3 ms·

Microsoft pays dividends, at least.

• hugh3 15y ago
  True, but only 2.65%, which isn't enough to justify zero growth. Actually I'm looking at the historical MSFT price right now, and it's interesting. Of course they had huge growth in the 90s, hitting twice its present value at the end of '99, before rapidly crashing back down to its present value by 2001. It's been flat ever since. In 2003 the company said "Screw it, we might as well pay dividends" and they've been putting out a slowly-increasing dividend ever since. Other than that, the lack of change over the last decade has been remarkable. Interestingly, 2000 was also the year that Ballmer replaced Gates as CEO. Maybe what Microsoft really needs is a CEO with some vision.
  • nolok 15y ago
    2000/2001 was also the years of the dot com bubble where every tech company tanked in some way. I think this has more to do with it than Ballmer's arrival (it was the time of the hugely successful and popular windows 2000 and XP, ballmer's damage if any would only be seen years later).
    • hugh3 15y ago
      Oh, for sure every tech company tanked in 2000, but the interesting thing about MSFT is that they never recovered. The stock price graph is astounding -- twenty years of huge exponential growth followed by a 50% dip and ten years of completely static prices (and yes, a steady but relatively small dividend).
    • code_duck 15y ago
      That was a lousy time to take over as CEO, true. However, the next decade has had plenty of opportunity - Google went from not much to a $500 billion company, and Apple went from dying to dominant. With a CEO who had a full vision, they could have added huge amounts of value to the company since then. Instead they've been coasting along and taking wrong turns.