Whether by coincidence or foresight, Apple could hardly have picked a better day than April 30 to have sold its first bonds since 1996, raising $17 billion to be used towards stock buybacks and increased dividends. Apple has announced that it intends to return $100 billion to stockholders over the next few years, but opted to go into debt to do so rather than "repatriate" some $45 billion in foreign profits -- finding that historically low interest rates would cost the company dramatically less than paying the 35 percent corporate tax on the offshore earnings.
