The company will take a trip to Europe and buy that Harley it's always wanted.
Why would you be excited about the special dividend? They pay it out, the stock price goes down at the same time. May mean you have to pay tax before you anticipated. At any rate, it is a clear admission that MSFT is a mature company and can't find productive uses for the cash in R&D. This is the end of the growth curve for Microsoft (actually ended some time ago).
I went through the same thing this year. Yeesh, what a headache!
Legal disclaimer: said "cash" referred to by Shryke in the above post should not be confused the U.S. currency. In this instance, cash refers to currency used in the popular boardgame, Monopoly.
Bill had better save some $s to settle with the burst.com shareholders.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/973466/posts