SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said he is donating nearly $500 million in stock to a Silicon Valley charity with the aim of funding health and education issues.

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Apple is to spread a bit of cheer to despondent investors later today [15th November 2012] when it distributes $2.5 billion in dividends for only the second time in 17 years.Until now shareholders have relied on the soaring price of Apple stock to get a return. But more recently Apple's star has started to wane amid criticism that its latest iPhone and other devices are lacklustre and that, without the vision of founder Steve Jobs who died in October, it has lost its direction Continue reading →

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SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Shares of Facebook Inc jumped nearly 13 percent on Wednesday, as investors breathed a sigh of relief that expiring trading restrictions on a huge block of shares failed to trigger an immediate wave of insider selling. "While the lockup is expiring, there is nothing requiring anybody to sell," said Tim Ghriskey, chief investment officer at Solaris Group in Bedford Hills, New York. "Given the low price, these long-term holders are deciding to hold the stock, and that is lifting it here as the fear of the expiration subsides. ...

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SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Facebook Inc Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg sold $3.75 million worth of stock in the company on Tuesday, her second stock sale since trading restrictions on insiders expired last week. Sandberg sold roughly 176,000 Facebook shares for an average price of $21.24 on Tuesday, according to a regulatory filing on Thursday. Sandberg still owns nearly 19 million vested shares of Facebook, the world's No.1 Internet social network, according to the filing. Last week, Sandberg sold roughly $7.4 million worth of Facebook stock. ...

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SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Facebook Inc Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg and two other executives at the social networking company sold millions of dollars worth of stock this week as restrictions on insider trading expired. Sandberg netted about $7.44 million by selling roughly 353,000 Facebook shares on Wednesday, according to a filing with the SEC on Friday. Sandberg still owns roughly 20 million vested shares of Facebook stock, including shares held in her trusts, according to the filing. ...

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Facebook's stock has been down on 62 trading days, up on 48 and unchanged on three since its initial public offering.

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The maker of the BlackBerry is running out of time.

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Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. is preparing to spin off its newspaper business into a separate company, an acknowledgement that the printed page that gave rise to a media empire will never again be central to its future.

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Apple's board has decided to award dividend equivalent payments to employees holding restricted stock units or RSUs. Apple announced a quarterly dividend of $2.65/share in March, to commence in July. RSUs are typically issued to employees to encourage them to stay with the company. They are awarded in a similar way to stock options, but convert directly into shares of stock upon vesting.

Apple CEO Tim Cook was awarded 1 million RSUs upon his promotion to CEO last year to entice him to stay with the company for the foreseeable future. Half of the shares vest in 5 years, and the other half in 10. Cook has specifically declined the dividend equivalents, turning down more than $75 million in dividend payments over the life of the RSUs.

From an Apple SEC filing today:

On May 24, 2012, the Compensation Committee (the "Committee") of the Board of Directors of Apple Inc. (the "Company") approved amendments to each outstanding and unvested restricted stock unit award granted by the Company to its employees (other than Timothy D. Cook, the Company's Chief Executive Officer). The amendments provide that if the Company pays an ordinary cash dividend on its common stock, each award will be credited with an amount equal to the per-share cash dividend paid by the Company, multiplied by the total number of restricted stock units subject to the award that are outstanding immediately prior to the record date for such dividend. The amounts that are credited to each award are referred to as "dividend equivalents." Any dividend equivalents credited to an award will be subject to the same vesting, payment and other terms and conditions as the unvested restricted stock units to which the dividend equivalents relate. Depending on the domicile of the employee, accumulated dividend equivalents will either be paid in cash or used to offset employee taxes due upon vesting of the restricted stock units.

The Committee determined these amendments were appropriate in light of the Company's announcement on March 19, 2012 that it intends to commence paying ordinary cash dividends of $2.65 per share to its shareholders on a quarterly basis sometime during the fourth quarter of its 2012 fiscal year. As restricted stock units are not outstanding shares of common stock and thus would not otherwise be entitled to participate in such dividends, the crediting of dividend equivalents is intended to preserve the equity-based incentives intended by the Company when the awards were granted and to treat the award holders consistently with shareholders.

At Mr. Cook's request, none of his restricted stock units will participate in dividend equivalents. Assuming a quarterly dividend of $2.65 per share over the vesting periods of his 1.125 million outstanding restricted stock units, Mr. Cook will forego approximately $75 million in dividend equivalent value.

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