Doesn't that support the OPs point ? The reason MSFT issues dividends, like any steward of shareholder capital, is because they realize that their shareholders

Doesn't that support the OPs point ? The reason MSFT issues dividends, like any steward of shareholder capital, is because they realize that their shareholders can generate higher returns on that cash than they can. Given that MSFT is a tech company, and we have seen many major tech companies started and grown to almost MSFT's size in the last decade, it does support the OPs point that clearly Ballmer missed a few things. MSFT missed search. Great. They missed the music play, great. They missed the phone play. Great. Now they missed social media. How many things do they have to miss before someone says Ballmer has to go. It is precisely because they are a 'high-tech' company AND paying dividends that validates the OPs original point...in my humble opinion. Edit: That being said, them paying dividends will affect the stock price for sure. But, he was just using the stock price as a proxy for Ballmer's performance.