Company News: Apple, Wrigley, Energy Producers, General Motors, Yahoo!

In the biggest corporate offering ever, Apple sold $17 billion of bonds to finance its pledge to return $100 billion to shareholders with dividends and buybacks by the end of 2015. While Apple has $145 billion of cash, borrowing the money may help it avoid repatriation taxes on the $102.3 billion it holds overseas. Apple’s shares have fallen 44 percent in seven months, and the company expects smaller gross margins and sales this quarter as it faces increased competition. Apple paid higher interest rates than Microsoft did a week earlier, as the iPhone maker’s slowing growth overshadowed its large cash flow. Apple’s last offering was in 1996.

U.S. regulators are reviewing how food with added caffeine affects children. The Food and Drug Administration is acting in response to a Mars Wrigley chewing gum product that has 40 milligrams of caffeine, roughly equivalent to half a cup of coffee. The FDA says it last approved added caffeine in food for cola in the 1950s, and the new uses are “beyond anything FDA envisioned when it made the determination.” Wrigley says the gum is marketed to adults 25 and older and that it will work with the FDA on the inquiry.