Enquirer news services

SEATTLE - Microsoft Corp., awash with more cash than any U.S. company outside the financial industry, will return more than $75 billion to shareholders in the next four years through a special payout, stock buybacks and a higher dividend.

Tuesday's announcement by the software maker ended speculation about what it planned to do with its billions in cash reserves.

The company said it would pay a one-time dividend of $3 a share and double its annual dividend to 32 cents a share. Microsoft, which has amassed cash holdings of at least $56 billion, also said it plans to buy back up to $30 billion of the company's stock in the next four years.

The buyback and dividends will not affect the company's spending on research and development, executives said.

"We will continue to make major investments across all our businesses and maintain our position as a leading innovator in the industry, but we can now also provide up to $75 billion in total value to shareholders over the next four years," chief executive Steve Ballmer said.

Chairman Bill Gates said he will donate the $3 billion he stands to receive from the one-time dividend to his charitable foundation, the largest private foundation in the world, which funds global health and education projects, public libraries, and families in Washington state and Oregon.

Gates, who holds 1.18 billion shares of Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft, stands to make $357.8 million this year on the regular dividend. Ballmer, with almost 411 million shares, will receive $1.36 billion from the one-time payout and the dividend.

Microsoft announced its plan after the stock market closed. Shares of Microsoft closed up 37 cents at $28.32. In after-hours trading, shares surged to $29.91.

Curt Anderson, Microsoft's senior director of investor relations, said the plan is subject to shareholder approval of an amendment that would prevent employees who hold stock options or stock awards from being put at a disadvantage by the one-time payout.

The special, one-time dividend is to be paid out Dec. 2 to shareholders of record Nov. 17.

The company will ask shareholders to approve a plan to adjust its employee stock compensation to account for the big payout at its annual shareholders meeting in November. Anderson said the company had not yet worked out the details of how the massive cash buyback would work.

Microsoft had previously been hesitant to spend the billions it has been amassing because of fears the money would be needed for legal disputes. But the company said Tuesday that the large majority of its legal problems appear to be behind it.