Apple co-founder Steve Jobs most recently unveiled iCloud at the Apple Developers Conference WWDC 2011 in San Francisco Source: AP

Apple filed an 8-K report (firms are required to disclose new material events as they occur in an 8-K form, also known as a “current” form ) with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that reveals the company has awarded its new CEO, Tim Cook, 1,000,000 Apple shares worth $383.58-million based on today’s closing price of Apple stock (NASDAQ:AAPL).

Apple earmarked 1,000,000 common shares to Mr. Cook that will be converted in to cash on two different dates, Aug 24, 2016, and five years later on Aug 24, 2021, contingent on Cook’s continued employment at Apple. The number of shares converted will be evenly divided between the two dates.

The stock allocation should not be misconstrued as long call options because the shares will be converted into cash at the closing price on the respective dates, that is, there is no strike price, and the allocation is in fact already like an in the money stock option.

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The world’s largest software vendor, Microsoft Corporation, today announced the company has set up a massive $250,000 fund for its Blue Hat contest as part of the company’s latest efforts to challenge developers to enhance security for the world’s most popular operating system, Microsoft Windows.

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The world’s largest online search engine, Google Inc., is now subject of a U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) review, after the agency officially announced the formal investigation last Friday.

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The world’s largest consumer electronics retailer in the world, Best Buy Co. Inc., will launch a new cloud-based music service, Music Cloud, in the United States, which will directly compete against a number of new cloud products from top competitors including Amazon’s, Google’s, and Apple’s cloud products.

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Most suppliers offer discounts if the full balance on a purchase is paid in full before a specific time period. But what if you don’t take advantage of the discount? Ever wondered what the implied annual cost of not taking the discount is?

You can use this formula to easily figure out the implied annual cost of not taking advantage of the discount and to better organize your payables to maximize your dollar returns.

If you’re firm can’t afford to take advantage of every supplier offered discount, at the very least you can use this method to easily identify offers with higher discounts to realize higher savings.

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The top software-maker in the world, Microsoft Inc., released a new Android developers package to make it easier for developers to port their applications to the Windows Phone platform.

The Android developers kit provided by Microsoft includes two primary tools, an Android to Windows Phone API mapping tool, and a ninety page white paper (“Windows Phone 7 Guide for Android Application Developers“).

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The world’s largest software company, Microsoft Corp., outlined new features for its cloud-based SkyDrive service that will be included with Windows Phone “Mango” that will bring deeper integration of the service on Windows Phone.

New features would allow users to easily keep photos and videos in sync between multiple devices, including their Windows Phone and PC. Every photo or video stored on SkyDrive will automatically be accessible from Windows Phone, and any changes that take place on Windows Phone will automatically be synced with SkyDrive.

SkyDrive albums have also been integrated into the messaging and email hubs, which bring the ability to easily attach media to messages. Microsoft has even added an option to upload every album from Windows Phone to SkyDrive for a more seamless sync experience.

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The world’s most popular consumer-to-consumer e-commerce company, eBay Inc., has announced the company has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Magento Inc., the company that develops open-source e-commerce systems that make it simple for smaller retailers to sell their merchandise through the Internet.

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The world’s largest online search engine, Google Inc., has acquired the product search engine Sparkbuy, according to a note on the Sparkbuy website.

Google has yet to issue an official announcement concerning its latest acquisition, and at this time, the terms of the deal are being kept strictly private.

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The maker of the popular PlayStation gaming console, Sony Entertainment, has announced the company has begun restoring PlayStation Network features after the network was brought down by a sophisticated attack from a group of unidentified hackers.

Sony President, and Group Chief Executive Officer, Kazuo Hirai, made the announcement in a carefully crafted video message published earlier today.

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