with respect to the general issue of employee stock compensation. The Company is currently reviewing the potential impact from the guidance of the proposed statement, which may require the Company to recognize substantially more compensation expense in future periods that could have a material adverse impact on the Company's future results of operations. The accounting impact had the Company chosen to apply the fair-value recognition provisions of SFAS No. 123, instead of the recognition provisions under APB Opinion No. 25, is described in Part II, Item 8 of this Form 10-K at Note 1 of the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements.







Liquidity and Capital Resources

As of September 25, 2004, the Company had $5.464 billion in cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investments, an increase of $898 million over the same balances at the end of fiscal 2003. The principal components of this increase were cash generated by operating activities of $934 million and proceeds of $427 million from the issuance of common stock under stock plans, partially offset by cash used to repay the Company's outstanding debt of $300 million and purchases of property, plant, and equipment of $176 million. The Company's short-term investment portfolio is primarily invested in high credit quality, liquid investments. Approximately $3.2 billion of this cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investments are held by the Company's foreign subsidiaries and would be subject to U.S. income taxation on repatriation to the U.S. The Company is currently assessing the impact of the one-time favorable foreign dividend provisions recently enacted as part of the American Jobs Creation Act of 2004, and may decide to repatriate earnings from some of its foreign subsidiaries.

The Company believes its existing balances of cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investments will be sufficient to satisfy its working capital needs, capital expenditures, stock repurchase activity, outstanding commitments, and other liquidity requirements associated with its existing operations over the next 12 months.

Debt

In February 2004, the Company retired $300 million of debt outstanding in the form of 6.5% unsecured notes. The notes were originally issued in 1994 and were sold at 99.9925% of par for an effective yield to maturity of 6.51%. The Company currently has no long-term debt obligations.

Capital Expenditures

The Company's total capital expenditures were $176 million during fiscal 2004, $104 million of which were for retail store facilities and equipment related to the Company's Retail segment and $72 million of which were primarily for corporate infrastructure, including information systems enhancements and operating facilities enhancements and expansions. The Company currently anticipates it will utilize approximately $240 million for capital expenditures during 2005, approximately $125 million of which is expected to be utilized for further expansion of the Company's Retail segment and the remainder utilized to support normal replacement of existing capital assets and enhancements to general information technology infrastructure.





Stock Repurchase Plan

In July 1999, the