Ahead of a call with CEO Tim Cook and CFO Peter Oppenheimer, Apple today outlined some of what it will do with the nearly US$100 billion in cash that it currently has. The company announced that it will initiate a dividend and share repurchase program this year.
“We have used some of our cash to make great investments in our business through increased research and development, acquisitions, new retail store openings, strategic prepayments and capital expenditures in our supply chain, and building out our infrastructure. You’ll see more of all of these in the future,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “Even with these investments, we can maintain a war chest for strategic opportunities and have plenty of cash to run our business. So we are going to initiate a dividend and share repurchase program.”
Starting in its fiscal fourth quarter, which begins on July 1st, 2012, Apple will pay out a quarterly dividend of US$2.65 per share. Starting in 2013 fiscal year, Apple will also buy back up to US$10 billion of its shares.
Apple expects that these two programs will use up about US$45 billion of its cash reserves in the first three years that they run. That still leaves it with over US$50 billion for possible acquisitions and other moves.
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