Microsoft News Tracker

Press release:

Dec. 14, 2005 — Microsoft Corp. today announced that its board of directors declared a quarterly dividend of $0.09 per share, reflecting a one cent, or 12.5%, increase over the previous quarter’s dividend. The dividend is payable March 9, 2006 to shareholders of record on Feb. 17, 2006. The ex-dividend date will be Feb. 15, 2006.

“We remain confident in our growth prospects and have an exciting product line-up, which includes major releases like Xbox 360™, SQL Server™ 2005, Office 12 and Windows Vista™,” said Chris Liddell, chief financial officer at Microsoft. “Today’s announcement of increasing our quarterly dividend continues our momentum on returning cash to shareholders after last year’s $44 billion cash payout and our previously announced intention to execute the $19 billion remaining under our stock repurchase plan twice as quickly.”