Microsoft Investors Call For Bill Gates To Step Down As Chairman

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Microsoft Investors Call For Bill Gates To Step Down As Chairman

Posted by ryuzaki0 on Wednesday October 2, 2013 @04:10AM from the pour-some-gasoline-on-it dept.

rjmarvin writes "Now that Ballmer is on his way out, flak for Microsoft's middling stock prices and lagging mobile innovation is starting to land on Bill Gates himself. Three of the company's top 20 investors are lobbying the Board of Directors, pressing Gates to step down as chairman. The stockholders believe his presence would handcuff the next CEO's ability to re-make the company with new strategies and sweeping changes. They also think Gates wields a disproportionate amount of power relative to his financial stake and day-to-day activity within the company. No word yet from Gates or the board on this internal strife."

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Misleading Headline by Frosty+Piss · 2013-10-02 04:16 · Score: 4, Informative

The headline is a bit misleading.
THREE of 20 of the top investers have demanded Gates step down.
Non-news.

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1. Re:Misleading Headline by Frosty+Piss · 2013-10-02 04:48 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  Um ya... actually the words "Microsoft Investors" in the title imply any integer above 1.
  Yes, well, the headline implies more than a few.
  Actually, *I* own 100 shares. So if *I* as an "investor" seek Gates' removal, does that warrant a story at Slashdot?
  The entire group of 20 investors onws ONLY 0.5% more than Gates holds all by himself. So what percentage do you think 3 of those 20 owns?
  The headline *IS* misleading.
  
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2. Re:Misleading Headline by cbhacking · 2013-10-02 11:02 · Score: 2, Informative
  
  Um, no. You are wrong, the people who modded you Informative are wrong, and you are part of the problem here. The three investors are part of a group of 20 that collectively hold 5%. Unless those three are an incredibly disproportionately large portion of the group of 20, their combined percentage will be tiny relative to what Gates holds.
  
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Re:Bill Gates' response: by KiloByte · 2013-10-02 04:28 · Score: 4, Informative

or to have them ritually mutilated.

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Re:Or prevent them... by occasional_dabbler · 2013-10-02 08:59 · Score: 3, Informative

Well, you're clearly from the US else you would realize the rest of the World is really starting to like what Elop has done with Nokia
As a result, he is odds-on favourite to become the new CEO
That said, your second point is exactly right. It's in nobody's interests (except these three shareholders) to put Microsoft in the hands of these asset stripping vampires.

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Re: Killing the goose that lays the golden egg by symbolset · 2013-10-02 12:56 · Score: 3, Informative

It takes a visionary painter to invent selling paintings. People will give Gates credit for a lot of things he does not deserve, and I am not one of those. But he did pretty much invent the commercial software market, for good or ill.

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