Michael Saylor, the billionaire bitcoin investor who turned the corporate he co-founded, MicroStrategy, right into a high-risk proxy for the cryptocurrency, has been encouraging Microsoft to make use of a few of its large money pile to observe his lead.
But on Tuesday, after he offered a proposal at Microsoft’s annual shareholder assembly, the shareholders mentioned no.
In October, Microsoft advised buyers that the National Center for Public Policy Research, a conservative suppose tank, meant to submit a shareholder proposal recommending that the software program firm’s board have a look at diversifying its steadiness sheet with bitcoin.
Saylor, now MicroStrategy’s govt chairman, has seen his firm’s inventory worth soar nearly 500% this yr because it buys billions of {dollars} value of bitcoin.
“Microsoft cannot afford to overlook the following expertise wave, and bitcoin is that wave,” Saylor mentioned in a video presentation, which he released on X final week. The publish has greater than 3 million views.
In his three-minute presentation, Saylor displayed a chart displaying that bitcoin generated annual returns of 62% between August 2020 and November 2024, in contrast with 18% for Microsoft and 14% for the S&P 500. Bonds as an asset class have misplaced 5%, the presentation says.
“You can convert your money flows and your dividends and your buybacks and your debt into bitcoin,” Saylor mentioned. “If you do this, you may add a whole bunch of {dollars} to the inventory worth.”
The digital look Tuesday wasn’t the primary time Saylor has made the pitch to Microsoft, which was sitting on $78.4 billion value of money, equivalents and short-term investments, as of the end of September.
Microsoft mentioned in its proxy filing in October that its treasury and funding providers workforce beforehand evaluated bitcoin and different cryptocurrencies to fund the corporate’s operations and cut back financial threat, and “continues to observe tendencies and developments associated to cryptocurrencies to tell future resolution making.”
A day later, Saylor directly addressed Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella on X.
“Hey @SatyaNadella, if you wish to make the following trillion {dollars} for $MSFT shareholders, name me,” Saylor wrote.
The proposal didn’t garner assist from a majority of voting shareholders, after Microsoft really helpful they reject it. Proxy advisors Glass Lewis and Institutional Shareholder Services each instructed a no vote, too.
Microsoft began accepting cryptocurrency for buyer funds in 2014, Amy Hood, Microsoft’s finance chief, mentioned in response to a shareholder query throughout Tuesday’s assembly. “We proceed to consider the evolution of crypto,” she mentioned.
Microsoft shares have gained about 19% to date this yr, far underperforming MicroStrategy.
But Saylor has tied his firm, now valued at about $83 billion, on to the fortunes of bitcoin. In mid-2020, the corporate, which had been a middling software program enterprise, introduced its plan to spend money on bitcoin, disclosing in an earnings name that it could commit $250 million over the following 12 months to “a number of different property,” which might embody digital currencies resembling bitcoin. At the time, MicroStrategy’s market cap was about $1.1 billion.
As of Dec. 8, MicroStrategy and its subsidiaries owned a complete of about 423,650 bitcoins, acquired at an combination worth of roughly $26.5 billion. With bitcoin buying and selling at $95,000, these holdings are value over $41.3 billion.
MicroStrategy has been promoting inventory and elevating debt to assist fund its bitcoin purchases. The firm said on Nov. 21 that it had accomplished a $3 billion convertible debt sale “to accumulate further bitcoin and for common company functions.”
Saylor’s web value has ballooned to $9.1 billion, in accordance with Forbes, primarily as a result of his MicroStrategy possession.
