(Bloomberg) – Microsoft Corp., the world’s largest software maker, has named President and CEO Brad Smith as its vice president and unveiled a new $ 60 billion share buyback program.
Smith, who joined Microsoft in 1993 and became CEO in 2002, will continue to report to President and CEO Satya Nadella, the Redmond, Washington-based company said in a statement on Tuesday. Smith’s new role makes him vice president of the company, not on the board, and he won’t become a director, Microsoft said.
In recent years, Smith has overseen an expanding list of political, governmental, and legal issues at Microsoft, including relations with foreign governments such as China, political donations, and programs to expand rural broadband service. and access to job skills. He has also been a voice representative of Microsoft’s views on sustainability, immigration, voting rights, payments to news search engines, and data privacy.
Smith, who spent years working to resolve Microsoft’s antitrust disputes around the world, has so far helped push the company away from the new wave of regulatory scrutiny that has haunted rivals like the parents of Google Alphabet Inc. and Amazon.com Inc.
Since Nadella took over Microsoft at the helm in 2014, she has regained the company’s leadership in the growing technology industry in key companies such as cloud computing, mobile applications and artificial intelligence.
The resurgence of the company has given it a market value north of $ 2.2 trillion and helped it continue to accumulate a stack of more than $ 130 billion in cash that it has used to fund acquisitions and increase dividends and rewards.
The repurchase authorization has no expiration date and can be terminated at any time. The company’s shares have risen 35% in 2021, making it the second most valuable listed company. Microsoft’s previous repurchase plan, unveiled in September 2019, was $ 40 billion.
The company also increased its quarterly dividend by 6 cents to 62 cents per share.
(Updates with details on Smith’s role in the second, third paragraphs.)
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