Even if not the Cupertino based company will likely hedge a significant amount of stock and that a bulk discount will ensure they can always have a cheaper bill of materials than any competitor using the alloy.

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Yukos Oil has been broken up and sold to Russian state owned energy companies, with the bulk of those assets acquired at a discount by Rosneft, the largest oil company in Russia.

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Bank of America ( BAC - news - people ) aims its bank- card pitch at employers who buy them in bulk as staff gifts. (BofA declined to comment on whether employers receive a discount rate for buying scads of cards at a time.) There's no dormancy fee with BofA's product, but after nine months the cards become worthless, whatever the remaining balance is.

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