Apple Shopping Spree: What Could Tim Cook Buy

Apple says it is buying back $10 billion in stock and launching a dividend payment to spend just under half of its cash pile on shareholders in the next three years.
Samsung–See above, antitrust would be a serious headache and even Apple’s cash wouldn’t be enough, but given that Samsung makes a lot of  Apple parts. A family of iPhones on different budgets would have plenty of new demographic targets.
T-Mobile–Maybe Apple is content to let RIM wallow in its attempt to catch up, and would rather take to giving iPhone users the service for the device. Just like it built iTunes up to feed iPods and the App Store to sell to iPhones, Apple wants to control a user’s entire experience. Acquiring a cell network would do that to a new degree. (Sorry, Phil Falcone, even these money bags are unlikely to take a bet and bail you out of Lightsquared.)
Twitter–Why not? A hot service that would launch Apple into a whole new interaction phase and there’s little doubt the minds at Apple would quickly monitize Twitter, and hopefully kill the Fail Whale for good.
Facebook–Tim will take the IPO. All of it.
Apple Bank–Don’t laugh this one off so easily. One of the biggest problems in the retail banking world is that hardly anyone likes their bank. Apple’s proven what it can do in retail space, and its allure and cult following would likely be willing to take a chance with it. A second major problem for banks, the need to find fees. Apple did this with iTunes and music downloading, what’s to say a customer wouldn’t toss a few dollar’s Apple’s way for a smart, easy-to-use and effective online banking platform. The interface could even be downloaded straight to your computer like iTunes. Apple Bank in New York only fits because of the name, but Apple could buy a much smaller bank with a few branches and become a hybrid of ING Online.