.70 per share to western 2019s shareholders . 2022 on june 30 , 2005 , in connection with the acquisition of ashland 2019s minority interest in mpc discussed in note 6 , marathon distributed 35 million shares of its common stock valued at $ 27.23 per share to ashland 2019s shareholders . marathon 2019s board of directors has authorized the repurchase of up to $ 5 billion of common stock