(FORTUNE Magazine) – The Microsoft memo du jour, Steve Ballmer's 4,000-word epic, delivered via e-mail to 57,000 employees in July, was hardly a thriller in the same vein as, say, Bill Gates' 1995 "We've just discovered the Internet" memo, or even Ballmer's "We've met the enemy, and it's Linux" memo of a year ago. Instead it was a sober reflection on the software monopolist's midlife crisis. We're fat and not getting enough exercise, Ballmer wrote, in essence. We've got to cut costs. And we've discovered that money--$56.4 billion in cash, to be exact--can't buy happiness. The question now, of course, is, Exactly what will $56.4 billion buy? There's been a drumbeat for months for the company to beef up its dividend. And there's also widespread speculation that perhaps a few dozen billions could be used to buy back Microsoft's languishing stock. But the most tantalizing possibility is always what Microsoft might acquire with all that cash. Mark R. Anderson, president of Strategic News Service in Friday Harbor, Wash., notes that Microsoft considered buying SAP last year, and says, "I assume they are still on the acquisition trail." Another possibility: buying a software security company like Network Associates. Ballmer has promised to shed more light on Microsoft's grand plan at an analysts' meeting in late July. Just be glad it won't be in memo form. --Peter Lewis