It's become a favorite parlor game of Wall Street analysts and tech journalists: Speculating what acquisitions Apple (AAPL) could make with its giant stockpile of cash.
Jim Cramer, host of CNBC's "Mad Money," offered his two cents on the subject on Friday. He said Apple should buy satellite radio operator Sirius XM Holdings (SIRI) to bolster its fast-growing services business.
Sirius would strengthen Apple's position in the subscription-based music business, where it has a foothold with its Apple Music streaming service. Sirius also would give Apple a major presence in the automotive infotainment sector, Cramer said.
"Anything that puts Apple on the path toward owning the automobile would really brighten the company's long-term outlook," Cramer said.
Maybe Cramer just likes the fact that Sirius XM's ticker symbol, SIRI, is the same as Apple's popular voice-response personal assistant.
Apple ended the June quarter with $231.5 billion in cash and securities.
IBD'S TAKE: While Apple has an enormous hoard of cash and securities, it ranks No. 5 in cash alone, according to a research report. Check out the IBD article "Microsoft, Alphabet Top Cash-On-Hand Field; Apple Dominates Overall."
"Every six months, Apple spends the equivalent of Sirius XM's entire market cap on buying back its own stock, and they have got more than $230 billion just lying around," Cramer said.
Sirius has a market cap of about $20 billion.
Major acquisitions are out of character for Apple, which prefers to make smaller, under-the-radar purchases of companies with interesting technology and/or technically skilled personnel.
For instance, this month Apple acquired artificial intelligence startup Turi for about $200 million, Bloomberg reported. And on Monday, Fast Company reported that Apple purchased Silicon Valley-based personal health data startup Gliimpse.
Apple CEO Tim Cook reiterated the company's acquisition strategy on July 26 conference call to discuss fiscal third-quarter earnings.
"We're constantly looking on the outside for great talent and great intellectual property," he said. "We have been buying companies on average every three to four weeks or so."
Apple's largest acquisition was its $3 billion purchase of Beats Electronics and Beats Music in August 2014.
In late June, Apple was rumored to be interested in buying rival streaming music service Tidal. Outspoken rapper Kanye West went on a Twitter (TWTR) rant in July where he tried to goad Cook into buying Tidal, purportedly for the sake of music fans. West is believed to have a stake in Tidal.
In the past year, pundits have predicted Apple would buy Tesla Motors (TSLA), GoPro (GPRO) or possibly a movie studio.
Apple stock fell 0.6% to 106.94 on the stock market today. Sirius XM stock climbed a fraction to 4.16.
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