Microsoft announces new share repurchase program

Microsoft Corp. said on Tuesday it would buy back up to 40 billion U.S. dollars worth of shares in a new repurchase program.

The multinational technology company headquartered in Redmond, the state of Washington, said in a posting on its website that its board of directors had approved a program authorizing the share repurchase.

Listed on the NASDAQ stock market, Microsoft reaffirmed that it was on track to complete its current 40 billion dollars share repurchase program by Dec. 31, 2016.

The new repurchase program, according to the company, has no expiration date and may be terminated at any time.

While it claims to be "the leading platform and productivity company for the mobile-first, cloud-first world," Microsoft develops, manufactures, licenses, supports and sells computer software, consumer electronics and personal computers and services, with its Windows line of operating systems and Office suite being the best known software products.

As one of the world's most valuable companies and the world's largest software publisher by revenue, it has been trying hard for years to catch up with the trend of electronic devices, most notably computers, going mobile. Endit