Slashdot Mirror
Microsoft Considers $10 Billion Dividend
Dreadnougat writes "Microsoft is considering paying out a $10 billion dividend, the largest corporate payout ever. Cynics (ok, anyone reading /.) might note that Bill Gates stands to make $1.18 billion himself off the $1 a share dividend, in comparison to the $95 million he makes in a normal year off the regular 8 cents a share dividend."
If only I'd bought that Microsoft stock when I was born.
MS is paying money to it's loyal investors because Bill Gates is greedy.
Had MS not payed out, the summary would have been:
MS is not paying out money to it's loyal investors because Bill Gates is greedy.
Come on, people - I _highly doubt_ Bill really cares whether he makes a hundred million or a billion dollars. If anything, it'd probably be more of a hastle for him, with all the extra taxes. Besides, is he even the guy that makes this decision anymore? He's not CEO. Perhaps an accountain could help me out on this one?
--
http://nemilar.net - Not your grandmother's soup kitchen
Why shouldn't Gates earn dividends on his shares? His dividend payment would be proportionate to the amount of shares he owns.
I guess certain people have to find any excuse to attack the man.
-- You see, there would be these conclusions that you could jump to
It'd be nice to see dividends once again be the main way most people expect to make money with stocks. Especially tech stocks. Focusing on the worth and stability of a company is a good thing. IMO, building money over time through dividends is more practical (read: safer) for small time investors than speculation.
Now that there is no dividend tax and Microsoft is no longer a growth company, there isn't any good reason not to pay the stockholders. When there was a dividend tax, Microsoft could argue that by keeping the money, they could put it to more efficient use to build stockholder value in terms of share value, rather then giving some of it to the stockholder, and some of it for the gov't. The other point is, that Microsoft is done growing by leaps and bounds. They don't need any more capital to grow, or smooth out cashflow issues, or any other standard business reason why a company normally keeps money cash on hand.
I believe the shareholders are starting to demand it, as that's the one way the shareholders can get their money out, without having the price go up or down. It's a sign that Microsoft is turning into an old school established company, like so many others, rather then being a hot commodity stock that creates value, because the company keeps growing, and building up more value.
Kirby
Dunno about the others, but I doubt Microsoft can afford to buy IBM. IBM reported $20.1 billion in revenue for the first quarter. That puts it at more than $80 billion in revenue for the calendar year.
By comparison, Microsoft's revenue for the quarter was $7.1 billion.
-- Slashdot: When Public Access TV Says "No"
This may make the stock rise - too much cash on hand is often seen as a negative by analysts.
> No, he did not play by the rules. He broke the law -- the courts have so ruled.
Umm. So the legal system have the final say in what is right and wrong?
Yet every week there are people here shouting how wrong and unfair DMCA/outragous legal settlements/patent cases are.
So;
We agree with legal rulings = The legal system is clearly the last word in what is right.
We don't like legal rulings = The legal system is corrupt and change is needed now!
The surprise isn't how often we make bad choices; the surprise is how seldom they defeat us.
I think we can rule out Microsoft being "debt-laden", but it still sheds an interesting light on how finanicial people with a tech background will be looking at this move: The growth days are over, and from here on, it is stagnation.
(Disclaimer: Everything I ever needed to know I learned from Slashdot)
The economy is being blown out. The value of everything is dropping vis a vis what the current manipulated artificial currencies say they are worth. Sitting on daily de-valuing cash is pointless, they are taking the cash and running with it NOW before it's worth much less, that cash can be converted to more wealth-preserving assets. In a month or three, perhaps that same valuation in forms of digits would be worth much less when it's compared to tangibles. This is what the real high rollers around the planet are doing, so it's not surprising that microsoft management would be doing it. that their smaller shareholders get a piece of it they can't avoid, that's out of their hands, but the larger holders want OUT, they want to get into safer things now. This is a serious economic clue, of much more worth than most nightly business reports puffery.
NOt exactly the same thing: the lower the income, the more that 1% matters. To bring this into perspective, think of a farmer in Asia, that gets about 1000 $US a year. For him, parting with 10 $US is a very big deal. On the other hand, Bill Gates could part with half of his money, and still have left 25 billion that he wouuld have no idea what the fuck to do with.
Sigged!