News tagged ‘shareholders’
Apple buys back shares and acquires new companies
According to WSJ, Apple has repurchased $14 billion of its own shares after the Q-earnings report was published on January 28th.
Mr. Cook said Apple was "surprised" by the 8% decline in its shares on Jan. 28, the day after it reported quarterly results, and wanted to be "aggressive" and "opportunistic." With the latest purchases, Mr. Cook said Apple had bought back more than $40 billion of its shares over the past 12 months, which Mr. Cook said was a record for any company over a similar span.
Apple Showed Interest in Acquiring BlackBerry Patents, But Got Refusal
Apple, along with Microsoft, Lenovo, Cisco and Google, showed interest in acquiring parts of BlackBerry Ltd,
The Cost of the iPhone 5s and 5c Components
We all know that the iPhone 5s is an expensive device. Well, the iPhone 5c - which was earlier for some inexplicable reason called ‘the cheap iPhone’ - is expensive as well. And how much money does it take to manufacture these gadgets?
Apple Is at #19 in the Fortune's Global 500 List
According to the Fortune’s latest annual list of the world’s most successful companies, Apple ranks #19. As to the top five spots, they are occupied by such corporations as Royal Dutch Shell, Wal-Mart, Exxon Mobil, Sinopec Group and China National Petroleum.
New Apple Strategy to Sell More iPhones via Apple Store
Apple CEO Tim Cook is reported to have held a three-hour meeting on new sales strategy for company’s employees and shareholders. According to 9to5Mac, he was talking on possible ways to increase the number of iPhones sold through the Apple Store. So far, the percentage of phones bought on the Internet or from other retailers like Walmart and Best Buy is close to 80. Quite obvious, that the result of only 20 percent is not enough good as for the company's main retail store.
Apple rumored to be in talks to acquire German HDTV maker Loewe
AppleInsider’s source claims that Apple is said to be negotiating to acquire Loewe AG, a manufacturer and distributor of televisions, audio components and integrated entertainment systems. Loewe "has been advised by its financial advisor to accept the offer and a final decision is scheduled to be announced internally before 18 May 2012."
This person said Apple is confidentially offering 87.3 million euros (about $112 million U.S.), a slight premium over the firm's last closing share price of 4.519 euros (giving it a market cap of 58.79 million euros or $76 million U.S.). Loewe's primary shareholders currently include Sharp (28.83 percent) and LaCie (11.17 percent).
Loewe entered the TV market in 1929, and now employs around 1,000 workers worldwide in 50 countries. The company has seen its sales fall by 11 percent over the last year, generating a loss of 10.5 million Euro ($13.57 million USD) in 2011.
Apple's 2012 shareholder meeting set for February 23
Apple Senior Vice President and General Counsel Bruce Sewell has issued a letter on Monday where Apple informs the company's shareholders that its annual shareholder meeting will be held at 10 a.m. Pacific on Feb. 23 and will include four shareholder proposals. Last year's meeting was also held on Feb. 23. Only shareholders of record as of Dec. 27, 2011 will be eligible to attend and vote at the meeting.
The agenda for the annual meeting includes: the election of Apple's board of directors, ratification of Ernst & Young as its independent registered public accounting firm for the year, an advisory vote on executive compensation and consideration of four shareholder proposals.
The first shareholder proposal is the request for a "Conflict of Interest Report" that requires to disclose any investments of board members that would represent a financial conflict of interest, describes the role board members play in the development of the company's policies.
Apple’s Ongoing Patent Battle May Pose Risks For Its Shareholders
According to
Dividend seen bringing $4B in additional investments to Apple
Analyst Brian Marshall with International Strategy & Investment Group claims that apple may finally pay its shareholders dividends, despite the company’s long resistance. Most investors do not believe Apple will initiate a dividend policy in 2012, but if the company will, it may gain an additional $4 billion in investments.
At the moment the current Apple’s CEO Tim Cook is reorganizing the company, so he may probably make an effort to optimize capital structure and start paying dividends Apple’s shareholders. Brian Marshall believes that Apple could "easily" implement a dividend yield of 250 base points, amounting to about $2.40 per quarter.
Apple’s previous CEO, Steve Jobs, didn’t support the idea of dividend distribution and preferred to invest in strategic opportunities such as last year purchase of Siri (Apple paid about $200 million).
"We strongly believe one or more strategic opportunities will come along we're in a unique position to take advantage of," the late Apple CEO said in 2010. "We don't let the cash burn a hole in the pocket or make stupid acquisitions. We'd like to continue to keep our powder dry because we think there are one or more strategic opportunities in the future."
HP Has Revaluated Its Plans And Will Not Spin Off Its PC Unit
HP, the largest PC manufacturer,
Google Has Acquired Motorola Mobility for $12.5 Billion
Today co-founder and CEO of Google Larry Page officially said that their company has acquired one of the largest smartphone manufacturer – Motorola, specifically Motorola Mobility. The company was sold for $12.5 billion, which is 63% more than the closing price of the company on Friday, August 12. This deal has yet to be approved by several official authorities in USA and European Union, as well as Motorola Mobility’s shareholders. All transition processes is expected to finish in the end of 2011 or beginning of 2012.
Leave a comment, read comments [1]
Patent Dispute Between Apple And Nokia Is Resolved, Apple Will Pay For Licenses
Nokia announced that it had entered into agreement with Apple, and now the prolonged legal argument between two corporations is coming to an end with two parties withdrawing their complaints to the International Trade Commission.
A press release that announced the signed patent license agreement was issued by Nokia early Tuesday. Agreement stipulates that Apple have to make a one-time payment to Nokia as well as ongoing royalties. But exact details of the agreement are kept in secret. The statement also reads that Nokia has put about 43 billion EUR into research and development in the course of last 20 years, creating a patent portfolio that consists of 10,000 patent families.
Read the rest of this entry »
The Complete Transcript of Steve Jobs' Apple Q4 Earnings Call
Here's the Apple CEO in his own words talking during Apple Q4 Earnings Call:
Hi, everybody. As most of you know, I don’t usually participate in Apple earnings calls, since you’re all in such capable hands with Peter and Tim. But I just couldn’t help dropping by for our first 20-billion-dollar quarter. I’d like to chat about a few things, and then stay for the rest of the Q&A, if that’s all right.
First, let me discuss iPhone. We sold 14.1 million iPhones in the quarter, which represents a 91 percent unit growth over the year-ago quarter, and was well ahead of IDC’s latest published estimate of 64 percent growth for the global smartphone market in the September quarter. And it handily beats RIM’s 12.1 million BlackBerrys sold, in their most recent quarter ending in August.
Speaking About Reasons of Apple's Actions
After the news about Apple's lawsuit many of us have been wondering why Apple did this. Obviously, the thing is not about money as the company already has $40 billion of cash and investments. Digital Daily's editor John Paczkowski thinks the reason is a desire to extend iPhone's growing lead on the market.
"Apple is suing to make an example out of HTC and lengthen the engineering time-to-market for Android handset builders."
While other Android smartphone manufacturers will spend their time solving a problem with developing of noninfringing technologies to avoid lawsuits, Apple will continue to iterate the iPhone.
Ok, this is clear, but why Apple accused HTC now?
News from Apple's shareholders meeting
Shareholders meeting started at 1 p.m. EST Thursday. For almost 2,5 hours they discussed different topics and revealed some interesting information.
First of all, Apple is going to open 25 retail stores in China. As you know, the first Chinese store was built in 2008, and since then only plans about revealing another store were announced.
Secondly Steve Jobs told Apple will build its reserves to make big investments in the future. He also mentioned it is a better way of dealing with profit than paying dividends or doing stock buybacks. At this moment Apple has ~40 billion dollars in their chest.