Apple Inc (AAPL) chief executive officer Tim Cook renounced a dividend worth $75 million declared by the company. Apple Inc recently declared a regular cash dividend after almost 17 years since the last disbursement of dividends to its shareholders in 1995.

The technology giant will pay a quarterly dividend of $2.65 per share from July.

The company said that in filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Cook opted-out from getting any dividend, and had asked the company to exclude him from dividend payout program.

‘This strikes me as another important signal Tim Cook is sending that Apple’s user-friendly product image is now to be matched by a social-friendly corporate image” said Stephen Davis, corporate governance professor at Yale university.

Apple disclosed this unexpected, strange plan in the month of March 2012, to distribute a 100 billion cash pile generated over the period of 17 years, and through strong sales of iPhone and iPods.

Another most striking fundamental aspect of Apple Inc, is its height of innovation. It literally created a new market for items that invited enormous change in the industry. Technological evolution within this organization transformed the fate of industry and consequently Apple itself.

A high dividend payout company signals that there is nothing much that can be done by investing in new geography or technological advancement for a new production facility. Nothing can be done that expands the top-line in the short-term.

On the contrary, what Apple did is not a faint of heart, but a true measure of how far determination at management level can pull fortunes in customer favor. Apple launched a series of products ranging from cell phones to handy music players, from iPods to Mac, building a rocky track and painting a rough patch for its competitors.

Non-dividend paying companies will be pro-actively engaged in investing activities or will be in pipe-line for grabbing new opportunities, effectively strengthening the top-line. Thus, investors feel comfortable parking money with such firms.

All that matters is how far an organization is successful in utilizing or putting cash into the most profitable pool that brings fat revenues and increased market competency.

Apple rewarded its shareholders in both forms so far; it satisfied them with cash dividend and by innovation.

Since then Apple shares have dropped to $562 each making the company worth $525 Billion. However, earlier this year Apple’s shares touched a high of $644 surpassing $600 Billion market value of the firm.

Image Courtesy of  Songquan Deng / Shutterstock

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About the author

Muhammed Faraaz
Post-graduate in Economics from India, unfolding complexities and policies. Proponent of Classical Economics.