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Apple, one of the world’s richest companies, will reward investors with a dividend- and share-purchase program totaling $45 billion over three years, the company said Monday.

In a departure from the direction of late chief executive Steve Jobs, Apple will significantly draw from its massive $98 billion cash war chest to initiate a quarterly dividend of $2.65 per share sometime in the fiscal quarter beginning July 1. The plan must be approved by the company’s board of directors, reports the Washington Post.
The BBC reports that the technology giant said it would pay a quarterly dividend of $2.65 per share from July.
It will buy back up to $10bn (£6.3bn) of its own shares starting in the company's next financial year, which begins on 30 September 2012.

It is the first time Apple has declared a dividend since 1995.