📅 On This Day
Microsoft Writes History With $32 Billion Special Dividend
On July 20, 2004, Microsoft's board approved a one-time special dividend of $3.00 per share — roughly $32 billion — the largest single cash distribution in corporate history at the time. The announcement came bundled with a new $0.08 quarterly dividend and a $30 billion buyback program, signaling that one of the great growth stories of the 20th century was formally joining the income investor's world. Bill Gates alone stood to receive about $3.3 billion, which he pledged to the Gates Foundation.
The day a software giant said 'we have more cash than we know what to do with' — and meant it.
MSFT — 1X MSFT
🇺🇸 US
Source: Microsoft News; The New York Times
📅 On This Day
Microsoft Writes History With $32 Billion Special Dividend
On July 20, 2004, Microsoft's board approved a one-time special dividend of $3.00 per share — roughly $32 billion — the largest single cash distribution in corporate history at the time. The announcement came bundled with a new $0.08 quarterly dividend and a $30 billion buyback program, signaling that one of the great growth stories of the 20th century was formally joining the income investor's world. Bill Gates alone stood to receive about $3.3 billion, which he pledged to the Gates Foundation.
The day a software giant said 'we have more cash than we know what to do with' — and meant it.
MSFT — Microsoft Corporation
🇺🇸 US
Source: Microsoft News; The New York Times
📅 On This Day
Microsoft Writes History With $32 Billion Special Dividend
On July 20, 2004, Microsoft's board approved a one-time special dividend of $3.00 per share — roughly $32 billion — the largest single cash distribution in corporate history at the time. The announcement came bundled with a new $0.08 quarterly dividend and a $30 billion buyback program, signaling that one of the great growth stories of the 20th century was formally joining the income investor's world. Bill Gates alone stood to receive about $3.3 billion, which he pledged to the Gates Foundation.
The day a software giant said 'we have more cash than we know what to do with' — and meant it.
MSFT — Microsoft CDR (CAD Hedged)
🇺🇸 US
Source: Microsoft News; The New York Times
🌍 Around the World
Australia's Franking Credit System Rewires How Investors Think About Home
In 1987, Treasurer Paul Keating introduced dividend imputation to end the double taxation of corporate profits — and inadvertently engineered one of the most powerful home-bias forces in global markets. Because franking credits attached to Australian dividends are refundable for individuals and Self-Managed Super Funds in low tax brackets, domestic banks and miners carry a tax advantage that foreign shares simply cannot match. Any political threat to the system — as the 2019 federal election vividly demonstrated — triggers fierce backlash from millions of investors who have built their retirement income around it.
Australia's 30% corporate rate generates credits that make high-yield domestic stocks a different asset class entirely.
🇦🇺 AU
Source: Australian Taxation Office franking credit guidance; Wikipedia Australian dividend imputation system
🔥 Dividend Streak
Kodak's Century of Dividends Could Not Survive the Camera It Invented
Eastman Kodak, founded in 1888, sustained dividends through wars, recessions, and decades of market upheaval — yet it could not survive the technology its own engineer created. A Kodak team built the first digital camera in 1975, but the company chose to protect its film franchise rather than cannibalize it, and as digital photography consumed the market, the cash engine behind the payout collapsed. The dividend was cut in 2003, suspended on April 30, 2009, and bankruptcy followed in 2012.
A dominant brand and a century-long payout are no defense against technological disruption.
KODK — Eastman Kodak Co
🇺🇸 US
Source: Eastman Kodak SEC filing (8-K, April 30, 2009); Seeking Alpha
💡 Did You Know
MLP 'Toll Booths' Were Actually Borrowing to Pay the Toll Collector
During the shale boom of the 2000s, midstream MLPs marketed themselves as pipeline toll booths — fee collectors insulated from commodity prices — dangling yields of 7–10% with promised annual distribution growth of 5–10%. The model had a hidden flaw: many MLPs were paying out 100% or more of their cash flow and funding new construction entirely through fresh stock and debt issuance. When oil prices crashed in 2014, that equity became expensive overnight, the growth model shattered, and dozens of MLPs slashed distributions, exposing retail investors who had trusted the toll-booth story.
High yield built on borrowed money isn't income — it's a loan you didn't know you made.
Source: Alerian MLP Infrastructure Index historical data; Barron's MLP sector analysis