(Add funds to Brad Smith)
September 14 (Reuters) – Microsoft Corp said on Tuesday it would carry out a share buyback program of up to $ 60 billion, increase its quarterly dividend by 11% and appoint the company’s president, Brad Smith, as vice president.
Microsoft said the repurchase program has no expiration date and may end at any time and that it would pay a dividend of $ 0.62 per share – 6 cents from the previous quarter.
The U.S. tech giant also named the vice president as an updated executive role for Smith, who currently leads a team of more than 1,500 employees in 54 countries, according to his biography on Microsoft’s website.
Smith joined Microsoft in 1993 from the Covington & Burling law firm to lead legal and corporate litigation operations in Europe. He became general counsel in 2002 and, for the next decade, managed the resolution of antitrust cases, as the biography shows.
Smith will continue to report to CEO Satya Nadella, Microsoft said. (Report by Shubham Kalia and Kanishka Singh in Bengaluru; edited by Anil D’Silva and Christopher Cushing)