It wasn’t too long ago that Microsoft’s CEO, Steve Ballmer, gave his farewell speech to Microsoft employees as he enters into his retirement which will be taking place over the course of the next 12 months, and now it seems that some of the top investors in Microsoft are now lobbying the board of directors to get Bill Gates, Microsoft’s co-founder, to step down from his position as chairman of the board. Apparently this is a request put forward to the board of directors by 3 of the top 20 investors in the company who collectively hold more than 5% of the company’s stock.
According to the report by Reuters, “The three investors are concerned that Gates’ presence on the board effectively blocks the adoption of new strategies and would limit the power of a new chief executive to make substantial changes. In particular, they point to Gates’ role on the special committee searching for Ballmer’s successor.” They also claim that Gates “wields power out of proportion to his declining shareholding”.
Naturally Microsoft has declined to comment on the matter, and if anything this is somewhat reminiscent of when Steve Jobs was ousted from Apple back in the 1980s, but what do you guys think? Should Bill Gates really step down from his position as chairman, and do you really think that he is one of the reasons why Microsoft has not adopted any new strategies as of late?
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