon have to deploy some of it. Apple's iMountain of money has nearly doubled since the end of fiscal 2010. But Apple doesn't pay a dividend. It doesn't make splashy acquisitions or buy back stock. Now one reason Apple is still hanging onto cash is because it doesn't want to pay a sizeable chunk of taxes to Uncle Sam if it used that money on something productive or shareholder friendly. $64 billion of its cash is offshore. It is "trapped" if you will. Apple is a multinational company. So there is nothing legally wrong with keeping cash abroad. But it is apparently doing so to avoid having to pay the 35% tax rate on it if it were repatriated or brought back to the US. But even if Apple wants to keep fighting the tax holiday fight, you can't ignore the fact that it has $33.6 billion in cash in the United States. That still is a lot of money that Apple could use for a regular, steady dividend, a big one-time cash payout or stock buybacks.