Full credit to Microsoft – they don’t do things by halves. So when they decide to buy back their own shares from investors, they do it in style, splashing out $40 billion on the process, the largest share buyback in history.
It will run until 2013, and is believed to be a way to prop up their share price, which has tumbled by 30% this year, according to the BBC, in part due to the failed attempt to purchase Yahoo.
But that failure left them cash rich, and they needed something to do with all that money; after all, in its entire 33 years, Microsoft has never been in debt.
According to the company, it shows "confidence in the long-term growth of the company and our commitment to returning capital to our shareholders."
It’s not the only tech company buy back shares. Hewlett-Packard is buying back around $8 billion in shares.
