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Apple to Pay Out Dividends in 2012

Announces plans for $100 billion war chest.

Perhaps $100 billion is a bit too much to keep under the mattress. Faced with an enormous reserve of cash on hand, Apple announced Monday that it would pay a quarterly dividend of $2.65 a share some time after July. The company will also buy back $10 billion worth of shares over the next three years. That'll keep shareholders happy and also counteract the equity grants that Apple will hand out to employees over the years. Of course, even these payouts will leave the iPad maker with a pile of cash. “We can [still] maintain a war chest for strategic opportunities and have plenty of cash to run our business,” CEO Tim Cook said about the decision.