Apple CEO Tim Cook recently commented on the company’s $98B cash reserves, and said that the board is in active discussions about what to do. One of the most obvious alternatives is to buy other companies. I think Twitter is a great fit, but Tom Taulli looked at the iCloud strategy that Apple is pursuing, and he sees a strategic fit with Salseforce.com:

Tom Taulli via InvestorPlace

Then what to buy? I think a good prospect is Salesforce.com (NYSE:CRM). Founded in the late 1990s, the company has become the dominant player in the cloud market. This technology essentially involves using Internet-based technologies for business applications. It tends to help companies that use cloud computing to lower costs and improve productivity.

Already Apple has shown lots of traction with its iCloud offering, reaching over 100 million users since launching in October. But this is so far mostly for consumer applications, such as music.

But with Salesforce.com, Apple can leverage its massive iPad installed base, which is at about 55 million. The device has quickly become a must-have product in the corporate world. Thus, Apple could tap a huge new revenue source by getting subscription income from corporate customers for applications like customer resource management (CRM), enterprise resource planning and so on. Apple might also be able to nab a piece of Microsoft’s lucrative Office franchise.

The cloud opportunity is enormous. According to a forecast from Forrester, the market is expected to go from $40.7 billion in 2011 to a whopping $241 billion by 2020. This is the kind of opportunity that should get the attention of a company like Apple, which has not only the cash for such dealmaking but the know-how to make it work.