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SAN FRANCISCO (Dow Jones) - The Microsoft Corp (MSFT) are on sale Monday for the first time that long-term debt into full adulthood and once rebellious teen, is the latest signal of the maturity of 34-year-old company

Microsoft, without spending the cash flow crisis mode with its own historical interest in the bond market to raise funds cheaply and quickly and easily take advantage of AAA rating, boring, perhaps using the money for A move to buy back shares to friendly shareholders

The move is akin to a freespending adult deciding to settle down by buying a first home, instead of going on another high-priced vacation that brings short-term pleasure but no long-term growth

"Microsoft has made since the company has been growing company matures," Annan J, Fisher College of Business, Ohio State University professor of corporate strategy said

Relations between high-tech growth companies Microsoft has given a high jump For the past seven years, Microsoft's stock price is almost $ 30 more than five-month growth, the end of the year 2007 and the beginning of the year except for 2008And since late 10, they are struggling to get 20 or more dollars

The IPO between 2000 and 1986 nearly 60 on a split-adjusted basis the dollar and the stock rose almost non-stop is in contrast to the peak

High-tech bubble burst earlier this decade, Microsoft shares fell Redmond The company is one step closer to maturity when the 2003 year, the company expects rapid growth in earnings and stock price no longer - a typical phenomenon has begun to pay dividends

Microsoft has not delivered the returns the company's stock price, the company does not generate cash Microsoft has registered 2008 sales of 600 billion dollars year, more than $ 250 billion, and its balance sheet

So, is it Microsoft to buy back stock, so shareholder-friendly move, the attention will be disclosed plans to use proceeds from the sale of debt and for general corporate purposes, including to improve it Microsoft stock price and earnings per share of slack

Microsoft shares are cheap They are trading at a valuation - 11.4 times current earnings - is following Oracle's peers, especially (ORCL) is 33.9; the Adobe Systems Inc (San Jose, California, USA), 7.6; and Google Inc (GOOG) is 21.3

While selling cheap debt to buy back stock makes financial sense, it doesn't solve Microsoft's fundamental problems - last month, Microsoft posted a 32% drop in net profit and the first quarterly revenue decline in its 23-year history as a publicly traded company This move, however, Microsoft is not some bit of time

The company's major franchises, Windows operating system, Office of Bijinesutsurusuito with a high market share - Windows is the world's computer has more than 90 percent However, Microsoft has its advantages, in recent years have seen increasing challenges

The largely negative critical reaction to Windows Vista, the current version of the operating system, underscored that the company can't automatically rely on its customers to upgrade whenever a new version of its operating system software comes out

Meanwhile, Google, Apple and its competitors (AAPL) in Salesforce COM corporation (CRM) or Amazon COM corporation (AMZN) are all people, provide an alternative to Microsoft operating systems and tools have attracted attention among consumers and corporate customers

For these reasons, Microsoft's obligation to provide some suspect, the more important move is to improve the company's momentum has the aura

Uorutapurichado, Cohen & CoAnalyst Is, Microsoft believes that "water" to test, he was large debt after the sale, eliminating the possibility can not be used to fund acquisitions German software giant SAP AG (following SAP) is a Yahoo, Inc (YHOO) has been described as possible targets

However, at this time, MrPritchard, and should be considered to move Microsoft is "in terms of capital spending is" growing like the rest of the software industry

"[The software] is generally very capital intensive business, the historic attitude is that a bad debt," he said However, Oracle and Adobe Systems software, such as peers, in recent years the debt has become more comfortable