Tiko7523 on 15 November 2011
Shareholders at Microsoft .Microsoft Latest from The Business Journals Young professionals rank Amazon, Microsoft in top 10 for 'dream jobs'Got a blotch on your record? Intelius lets you explainDBJ Tech Watch for Tuesday 11/15: News of Apple, Google, Yahoo, LinkedIn and more Follow this company .'s annual meeting overwhelmingly reelected the company’s board but questioned why the company is holding onto so much cash.
Little was conducted aside from routine annual business, but shareholders did k!ll an initiative from shareholder activist Harrington Investments to create a sustainability committee. That initiative only received 4 percent of shareholder votes.
Last month, Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) launched a plan to require suppliers to report their efforts to ensure sustainability.
Two shareholders during a question/answer session asked why the company is holding cash instead of reinvesting or paying higher dividends to shareholders.
“You want to retain enough cash for the company to take big risks,” Chairman Bill Gates said. “I’ve always been interested in maintaining a strong balance sheet.”
CEO Steve Ballmer also said the company returned $17 billion in dividends to shareholders and increased its dividend by 25 percent. Microsoft currently holds more than $52.7 billion in cash and short-term investments.
Another shareholder suggested splitting up the company. Ballmer appeared to scoff at the notion and pointed to the company’s collaboration on projects like Office and Kinect.
“The amount of business synergy across divisions is quite high,” he said. “Drawing some sort of arbitrary set of boundaries is quite hard.”
Microsoft shareholders question company's large stash of cash - Puget Sound Business Journal
Little was conducted aside from routine annual business, but shareholders did k!ll an initiative from shareholder activist Harrington Investments to create a sustainability committee. That initiative only received 4 percent of shareholder votes.
Last month, Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) launched a plan to require suppliers to report their efforts to ensure sustainability.
Two shareholders during a question/answer session asked why the company is holding cash instead of reinvesting or paying higher dividends to shareholders.
“You want to retain enough cash for the company to take big risks,” Chairman Bill Gates said. “I’ve always been interested in maintaining a strong balance sheet.”
CEO Steve Ballmer also said the company returned $17 billion in dividends to shareholders and increased its dividend by 25 percent. Microsoft currently holds more than $52.7 billion in cash and short-term investments.
Another shareholder suggested splitting up the company. Ballmer appeared to scoff at the notion and pointed to the company’s collaboration on projects like Office and Kinect.
“The amount of business synergy across divisions is quite high,” he said. “Drawing some sort of arbitrary set of boundaries is quite hard.”
Microsoft shareholders question company's large stash of cash - Puget Sound Business Journal
