By Poornima Gupta and Ben Berkowitz (Reuters) - Tim Cook wants investors to "think different" about Apple: less as a hyper-growth startup-like company and more as a mature but robust technology corporation with the world's biggest dividend. If Wall Street follows Apple Inc's famous advertising slogan of old, it may relieve some of the pressure on Apple's chief executive, quiet investors' grumbling about its recent share price slide, and buy the company time to do what it says it does best: come up with and market new products.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Apple has acquired a Silicon Valley startup, WiFiSlam, which makes mapping applications for smart phones. Apple confirmed the acquisition, but declined to give details. The news was earlier reported by The Wall Street Journal, which quoted a person familiar with the matter as saying that Apple paid around $20 million for the company. "Apple acquires smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans," an Apple spokesman told Reuters.

Apple remains ahead of its rivals in the ability to innovate and "create magic" despite tougher competition in key sectors like smartphones and tablets, chief executive Tim Cook said Tuesday. Cook said Apple still has strong growth opportunities because of its ability to work simultaneously on hardware, software and services, brushing aside suggestions that Apple has passed its peak. "Apple has the ability to innovate in all three of these spheres and create magic," Cook said during a question-and-answer session at the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference.

Apple said Thursday it is weighing ways to give shareholders more of its huge cash stockpile, after hedge fund Greenlight Capital filed suit in an effort to press it in that direction. Greenlight sued the maker of iPhones and iPads to block a shareholder vote that includes a management-backed proposal to make it impossible for the Apple board to issue preferred stock without shareholder approval. Greenlight said in a letter to shareholders that it wants Apple to issue "perpetual preferred stock" to distribute a bounty from the $137 billion in cash the company is holding.