Bill Gates Sells Off 90 Million Of His Microsoft Shares

Update: Additional context on investment added below

Is Bill Gates souring on Microsoft? The founder, and largest single stockholder, in the company has sold off 90 million of his own stocks in the past year.

As Information Week reports, Gates has reduced his stock holdings by 13 percent from last year, with ten million shares sold as recently as last week.

Officials say that Gates is just doing as all investors do and diversifying his portfolio. But also possible is that Gates, like all investors, wants to see a real return on his money. Information Week notes:

If you invested one dollar in Microsoft in 2001 and cashed out that holding today, your compound annual return over the five-year period would be a measly 2.74%. That same dollar invested in Apple would have returned 38.8% annually over the half decade, in Google the payback would have been 11.12%, in Oracle 30%, and in IBM 17.37%.

Gates, of course, has owned his stock for well over twenty years. It may be that he is simply reading the writing on the wall. Microsoft's recent tribulations getting an iPad-competitive tablet to get traction are well known. And other disasters like Windows Vista and the failed KIN smartphones only lend credence to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg's words that Microsoft is now the "underdog."

Instead, Bill Gates is investing in garbage--literally--as in the company Republic Services, which deals in solid waste services. Gates still has 591 million shares in the company, but has decreased 22 percent in his shareholdings from two years ago. Selling off stocks to help fund his charitable endeavors is not a new habit for Gates--similar sales garnered attention back in 2010 and 2009.

Comments

[onechord]

07:44 PM on 03/04/2011

I guess that's what happens when you name yr company after yr.......

[mtnmedic]

02:10 AM on 02/13/2011

It's not your stocks that are bad, bill. It's Ballmer. Get rid of him.

[SuperBenFranklin]

07:53 AM on 02/12/2011

IBM was once thought dead.

[dhinds]

09:53 PM on 02/11/2011

Free Open Code Operating Systems Built on the Linux Kernal have made Windows obsolete.

And Free Open Code Office Suites like Open Office have made Microsoft's Office Suite obsolescent as well.

[eco sys]

05:29 AM on 02/12/2011

MS Office obsolete, that's funny!

[Stillorganboy]

12:07 PM on 02/11/2011

He can't bring it with him.

[philp71]

11:36 AM on 02/11/2011

Bill Gates is smart . Lmao

[think-it-over]

12:20 AM on 02/11/2011

If this article is correct, 2001 was only 5 years ago, so maybe Bill needs the cash for more work on his time machine.

[Opening Shares]

09:34 PM on 02/10/2011

Why Linux? What you gonna' do when Microsoft goes bust and no longer provides security updates? Wait for programmers who know how to fix them as they come along AFTER the source code has released, if ever? HA!

Windows relies, still, on backdoors to allow programmers to return to certain points in in the source codes. Sort of like why (sometimes) games have cheat codes. These back doors are the black hat hacker's favorite thing and how a program that should have nothing to do with changing the OS or other programs can wreak havoc. Linux doesn't have this problem since `the entire OS source code is recompiled every time a change is made to it.

The retardedest thing about Windows, actually an objective of planned obsolescence, is that the kernel and the rest of the OS exist as a single instance of each on the hard drive and due to copyright and partitioning schemes, implementing a back up of the entire operating system (the simplest, most fool proof way) is either expensive or illegal and definitely a much more complicated process than running two identical Linux operating systems on the same drive. A system integrity check for Linux is as simple as running a has check at start up. With Windows, it's about run it until it falls apart (it does, gradually) and reinstall it (have a good book to read while you wait on the phone because your OS is has been previously installed and won't validate) 250words

[Downix]

01:01 AM on 02/11/2011

Me and my Slackware 3.0 CD applaud you.

[Equinator]

07:04 PM on 02/10/2011

Windows will be around for a while, but it has probably reached it's peak. The new phones coming out are multi processor with lots of memory and improving operating systems. Before long you will have docking stations to plug the phone into with monitor and keyboard.

[Nick Montana]

09:46 PM on 02/11/2011

The upcoming Android-powered Motorola Atrix 4G has a PC and laptop docking capability already.

[xtiangodloki]

12:57 PM on 02/10/2011

Regardless of what you think of MS, Bill Gates is selling his shares so that he can do more charity work in 3rd world countries. You can't say the same for Apple execs.

[J242]

02:12 PM on 02/10/2011

He's just trying to buy his way into "heaven". You do realize that the Gates Foundation is a massively profitable group that generates billions of dollars in profits via tax exemptions to the other companies they work with right?

I'm all for people benefiting from this scheme. It's far better than ponzi schemes or standard wall street greed but it's still about the money. Don't let yourself be fooled. It's an acceptable evil because the intent is to make money, the effect is that people who need help get it. Lose-Win in my book.

[Opening Shares]

09:54 PM on 02/10/2011

If you are sniffing around for an agenda that Bill Gates has here's one - http://www.alternet.org/media/149232/where_does_billionaire_monopolist_bill_gates_get_off_saying_bigger_class_size_and_fewer_teachers_is_the_education_solution

[levresamant]

11:57 AM on 02/10/2011

I simply do not understand why so many people still purchase pc's that run windows. Lots of beautiful machines out there, but that operating system. Ouch! Why has no one but Linux bothered to put together a stable fast good operating system one could install on their PC I will understand.

[swlewis57]

01:44 PM on 02/10/2011

My box with win7 64b pro runs like a champ.

[philp71]

11:35 AM on 02/11/2011

And? My Mac works like a champ and won't crash cool huh. I know you can't go a day without cursing your pc .

[J242]

02:13 PM on 02/10/2011

Ever heard of OSX?

[hamalnamal]

01:01 PM on 02/11/2011

Yup, did you know that its based on UNIX and is essentially Linux without the best parts such as the best software repository ever?

[whitemale08]

10:44 AM on 02/10/2011

A corporate monopoly that has stifled innovation and held society back from technologies that could've came out decades ago.

Microsoft should've been broken up along time ago.

However because they didn't they will face the demise of all monopolies:
the reality that forces them through the inevitable "Minski moment" where you own everything so no new growth can be achieved in profits.

[PenguinLinux]

10:20 AM on 02/10/2011

"Bill Gates is investing in garbage--literally-" I thought that's what he did already when he invested in Microsoft??? After all, Windows is trash and everyone knows it.

[LifeWitness]

11:34 AM on 02/10/2011

?

Let me guess: iPhone and AT&T?

[Travis M]

06:01 PM on 02/10/2011

It may be trash, but it's used in almost every country in the world, more software vendorsr right programs for it then they do for any other platform. I have people constantly asking me why we do not upgrade to a more secure platform here at my office I tell them because our software is not written for anything else other then Windows, and to install something new although it sounds easy would cost a fortune trying to implement the software design to fit our enviroment.

[dblan9]

09:52 AM on 02/10/2011

It is hard because he does so many wonderful things for humanity and earth. Even though he stole his operating system, has the creative ability of a gnat and has surrounded himself with people who are incapable of understanding the basic needs of people, he is doing inspirational things with his pirate loot. He is trying to eradicate Polio along with Maleria and is helping bring food to impoverished areas of earth. Steve Jobs on the other hand gave $100,000 to Rahm Emanuels Mayoral campaign.

[J242]

02:46 PM on 02/11/2011

You do understand that the Gates Foundation is just one giant money laundering scheme right? Yes, he's doing good with it but that's the point. Who's going to go after a charitable group who's doing good in the world? The "good" he's doing is just insurance to make sure no one actually goes after them for the illegal corporate laundering they are pulling for all of the corporations Gates owns massive stock in. How do you think they are profitable? lol Sheesh...

[atila]

09:47 AM on 02/10/2011

He is not going to admit it, but for sure he has some Apple stocks in that portfolio.

[Travis M]

06:01 PM on 02/10/2011

I'm sure he does, he would be a fool to to invest, if anything to diversify his portfolio.