Wolverine World Wide, Inc (NYSE:WWW) today announced that its board of directors has authorised the repurchase of up to 2,000,000 shares of the company's common stock over the next 24 months. As of September 30, 2000, Wolverine had 41,562,073 shares of common stock outstanding (excluding 3,205,341 shares of treasury stock). The purchases may be made on the open market or in privately negotiated transactions, depending upon market conditions and other factors. Purchases will be funded from the company's cash flow from operations and will be reserved for later reissue in connection with potential future stock dividends, employee benefit plans and other general purposes. Tim O'Donovan, president and CEO, said: "With our major five-year infrastructure improvement program behind us, the company is once again generating free cash flow, a portion of which has been used to reduce long term debt by over $49m from last year's levels. This share repurchase expresses our confidence in the company's strategic growth plan and our belief that the stock represents an attractive investment opportunity."