Apple will hold a conference call on Monday to announce plans for its large cash balance. The company is sitting on about US$98bn in cash, and investors are getting increasingly antsy and clamouring for a dividend or share buyout.

Tim Cook and Apple’s chief financial officer, Peter Oppenheimer, will host the call. They will discuss the cash balance only, nothing else. In addition to the call-in number, a live audio stream of the call will be available on all computers or mobile devices running QuickTime 6 or later.

At the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference in February, Cook addressed the very expensive elephant in the room, saying: “I only ask for a bit of patience so we can do this in a deliberate way and do it in a way that’s best for shareholders.”

“We’re judicious, we’re deliberate, we spend our money like it’s our last penny. We’re not going to go have a toga party or do something outlandish,” he said at the time.

When a company is sitting on a huge pile of cash, as Apple is, it is expected to shell out a dividend to investors, issue a stock buyback, or spend the money on things that will make it even more money. Cook said that, so far, the company has spent billions of dollars on its supply chain, intellectual property, acquisitions, retail and the Apple infrastructure.

Apple’s share price hit $600 for the first time on 15 March and has since fallen back a bit to $585/share. — Heather Kelly, VentureBeat