IBM Board Approves 33 Percent Increase in Quarterly Cash Dividend

The IBM board of directors today declared a regular quarterly cash dividend of $0.40 per common share, payable June 9, 2007 to stockholders of record May 10, 2007.

Today’s dividend declaration represents an increase of $0.10, or 33 percent more than the prior quarterly dividend of $0.30 per common share. In the last two years IBM has doubled its quarterly dividend.

This is the 12th year in a row that IBM has increased its quarterly cash dividend, representing a total increase of 540 percent since 1996.

With the payment of the June 9 dividend, IBM will have paid 366 consecutive quarterly dividends, starting in 1916.

The board also authorized $15 billion in additional funds for use in the company’s stock repurchase program. This amount is in addition to approximately $1.4 billion for stock repurchase remaining at the end of March from a prior authorization. With this new approval, IBM now has approximately $16.4 billion for its stock repurchase program. IBM may repurchase shares on the open market or in private transactions, including structured or accelerated transactions, depending on market conditions.

"These announcements underscore the strength of IBM's business model and our strategy. Over the past several years we have taken strategic actions to capture our industry's profitable growth opportunities and to globally integrate IBM," said Samuel J. Palmisano, IBM chairman, president and chief executive officer. "This gives us significant financial flexibility to use our capital to drive growth through investments in acquisitions and capital expenditures, and to increase returns to shareholders through dividends and stock repurchase, as we are doing today."

IBM said it may complete a substantial portion of the repurchases during the next several months. The company said that, as a result of the increased share repurchase, 2007 earnings per share growth -- excluding any gain from the recently-announced sale of its printer business -- could be 12 to 14 percent, which is one to three points more than its previous estimates. At this time, IBM does not anticipate requesting board approval for additional funds for stock repurchases within the next 12 months.

Additional information about this share repurchase activity, including the associated financial leverage, is available on IBM’s investor web site at http://www.ibm.com/investor/viewpoint/ircorner/2007/07-04-24-1.phtml

SAP Recommends Dividend Increase

The Executive Board and the Supervisory Board of SAP AG (NYSE:SAP) recommend that shareholders approve a dividend of €0.46 per ordinary share at this year’s Annual General Meeting of shareholders. This would represent an increase of 27 percent over the 2005 dividend. If the shareholders approve this recommendation the total amount distributed in dividends would be approximately €560 million. The dividend payment is in line with SAP’s targeted pay-out ratio of approximately 30 percent of the group’s net income.

The Annual General Meeting is scheduled for May 10, 2007 in Mannheim, Germany. The payment of the dividend is scheduled for or after May 11, 2007.

Note to holders of SAP ADRs (American Depositary Receipts): One SAP ADR (American Depositary Receipt) represents one SAP AG’s ordinary share. However, the final dividend is dependent on the Euro/US-Dollar exchange rate. SAP AG pays cash dividends in Euro, so the exchange rate fluctuations will also affect the US-Dollar amounts received by the holders of ADRs on the conversion into US-Dollars of cash dividends paid in Euro on the ordinary shares represented by the ADRs. The final dividend payment by SAP AG to the depositary bank is scheduled for May 11, 2007. The depositary bank will then convert the dividend payment from Euro into US-Dollar as promptly as practicable.

INTC: Intel Declares Regular Cash Dividend

Intel Corporation's board of directors has declared an 11.25 cents per share quarterly dividend on the company's common stock. The dividend is payable on June 1, 2007 to stockholders of record on May 7, 2007.

WMTL: Wal-Mart Increases Annual Dividend 31 Percent

The Board of Directors of Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT) has approved an increase in the annual dividend to $0.88 per share, a 31% increase from the $0.67 per share paid during fiscal year 2007. For fiscal year ending January 31, 2008, the annual dividend of $0.88 per share will be paid in four quarterly installments of $0.22 per share, according to the following record and payable dates:

Record Date
March 16, 2007
May 18, 2007
August 17, 2007
December 14, 2007

Payable Date
April 2, 2007
June 4, 2007
September 4, 2007
January 2, 2008

Based upon this announced increase, the Company plans to return more than $3.6 billion to its shareholders in the form of dividends in fiscal year 2008. Wal-Mart has increased its dividend every year since its first declared dividend of $0.05 in March 1974.

The Company also announced that April 5, 2007 is the record date for its annual shareholders’ meeting that will occur on June 1, 2007.

IBM Board Approves Regular Quarterly Cash Dividend

The IBM (NYSE:IBM) board of directors today declared a regular quarterly cash dividend of $.30 per common share, payable March 10, 2007 to stockholders of record February 9, 2007. With the payment of the March 10 dividend, IBM will have paid 365 consecutive quarterly dividends, starting in 1916.

IBM also announced that its next annual meeting of stockholders will be held April 24, 2007 at the Knoxville Convention Center in Knoxville, Tennessee.

INTC: Intel Declares Regular Cash Dividend

Intel Corporation's board of directors has declared an 11.25 cents per share quarterly dividend on the company's common stock. The dividend is payable on Mar. 1, 2007 to stockholders of record on Feb. 7, 2007.

In November the company announced a 12.5 percent increase in its quarterly dividend to 11.25 cents per share ($0.45 per share on an annual basis).