Why does Apple not have any LT debt on their Balance Sheet?

I looked on Apple's 10k and I noticed that they don't have any LT Debt. Why? And how can they continue to stay in business? Also, if they don't have any long term debt, does this mean they don't have any interest exp? I couldn't find where interest exp could be...

I took a quick look at their Balance Sheet, and they have $15B in cash on hand, or cash equivalents. Yes, Billion. It is not that uncommon for companies to operate with no debt. I work for one. Other good examples are Microsoft and Cisco. These are companies that make so much money that it is hard for them to invest it back into the business without it piling up. This is one of the reasons they buy other companies. At the moment Microsoft is sitting on cash or cash equivalents of $25Billion.

So they are not likely to need a loan anytime soon.

If a company has debt, the interest payable will show on the P&L statement, or income statement, not the balance sheet.

Because they make good products and don't need to be sued unlike Microsoft.

They have about $9 billion in cash, so they likely paid off their debt. Wouldn't make sense to be levered if they have a ton of cash. Most technology companies actually have little to no debt since equity financing is a bigger source of financing for them. Banks have a harder time lending to tech companies.

Another great example is Microsoft who has over $20 billion in cash and has no idea what to do with it. They have no debt either.

And yes, if you don't have any debt, you won't have interest expense.

Why in the world would a lack of long-term debt mean they can't stay in business?

It means they're more likely to stay in business.

What it means is they fund the business through other means, given the profitability of their products they generate more than enough cash flow to finance investment in new products, etc.

They may have short-term debt, in fact I bet they do. That would result in interest expense but if the expense is very small then they may not break it out as a separate line item.

smart companies operate with no debt... walgreens, harley davidson, to name a few.

They don't have any long term debt on their balance sheet because they don't have any long term debt. It is POSSIBLE to have interest expense on short term debt, but if you can't find it, they probably don't have any.

Lack of long term debt actually make it EASIER to stay in business. Without the cost of carrying debt, they don't need as much of a margin to turn a profit. They can also ride out reduced revenues by cutting current expenses.