NEW YORK (Standard&Poor's) June 19, 2006--Standard&Poor's Ratings Services said today that there will not be an immediate effect on the ratings or outlook for NIKE Inc. (A+/Stable/A-1) as a result of the company's announcement that its board of directors has approved a $3 billion share repurchase program. The program is expected to be completed over the next four years. In addition, the company also announced that it expects to complete its previous four-year, $1.5 billion share repurchase program within the next several weeks. NIKE generates significant cash flows and has maintained large cash balances on hand (about $2 billion); we expect the share repurchases to be completed with cash flow. We also expects NIKE to maintain
