Apple pays dividends, cloning next?
Apple has so much money in fact that they are going to (finally) reward their investors with a $2.65 per share dividend and share buy back plan which will see the company shed $45 billion over the next 3 years.
Personally I think this is such an amazing position for Apple to be in. However I do find it very interesting that this is now happening after Steve Jobs passing and he was not in favour of such things. I don’t think Jobs was greedy at all, I think he just wanted to make sure that the company was financially secure as well as adding to the exclusivity of Apple products. Jobs had never allowed dividends to be paid out to investors, the only time it happened in Apple’s history was when Jobs was not at the helm.
It actually makes me wonder if another business activity by Apple would happen without Jobs being there—Mac Clones. If you are an Apple Mac devotee you would remember that in the 1990’s you could buy cheaper version of an Apple Mac known as a clone. Then shortly after Jobs returned to Apple the cloning program was stopped. Apple went through a phase where you could only buy an Apple Mac from an Apple store. As wonderful as it may seem to supply such wonderful equipment with such exclusiveness, it was just not viable as a business plan as the demand (at that time) was not high enough. These days though, you can buy Apple products in many different locations and store, but the licensing rules are stringent and enforced which keeps the integrity and credibility of the Apple Mac product family as we see it today. But as I said earlier, I hope that Apple doesn’t go back into old habits just because Jobs is no longer there.
Yours in paying dividends,
Paul.
