More on Microsoft’s er, generosity

“Microsoft will pay investors a special dividend of $3 a share; double its regular annual dividend to 32 cents a share; and buy back up to $30 billion of its own stock. It’s an extraordinary disbursement, and one that will go a long way toward silencing critics who’ve decried the company for hoarding roughly $1 billion in extra cash each month instead of distributing it to shareholders. “We are very happy to be in this position, to return almost $75 billion of capital to our shareholders,” [Steve] Ballmer [Mircosoft’s CEO] said in a conference call with analysts and reporters. “We are also pleased to be able to say we have put many of our legal issues in the rear view mirror, so to speak, and this gives us the opportunity to move forward with our cash plan.” Of course, Ballmer had other reasons to be pleased as well. He, along with co-founder and co-billionaire Bill Gates, will be among the biggest beneficiaries of the massive dividend payment. Ballmer, who owns 410.9 million shares, will pocket $1.23 billion from the special dividend and roughly $131.5 million from the annual dividend. Gates, who plans to donate the proceeds from his dividends to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, will collect more than $3 billion.” [From Good Morning, Silicon Valley]

Who says monopoly doesn’t pay?

The New York Times is reporting that Microsoft is to give away over $30 billion — to its shareholders. It seems that the cash mountain accumulating under Messrs Gates and Ballmer had finally become too irritating for Wall Street. Here’s the gist of the NYT story:

‘A large cash distribution to shareholders had been expected, according to Wall Street analysts, given investor pressures. Microsoft shares soared in the 1990’s, but have been treading water in recent years as the revenue growth has slowed.

At the same time, there has been mounting pressure on the company to do something about its mounting hoard of cash, which has ballooned to $56 billion. The $32 billion payout, which will be paid in December, will leave the company with more than $20 billion on hand.

“This has been a low- to medium-grade issue for at least a year now, and a high-grade issue in the last couple of months,” said Charles J. di Bona, an analyst with Sanford C. Bernstein & Company. “Most investors would ask what took so long.”

Microsoft generates roughly $1 billion in extra cash each month. “I don’t know any company out there that generates that kind of excess cash,”‘Mr. di Bona said.

Nor do I. Now I wonder why that is….

Public service broadcasting

I’ve just been listening to a serious, intelligent and interesting discussion on BBC Radio 4. The subject: lust. And I’m thinking that this would be inconceivable in the US. The Radio 4 discussion exemplified perfectly what I was trying to communicate to the Commons Select Committee when I was asked to define public service broadcasting.