The recent change in the tax code has created quite a stir among tech giants. Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) is setting a phenomenal example by announcing plans to bring its overseas cash pile back into the country. That should spell good news for investment in the US.

Apple’s Financials

Apple’s first quarter revenues grew 12.7% over the year to $88.3 billion, ahead of the Street’s forecast of $87.3 billion. Profit was $20.1 billion or $3.89 per share, up 16% over the year. The market was looking for an EPS of $3.86 for the quarter.

By segment, Apple’s iPhone revenues grew 13% over the year to $61.6 billion despite a decline of 1% in iPhone sales. Overall, the company sold 77.32 million iPhones compared with the market forecast of 80 million units. iPad sales continued to grow with revenues recording a 6% increase to $5.86 billion. The number of iPads sold increased 1% to 13.2 million units. Mac revenues fell 5% to $6.9 billion with units sold reducing 5% to 5.1 million. Its Services segment grew 18% to $8.5 billion and revenues from other products grew 36% to $5.5 billion.

By region, Apple’s revenues from the Americas grew 10% over the year to $35.2 billion and sales from Europe grew 14% to $21.1 billion. Revenues from the Greater China region continued to grow and reported an 11% improvement to $18 billion. Revenues from Japan also increased this quarter by 26% to $7.24 billion. Revenues from the rest of Asia Pacific improved 17% to $6.9 billion.

Apple ended the year with revenues growing 6% over the year to $229.23 billion and EPS growing 11% to $9.27.

For the current quarter, Apple forecast revenues of $60-$62 billion, and gross profit margin of 38% to 38.5%. The market was looking for revenues of $65.41 billion and an EPS of $2.83.

The recent tax code change has had a big impact on the industry. The tax rates for corporates were reduced from 35% to 21% in the US. But some of those benefits are offset with the new repatriation tax. Prior to the current ruling, companies needed to pay 35% to repatriate foreign profits. According to the new rule, they will not have to pay any taxes to repatriate future foreign profits, but a 15.5% tax to repatriate overseas cash stash.

Apple has announced plans to repatriate its overseas cash. It has the biggest purse with $252 billion in cash. It is paying $38 billion in taxes as part of this repatriation. Apple plans to use this cash to invest in growth in the US. Over the next five years, it plans to spend $30 billion in the country, which includes the building of a new campus for more than 20,000 employees, clearly setting an example for other US companies with sizeable foreign cash pools.

Apple’s Acquisitions

During the quarter, Apple announced a few significant acquisitions. In December, it entered into an agreement to acquire the music app Shazam for an estimated $400 million. The Shazam app allows listeners to identify songs, movies, and TV shows from an audio clip. Once the clip is identified, Shazam would allow listeners to purchase the song by directing them to the Music store.

Last year, Shazam had also launched an augmented reality platform for brands that lets users scan magazines, books, posters, advertisements, and other physical products to launch 3D animations, product visualizations, and 360-degree videos. Prior to the download, the Shazam app had been downloaded more than 1 billion times and had generated $54 million in revenues in 2016. The acquisition will help Apple enhance its Music offering and also its AR efforts. The deal is currently being reviewed by EU regulators.

Earlier this year, Apple also announced plans to acquire Canadian app development service Buddybuild for an undisclosed sum. Buddybuild is known for building a mobile platform that focuses on continuous integration and debugging tools for app development. Apple will integrate Buddybuild into Xcode, its suite of development tools for iOS, macOS, watchOS, and tvOS as part of the integration. The solution will help enhance the tools available to app developers by providing a proprietary channel for testing, debugging, and ultimately deploying mobile apps.

Questions for Apple’s Board

Now that Apple has the cash back home, what big acquisitions does it have in mind? Is Netflix finally on the cards? The acquisition would inject energy into Apple TV’s hardware sales and content-driven subscriptions. It will be an expensive buy though. Netflix is currently trading at a market capitalization of $115 billion – still accounting for less than half of Apple’s foreign cash reserves.

Its stock is trading at $159.54 with a market capitalization of $809.5 billion. It had peaked to a record high of $180.10 in January this year, after climbing from the 52-week low of $130.45 from twelve months ago.