Microsoft keeps dividend, opens investor question

June 11, 2009 By JESSICA MINTZ , AP Technology Writer

(AP) -- Microsoft Corp. will pay shareholders a quarterly dividend of 13 cents, the same as last quarter.

In a statement released late Wednesday, Microsoft said the dividend is payable Sept. 10 to stockholders of record as of Aug. 20.

Microsoft also said its board has proposed to let shareholders representing a quarter of the company's stock call special meetings. For this to occur, shareholders would have to approve amendments to Microsoft's bylaws at the company's annual meeting in November.

Currently, Microsoft allows only board members to call special meetings.

"We believe the 25 percent threshold level of share ownership maintains an appropriate equilibrium by ensuring that a special meeting is supported by shareholders representing a significant but attainable proportion of the outstanding shares," John Seethoff, a deputy general counsel at Microsoft, wrote in a blog post.

Bill Gates, Microsoft's co-founder and chairman, and Chief Executive Steve Ballmer are the company's two largest shareholders, with 8.2 percent and 4.6 percent respectively, according to data from FactSet Research Systems Inc.

Microsoft's largest institutional investor is Barclays Global Investors NA, which holds 3.8 percent of shares. As an example, it would take Barclays and the next 15 largest institutional investors to total 25 percent of Microsoft's outstanding shares.

Shares of Redmond, Wash.-based Corp. rose 37 cents to $22.92 in afternoon trading.

Shareholders at several companies have recently weighed in on proposals that affect their right to call special meetings. In May, Dow Chemical Co. shareholders voted to let a group representing 10 percent of outstanding shares call a special meeting, as did Sprint Nextel Corp. shareholders.

Verizon Communications Inc. shareholders approved a proposal that lowers the percentage of outstanding shares to call a special meeting to 10 percent from 25 percent.

During the May annual meetings of Exxon Mobil Corp. and Qwest Communications International Inc., similar measures did not receive enough votes to pass.

©2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


Rank 1 /5 (2 votes)
Tags

Related Stories
Relevant PhysicsForums posts
  • Need help reading 3-D
    created17 hours ago
  • A way to send and receive wireless data
    created23 hours ago
  • Calling function with no input argument
    createdFeb 10, 2012
  • Force free body diagram problem on gym equipment
    createdFeb 10, 2012
  • Empirical data regarding shower heads and water
    createdFeb 10, 2012
  • feed hold button on CNC lathe
    createdFeb 09, 2012
  • More from Physics Forums - General Engineering

More news stories

Google might launch Drive for cloud storage soon

(PhysOrg.com) -- Google's next big move, according to the Wall Street Journal, is a cloud storage service called Drive. Hardly first to the plate, Google is simply catching up to introducing its cloud reposi ...

Technology / Internet

created 6 hours ago | popularity 4.7 / 5 (3) | comments 3 | with audio podcast report

Love a click away in Indonesia's Twitter Republic

He was a geeky kid from Yogyakarta, she a glamorous city girl in Jakarta. In a country with one of the world's most vibrant social networking scenes they fell in love on Twitter.

Technology / Internet

created 7 hours ago | popularity 4 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Europeans protest controversial Internet pact

Tens of thousands of people marched in protests in more than a dozen European cities Saturday against a controversial anti-online piracy pact that critics say could curtail Internet freedom.

Technology / Internet

created 22 hours ago | popularity 4.6 / 5 (9) | comments 1

Walney offshore wind farm is world's biggest (for now)

(PhysOrg.com) -- The Walney wind farm on the Irish Sea--characterized by high tides, waves and windy weather--officially opened this week. The farm is treated in the press as a very big deal as the Walney ...

Technology / Energy & Green Tech

created Feb 11, 2012 | popularity 4 / 5 (11) | comments 34 | with audio podcast weblog

Navy to begin tests on electromagnetic railgun prototype launcher

The Office of Naval Research (ONR)'s Electromagnetic (EM) Railgun program will take an important step forward in the coming weeks when the first industry railgun prototype launcher is tested at a facility ...

Technology / Engineering

created Feb 06, 2012 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (16) | comments 93 | with audio podcast


Injured boomers beware: Know when to see doctor

(AP) -- It happened to nurse Jane Byron years after an in-line skating fall, business owner Haralee Weintraub while doing "men's" push-ups, and avid cyclist Gene Wilberg while lifting a heavy box.

Latin America mining boom clashes with conservation

Latin America is experiencing a mining boom as prices rise fuelled by a hike in global demand, but the region is also being hit by a wave of violent protests, strikes and rallies by environmentalists.

Explained: Sigma

It's a question that arises with virtually every major new finding in science or medicine: What makes a result reliable enough to be taken seriously? The answer has to do with statistical significance -- but ...

Political leaders play key role in how worried Americans are by climate change: study

More than extreme weather events and the work of scientists, it is national political leaders who influence how much Americans worry about the threat of climate change, new research finds.

NASA budget will axe Mars deal with Europe: scientists

US President Barack Obama's budget proposal to be submitted next week for 2013 will cut NASA's budget by 20 percent and eliminate a major partnership with Europe on Mars exploration, scientists said Thursday.

New power source discovered

(PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and RMIT University have made a breakthrough in energy storage and power generation.