SEATTLE: Bill Gates, co-founder and chairman of Microsoft Corp., sold about
10 per cent of his stake in the software giant last fiscal year, leaving him
with about 12 per cent of the company, a regulatory filing said on Thursday.
Gates owned nearly 661.75 million shares, or 12.3 per cent of Microsoft as of
June 30, the end of the company's 2001 fiscal year, according to a proxy
statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission. That was some 70 million
shares less than the 731 million shares Gates owned a year earlier.
The 45-year-old mogul, calculated to be richest man in the world by Forbes
magazine back in June, routinely sells chunks of his Microsoft stake to
diversify his holdings and donate to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the
health and education charity he and his wife founded.
But while his wealth was estimated at $58.7 billion back in June, a slumping
market for technology products and the effects of the Sept. 11 hijack plane
attacks in the United States have hit Microsoft shares, paring the value of his
stake back to about $33 billion on Thursday. Gates is estimated to hold several
billion dollars in a private portfolio managed by his investment vehicle,
Cascade Investment LLC.
Gates, who as "chief software architect" is molding the company's
strategy to provide fee-based Internet services, also took home $494,992 in
salary in fiscal 2001, a 12-per cent raise over the previous year, the filing
said. Microsoft also awarded Gates a $171,762 bonus, lower than last year's
$200,000.
Gates' right-hand man, Chief Executive Steve Ballmer, owned 239.4 million
Microsoft shares amounting to 4.4 per cent of the company, the filing showed.
That stake is worth about $11.97 billion at Microsoft's Thursday's closing price
of $49.96. Ballmer took home paychecks totaling $494,076, about 15 per cent more
than last year. He also collected a bonus of $171,444, down from $200,000 the
year before, it said.
Former president Jon Shirley, who is still with Microsoft as a director, was
listed as having the next-biggest stake, with 7.86 million shares amounting to
less than 1 per cent of the company, it said.
(C) Reuters Limited 2001.