St. Jude Medical Board of Directors Authorizes Share Repurchase of up to $500M

St. Jude Medical, Inc. STJ announced today that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase of up to $500 million of its outstanding common stock. The repurchases will occur at such times and at such prices as the management of the Company determines and may be effected through transactions in the open market, in privately negotiated transactions or otherwise. Any shares acquired in the $500 million program will be available for general corporate purposes, including offsetting dilution associated with stock option and other equity-based employee benefit plans. The Company had approximately 330 million shares of common stock outstanding as of August 1, 2011.