Intel Corporation today announced that its board of directors has authorised the purchase of an additional 480 million shares as part of the company's existing stock repurchase program. From the beginning of the program in 1990 through the third quarter of 2002, Intel has repurchased approximately 1.7 billion shares at a cost of approximately $29 billion.

Under previous stock repurchase authorisations, approximately 169 million shares of common stock remained available for repurchase by the company as of the end of the third quarter 2002. During the third quarter, Intel repurchased approximately 57 million shares at a cost of approximately $1 billion. In the current quarter, approximately 44 million shares have been repurchased to-date at a cost of about $725 million.

Stock repurchase will allow Intel to attract attention of the potential investors to Intel’s stock. As a result the traders will start to buy Intel’s shares and their price will rise gradually, resulting Intel’s market capitalization to increase. Furthermore, with less shares owned by investors, Intel will have to pay less dividends.

Currently Intel has $11.2 billion in cash. Intel’s share stands at $18.29.