Financial

> With the latest purchases, Mr. Cook said Apple had bought back more than $40 billion of its shares over the past 12 months, which Mr. Cook said was a record for any company over a similar span.

> “It means that we are betting on Apple. It means that we are really confident on what we are doing and what we plan to do,” said Mr. Cook, speaking in a conference room at the company’s corporate headquarters here. “We’re not just saying that. We’re showing that with our actions.”

The story also notes that Apple purchased 21 companies in the last 15 months. As usual, Apple is being very strategic with every move it makes.

> Four months after raising questions about Apple’s foreign earnings and taxes, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has ended its investigation without plans to take any further action.

Apple on Tuesday reported a profit of $6.9 billion for its fiscal third quarter. Revenue for the quarter was $35.3 billion, according to Apple. These results compare to revenue of $35 billion and net profit of $8.8 billion in the year-ago quarter.

> Samsung shares tumbled almost 4% on Friday as the company pre-announced record second-quarter earnings that still missed analysts’ sky-high consensus.

It’s true that I don’t like Samsung’s blatant copying of Apple products, but I really do hate Wall St. too. It’s wrong for any company to see their stock tumble because analysts were wrong in their forecasts. It’s happened to Apple when they reported record profits and now Samsung. Analysts should be downgraded, bot the companies delivering record profits.