📅 On This Day
A 2014 Court Ruling Quietly Turbocharged Tech's Buyback Era
On June 19, 2014, the Supreme Court's decision in Alice Corp. v. CLS Bank invalidated thousands of low-quality software patents overnight, gutting the "patent troll" industry that had been extracting billions in settlements from major tech firms. With litigation risk slashed and legal reserves freed, cash flow margins across the sector expanded in ways that rarely made headlines. That quiet tailwind helped fuel the remarkable buyback and dividend growth surge that defined Big Tech in the late 2010s.
A patent ruling, not an earnings beat, may have been tech's most consequential cash-flow event of the decade.
🇺🇸 US
Source: Alice Corp. Pty. Ltd. v. CLS Bank Int'l, 573 U.S. 208 (2014)
🌍 Around the World
Sweden's Dividend Culture Runs Deep — But So Does Its Withholding Tax
Sweden applies a 30% withholding tax (kupongskatt) on dividends paid to non-residents, though the U.S.-Sweden tax treaty reduces that rate to 15%, typically applied at source for major ADRs. Behind that tax headline lies a rich income tradition: names like Atlas Copco, SKF, and Svenska Handelsbanken have anchored portfolios for generations, with annual spring payments following AGM approval as a near-ritual. IRA holders, however, permanently lose even the treaty-reduced 15% — a meaningful drag over time.
Sweden's Skatteverket reclaim process is among Europe's more digitized, offering taxable-account investors a relatively efficient path to excess withholding recovery.
🇸🇪 SE
Source: Nasdaq Stockholm; PwC Tax Summaries
🔥 Dividend Streak
ABM Industries: From a $4.50 Bucket to 58 Years of Raises
In 1909, Morris Rosenberg spent $4.50 on a bucket, mop, sponge, broom, and brush, then asked San Francisco merchants to pay whatever they thought his window-washing was worth — earning back his outlay plus $3.50 profit on day one. That single route grew into ABM Industries, today an $8.4 billion facility-services company and a Dividend King, with consecutive annual increases stretching back to 1968. Few origin stories in the dividend world carry this much humanity.
One man's $4.50 bet on honest work has compounded, raise after raise, into one of America's most enduring dividend records.
ABM — ABM Industries Incorporated
Source: FundingUniverse; Wikipedia — ABM Industries
💡 Did You Know
MLP Tax Deferral Is a Loan From the IRS, Not a Gift
Most MLP distributions are classified as Return of Capital, meaning they aren't taxed when received — instead they quietly erode your cost basis year after year. When you eventually sell, the IRS demands recapture of depreciation allocated to you over the holding period, taxed at ordinary income rates up to 37%, not the gentler long-term capital gains rate. An investor who enjoyed years of seemingly tax-advantaged 7% distributions may face a surprisingly steep bill when the deferral finally comes due.
The longer you hold an MLP, the larger the "tax tail" that follows you out the door on exit.
Source: IRS partnership taxation guidance; Investopedia MLP tax treatment