Microsoft, seeking to revive the price of its shares, which had slumped 30 per cent this year, said it planned to buy back as much as $40 billion in stock after having already completed a previous $40-billion buyout. It also said it would raise dividend and issue its first $2 billion commercial paper.
This buyout programme will run through the next five years and at yesterday's price of $25.16 a share, the software giant could potentially buyback 16 per cent of its shares from investors thereby reducing the dividend payouts. It has returned more than $115 billion to investors over the past five years in repurchases and dividends.
