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After a mysterious media alert had everyone guessing what Apple might do with its $100 billion, the company has decided to go the dividends and stock buyback route. Specifically, the company expects to initiate a quarterly dividend of $2.65 a share sometime in the fourth quarter. Since CEO Tim Cook took over, he has mentioned what the company might do with the cash, rather than let it just sit there. "We’re not going to do silly things with it," he said during the Q4 earnings call. Even so, last night's announcement has more exciting guesses like a "$90,000 million project to clone Steve Jobs" and investments in Twitter and Samsung. But, alas, Apple went in the sensible direction.
It's the sensible thing to do because shareholders will like it. The company had all this money sitting around not collecting very much interest in cash. "Apple earns less than 1 percent in interest on the cash, which many investors view as wasteful," explains The New York Times' Nick Wingfield. Investors want in on this. In the past, Apple has resisted this type of move arguing it needed the cash to secure supplies for its iPads and such. Though, Apple did issue dividends back in 1995.