“Bill Gates, the former chief executive and chairman of Microsoft Corp, will have no direct ownership in the company he co-founded by mid-2018 if he keeps up his recent share sales,” Bill Rigby reports for Reuters. “Gates, who started the company that revolutionized personal computing with school-friend Paul Allen in 1975, has sold 20 million shares each quarter for most of the last dozen years under a pre-set trading plan.”
“Assuming no change to that pattern, Gates will have no direct ownership of Microsoft shares at all four years from now,” Rigby reports. “With his latest sales this week, Gates was finally eclipsed as Microsoft’s largest individual shareholder by the company’s other former CEO, Steve Ballmer, who retired in February, but has held on to his stock.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: The old thief always was much smarter than Ballmer T. Clown.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “russ” for the heads up.]
MacDailyNews Take: The old thief always was much smarter than Ballmer T. Clown.
Aw, c’mon, MDN! that’s hardly difficult.
At least Gates recognizes that Microsloth’s trend line has been as flat as a parking lot for the last 10 years.
Gates was well warned by Warren Buffett back in the late 90s.
Bill Gates probably realizes that Microsoft’s Management of future endeavors REGRESSES with each succession of CEO. It was bad enough with Bill running into the iceberg, but damn, Ballmer backed up to run into it again. Now they have this Nadella fellow that they pulled from within the ranks. Wonder if that will be a wiser move then had Microsoft looked outside of the same old, same old and have some fresh face with new ideas and direction?
I think that was a final fatal blow, not getting a fresh CEO perspective from the outside though if they had he or she would have run up against the stubborn company culture at Microsoft. That slow acting poison still runs deep in the veins.
Spot on, a no win either way.
Bill would have been better off dumping Ballmer as CEO if MS, also who are the morons that are buying the shares that hilly billy gates is selling?
I envisioned Balmer sinking into quicksand with a dumb look on his face while clenching a fist full of dollar bills.
Make that the La Brea Tar Pits, where Megatheria and Sabretooths go to their extinction
“…clenching a fist full of dollar bills…” in one hand and a keyboard in the other. 😉
Now THAT is funny! Best laugh I’ve had today! Thanks! 🙂
This is exciting! Now Steve Balmer can retake the reigns and further his plan!
BWAHAHAHA! 😈
Why keep it as shares in a private company paying tax when you can put it into a non-profit company and pay no tax at all!
You read my mind.
He has investments in many areas. The money that goes to his charity is given, and he receives his 38% taxes back. But other than that, there is no advantage for him financially, from his foundation.
But it’s quibbling.
Yeah, other than the $billions he doesn’t have to pay to Uncle Sam, there is no advantage. Are you reading what you write?
The Gates family-run tax shelter/charity has $37,000,000,000 in assets. All of that money was never taxed and never will be. He does have to give away the
principle EVER – and maybe not even the earnings. He can have his family members administer the trust and they can enjoy a fat, easy living off it, in perpetuity. He can also use the trust to further his pet goals even if they reflect a political agenda (eg, planned parenthood, global warming, etc). Lastly, he gets lots of LOVE from the media as a great, philanthropic American.
Looks like Ballmer T. Clown is spending his newfound leisure time amusing himself playing “Patty Cakes” looking at that pic above. (Pretty much the same as what he was doing as CEO.)
WTF. This is not a story at all. Gates didn’t “dump” shares. He’s been selling them for years in an orderly and scheduled manner. Nothing has changed. He’s still following that schedule.
There is no news here. This is no better than the manufactured Apple stories so many sites like to run, and the headline is as shameless as Samsung.
Ah. You spoiled the fun! Party pooper. 😉
Come on, I threw in a knock at Samsung, didn’t I 😉
Bill should buy some Apple stock before it’s splits…….lol
He’ll keep ONE share…. The rest is CASH in the bank, NOT in a rusty freighter in the middle of a cesspool.