The comparison is far from meaningless. If penalties have no sting, they have no deterrent value. Did you object the particular mega-company comp? If so, pleas feel free to insert your own.
$10B is a lot of money, no doubt, but it only represents about a fifth of what Apple currently has in cash. How much cash does Seagate have? Probably none. So it would be more like a $60B fine for Apple.
You know all public companies disclose this quarterly right? You could just look it up instead of giving an incorrect answer. They have $766m on hand. This is less than half of what seagate has on hand.
Thanks, I just didn't see it. But then by this measure, since Apple has $165B in cash pre-debt, one would have to fine Apple roughly $64B, or about five Gerald R. Ford-class aircraft carriers, for the metaphor to be apt, not $10B.
The comparison is far from meaningless. If penalties have no sting, they have no deterrent value. Did you object the particular mega-company comp? If so, pleas feel free to insert your own.