I didn't realize that Gates would be 100% divested 2018 (per a long-planned sell off of his shares)... Interesting. I know his main emphasis is elsewhere (the foundation), but I suppose that just strengthens the investors' opinion: "You're getting out of your stake, so get out of the way."
This is of course only three of the top 20 investors making that argument. It's almost meaningless at this point.
They seem to make a big deal out of him selling and it was quoted in another article that one of the complaining investors would like to see the chairman retain a larger stake. It's an absurd statement. It's exceptionally rare for companies a fraction of Microsoft's size to have a chairman sitting on 4.5% of the company (even more so with a company nearly 40 years old).
Gates is sitting on $12 billion in stock. The number of people that have that much stock in any one company, is a very short list. That position all by itself would rank roughly in the top 90 in the world on the rich list. If you further narrowed it down to how many people hold that much stock in one company, I'd bet it's down to a few dozen.
I can see arguments over Ballmer having been allowed to poorly steer the company for so long (and the chairman not replacing him sooner), but complaints about Gates' holdings are just stupid. Gates has about $61 billion outside of Microsoft, he can throw around $5 billion without much concern, and it certainly wouldn't be a big deal for him to hold onto shares in MSFT worth that much just for influence sake. I'd argue it's very unlikely he'll divest all of his shares in his baby.
Of course you're right re:equity. Very few non-founder chairmen hold equivalent equity (in percent), and very few founder chairmen hold equivalent equity (in dollars).
But it's impossible to know Bill's level of commitment. If we use Ballmer's tenure as an indicator of Gates' direction from above... then asking Bill to step down is as obvious as a (forced) resignation by Ballmer. I think the investors (who own 1/20th of the company as well) are rightfully concerned. Didn't Gates pick Ballmer as his successor?
Indeed. I was very surprised when I read Gates owns about 4.5 percent of the $277 billion company and is its largest individual shareholder. I thought he still had most of his personal fortune in MSFT. It probably helps him that he didn't.
If he has other agendas and interests, it could be time to move on. Then again, wouldn't it help to have him buy in to any big strategic moves?
