Microsoft has announced another share buyback scheme, which will involve spending "up to $40 billion" on its own shares by September 30, 2013.
Basically, it's just replacing the last $40bn buyback with another: it's business as usual. Microsoft says:
Microsoft has returned over $115 billion to shareholders through a combination of share repurchases and dividends over the last five years.
Not that it seems to have done its stock price any good. But as everyone knows, a share price is a discounted sum of expected future profits, and investors have mentally transferred large quantities of expected future Microsoft profits to expected future Google profits.
Of course, Microsoft may also feel that having the odd $40 billion in spare cash is just offering too much temptation to rapacious rent-seeking governments….
