Forum Moderators: goodroi
Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) today announced that for the first time in the company's history, dividends will be paid to shareholders starting in FY 2016. The announcement comes after years of mounting pressure from shareholders to join the ranks of Apple, Microsoft, and Cisco, and issue dividends.
When asked why Google finally decided to issue dividends, co-founder and CEO Larry Page commented, "We knew that announcing dividends would touch off all types of conspiracy theories from Sergey [co-founder Sergey Brin] and me running short of cash to an audit by the IRS to the company being desperate to prop up the stock prices. But the truth is, we didn't have any real reason. We just wanted to give the Wall Street pundits something else to do besides complain about our focus on Search."
Tacked on to the end of the announcement was a notice that the dividends would only be paid in Bitcoins. The decision to issue the dividends in Bitcoins was announced internally just before longtime CFO Patrick Pichette announced his retirement [webmasterworld.com]. Insiders insist the timing was just coincidental.
In a related announcement, Google has officially recanted its official position about it Google Barges. Previous statements and conspiracies described them as floating data centers, party boats, or a secret projects lab. See previous discussion [webmasterworld.com]. Today, the company leaked that they are actually Bitcoin mining centers.
