Boss gets chance to step outside Jobs\' shadow

What would Steve Jobs have done?

It is a question that Apple chief executive Tim Cook can't escape. From the naming of the hot iPad to his selection of clothing at public events, company-watchers parse Cook's every move, in search of differences between him and the company's revered founder Steve Jobs.

But Cook seems determined to stamp his own legacy at the world's most beneficial company.

Within the biggest break from Jobs' philosophy since Cook succeeded him as chief executive seven months ago, Apple is dipping into its nearly US$100 billion ($122 billion) cash stash to begin paying a quarterly dividend of US$2.65 per share to its stockholders.

The commitment announced this week draws a transparent line of demarcation between Cook and Jobs.

"It truly is indicative of the changing of the guard at Apple," says ISI Group analyst Brian Marshall. "i do not believe this can have happened under Steve Jobs. This clearly shows Tim Cook is his own man."

Jobs hoarded cash like a guy petrified of running out of it. Stricken by memories of Apple's flirtation with bankruptcy within the late 1990s, he steadfastly resisted requires the corporate to pay a dividend.

Jobs never wanted Apple to be so destitute that it will need financial help, because it did in 1997 when he negotiated a US$150 million infusion from rival Microsoft.

With Cook dependable, Apple is now able to herald a brand new era and dole out about US$10 billion in dividends every year. It's an amount that Apple can easily afford, given the dimensions of its current checking account and the billions more pouring in amid feverish demand for its iPhones, iPads and iPods.

Obviously, not anyone knows what Jobs would have considered Apple paying a dividend.

He died on October 5 after an extended battle with cancer. It isn't clear whether he had softened his stance at the dividend by the point he resigned as CEO last August.

The dividend decision didn't fall entirely to Cook. It required the approval of Apple's eight-member board of directors, which hasn't changed prior to now year aside from the addition of Cook and the lack of Jobs. Cook joined the board when he became CEO.

Analysts and investors viewed the dividend as an indication of Cook's willingness to hear shareholders.

"The hot management is especially shareholder friendly, and it's been really nice to look," says Sterne Agee analyst Shaw Wu.

Longtime Apple shareholder Asif Khan believes the dividend means that Cook is focused on honouring one in all Jobs' final bits of recommendation. In response to published accounts, Cook told Apple employees at an October 19 memorial that Jobs wanted management to "do just what's right" rather than attempting to determine what the company's late leader would have done.

"It's an intriguing moment in Apple's history because this can be a departure from Steve's philosophy," says Khan, whose family has accumulated 20,000 Apple shares since 1997 when Jobs returned to the corporate.

Cook "is changing the culture of the corporate somewhat bit, but in a great way. Everything i've got seen him accomplish that far appears to be making Apple right into a kinder and gentler company."

Just last month, Cook told Apple shareholders that he still thinks of Jobs daily he goes to work.

The company's stock price has soared 60 per cent since Cook became CEO to propel Apple's market value to US$560 billion - the main on this planet.

- AP

By Michael Liedtke