Microsoft shares too popular

The outfit had wanted to buy back $40 million worth in a Dutch auction. The big idea of a Dutch auction is that shareholders put forward the lowest price that they will sell their shares.

Vole had thought that they would be keen to part with them but investors seem to think that they are worth a few more shekels than Microsoft wants to offer.

So far only $3.8 billion worth of shares were tendered, well below the $20 billion it had been prepared to spend.

Vole said it will only be buying about $3.8 billion worth of shares in that auction. Now Microsoft has to go back to the drawing board to work out how to get its shareholders to part with the shares at a reasonable price.

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