Microsoft to pay US$75 billion to shareholders over 4 years

Microsoft Corp. said on Tuesday its board of directors approved to pay 75 billion US dollars in cash to shareholders over the next four years in the largest corporate payout ever.

The world's largest software maker said its board approved an 8 cent quarterly dividend, plus a special one-time dividend of three dollars, per share. The company said it also plans to buy back up to 30 billion dollars of the company's stock over the next four years.

"We are confident in our long-term ability to grow revenue, profits and shareholder value through our innovation and execution," said Steve Ballmer, Microsoft's chief executive officer.

Ballmer said the company can provide up to 75 billion dollars in total value to shareholders over the next four years, while continuing to make major investments and maintain its leading position in the industry.

In the past two years, Microsoft has made significant progress in resolving many of the legal issues facing the company, including the recent US Court of Appeals decision reaffirming its settlement with the US Department of Justice, most of the state class-action lawsuits, and the AOL and Sun Microsystems cases.

"While we still have a number of legal issues and we take them seriously, we have reduced the legal uncertainties facing the company," said Brad Smith, Microsoft's general counsel.