Microsoft (MSFT): The Big Share Buy-Back In The Sky

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By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Published

MsftMicrosoft (MSFT) is going to buy back $20 billion of its shares. Take that to the bank. Maybe.

UBS says that investors should expect the move by the world’s largest software company soon. UBS says MSFT won’t even tell anyone until the purchases are over.

According to Bloomberg, UBS says “They won’t announce it until it’s done.”

The news service adds "A buyback of between $15 billion and $20 billion would lift earnings per share by as much as 10 cents annually."

Since there is very little hard evidence that share buy-backs help stock prices, the whole matter maybe a waste of money. For $20 billion, Microsoft could buy two solid companies like Salesforce (CRM).

Douglas A. McIntyre

Photo of Douglas A. McIntyre
About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

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