Apple CEO Tim Cook at the new iPad launch
So Apple has decided what it wants to do with a sizable chunk of the $100 billion it has salted away: It’s going to start issuing a dividend to its shareholders, and will buy back some of its own stock. If you own Apple stock or otherwise care about its stock price, that’s good news. If you don’t, it’s…well, boring. Sorry.
From the time that the company announced yesterday evening that it had scheduled a phone conference to discuss its cash until it revealed its decision, Twitter was awash in chatter about what the company might be announcing. Some folks thought there was no way it could be something as prosaic as a dividend; others just had fun proposing ways that Apple could spend a tenth of a trillion dollars, serious and otherwise.
A good time was had by all, and I’ve used Storify to recap some of the conversation.