Apple's Business Analysis
James Darby
MGT/521
06/25/2012
Dr. Olivia Herriford

Apple's Business Analysis
A business analysis can be defined as finding a business’s needs and determining what that organization needs to do to reach these needs. Apple’s business analysis has come to the final step in the past three weeks. The first two steps included financial health, SWOT analysis, and globalization tactics among others. This week’s factors will include economic trends, the current recession, how Apple will achieve company goals, and human resource management. This paper will also serve as the official decision to invest or not invest in Apple. This paper will also incorporate portions from parts one and two of the business analysis to better conclude the decision.
Stakeholders
Stakeholders at Apple would include a vast amount of people. Internally, the stakeholders at Apple include the CEO, upper management, and employees. These stakeholders will share the same wants and needs if the company is successful. These wants include things like revenue boosts, ethical decision making, missions, values, social additions, environmental decisions, and lower costs for operation. With these wants being met, the company will thrive.
Externally, the stakeholders at Apple include; lenders, software developers, businesses, customers, shareholders, environmentalists, suppliers, manufacturers and their employees, and finally the music industry. These stakeholders share some of the wants and needs, but external stakeholders add a bit more to the pot. The differences between external stakeholders will be hard to keep in mind when meeting the wants and needs. Apple has two major stakeholders on both sides that are going to influence the decision of the mutual fund manager; the music industry and environmentalists. What Steve Jobs did for the music industry is unparalleled.
Apple has met the needs and wants of all stakeholders. The company has even gone above some of the expectations of most stakeholders. By keeping these stakeholders happy, Apple has thrived and so have other industries and businesses because of Apple. Based on the analysis of Apple that has been conducted, a decision to invest in this company will be put into place. The fact that Apple will eventually move its iTunes and music player technologies to a mobile phone format, the decision to invest becomes a necessity.
Financial Health “Apple® today announced financial results for its fiscal 2012 second quarter ended March 31, 2012. The Company posted quarterly revenue of $39.2 billion and quarterly net profit of $11.6 billion, or $12.30 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $24.7 billion and net profit of $6.0 billion, or $6.40 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 47.4 percent compared to 41.4 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 64 percent of the quarter’s revenue” (Apple Reports Second Quarter Results, 2012). This is the look of a thriving company.
Apple can be compared to Microsoft Corporation and Sony. In light of the new product releases, Apple ranks second in this comparison. Microsoft Corporation reported approximately $53 billion in revenue during the same quarter that Apple reported approximately $39 billion in revenue. In this same quarter, Sony only reported approximately $12 billion in revenue. Every aspect of finance sits the same between these three companies. These aspects include revenue, stocks, dividends, and cash flow; Microsoft reporting more than Apple and Apple reporting more than Sony. These trends have been very steady over the past five years.
As a potential shareholder in Apple, investors should feel comfortable putting money into this company. The organization has steadily been at second place in the industry and there is promise for more years to come. The sales of the new iPad alone have met record amounts in this quarter. The only concern that arises would be that