[Am-info] Dividends

[Eric Bennett]

"John J. Urbaniak" wrote:

>Will they declare a pitifully small dividend and again risk the wrath of
>those who keep looking at that $40 billion?

This is a path a few other large companies have taken.  Intel pays a small
(~ 0.5%) dividend and as I recall the only reason they do so is so that
mutual funds that invest only in dividend-paying companies are able to buy
their stock.  Wal-Mart is another large company paying a small dividend.

But how much of Microsoft is still owned by Gates, Ballmer, and other top
executives?  Probably more than is the case at a lot of other companies,
which means there is always less need to worry about the wrath of other
shareholders.

-- 
Eric Bennett ( ericb@pobox.com ; http://www.pobox.com/~ericb )

We've been doubling sales every 18 months. However, when you start
from zero, it takes a long while.
- Stephen Yeo, marketing director for Wyse