Last week, Microsoft founder Bill Gates sold off some more of his stock in the company and in so doing finally, lost his title as the person who owns the most of its shares. Now Gates has announced that those quarterly stock sell offs will end by the end of 2014.
In a TV interview with CNBC today, Gates said, "I sold for over a decade the same number of shares every quarter. That plan lasts through the end of this year. I'm going to retain a lot of Microsoft's stock." Last week, Gates sold 4.6 million shares, which reduced his ownership in Microsoft to 330.1 million shares. That puts him below the level of shares owned by former CEO Steve Ballmer, who has not indicated any plans to sell off his portion of Microsoft stock.
The fact that Gates will still be holding onto a large portion of Microsoft is likely to be viewed as being supportive of the company and its current efforts under recently named CEO Satya Nadella. In the same CNBC interview, Gates stated, "Satya is off to an amazing start. [Nadella] drawing on a broad set of people in the company to get them rethink how can Microsoft move a bit faster."
Source: CNBC | Image via Bill Gates
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