Bill Gates Dumps 7 Million Microsoft Shares

[OhioChick]

Source: Information Week

Microsoft chairman made five "sell" transactions starting Aug. 3, according to SEC records.

August 10, 2009 01:53 PM

Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) chairman Bill Gates is trimming his stock portfolio--he's sold off 7 million shares in the company he founded since the beginning of August.

Securities and Exchange Commission records show Gates launched the selloff on August 3rd, when he disposed of 2 million shares at a price of $24.17 per share. Gates then made four additional sales of shares totaling 5 million through Friday.

The price Gates received for the shares ranged from $23.64 to $24.17. Microsoft shares were off .81% to $23.17 in afternoon trading Monday. The company on Sunday announced a deal to sell its Razorfish digital ad agency to France's Publicis Groupe for $530 million in cash and stock.

Gates divestitures hardly make him a minority stakeholder in Microsoft. Even after the sale, he still holds more than 726 million shares in Microsoft, which in total are worth about $17 billion. Some executives routinely divest large numbers of shares in their companies for diversification or tax purposes.


Read more: http://www.informationweek.com/news/windows/operatingsystems/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=219100623&subSection=News

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Hmmm....What's Bill know that we don't?

[BlooInBloo]

1. Less than 1% ? So?

[derby378]

2. Maybe his house needs rewiring

:hide:

[OhioChick]

3. (Facepalm) n/t

[sofa king]

10. So maybe Windows 7 is going to suck.

But more likely, he's probably still trying to make his philanthropic foundation larger and stronger. He's been dumping at least $1 billion worth of MS stock each year since at least 2007.

http://www.nypost.com/seven/09072008/business/gates_trying_to_unload_msoft_shares_127887.htm

I don't understand how it's a "philanthropic" organization, since it is really an investment group not unlike the Carlyle Group. In return for its tax-free status, it has to charitably give only five percent of its profits. Even Jesus demands ten percent.

[BlooInBloo]

11. Nah. 7 is indeed a Vista that's pretty good.

[ChromeFoundry]

12. Sure ... if you never have to run a CHKDSK

and if you have enough resources to run a second virtual machine for all your Windows XP compatibility needs...because they couldn't fix the shit introduced by the Vista kernel.

Hell, you could save a lot of money by just setting up a Linux host and running VirtualBox (or any other VM) to run your windows apps in an XP VM. Windows 7 is better than Vista when it comes to less crashes and backward compatibility of device drivers...but that does not make it NOT suck.

[BlooInBloo]

13. (shrug) If a person just *wants* linux, then *nothing* MS will do will make them happy.

:rofl:

[ChromeFoundry]

17. More and more people are switching, everyday...

as Microsoft stock sinks lower. Thanks to their lack of quality control over the past two operating systems.

But hey, if paying $200-$319 for an operating system that is half-baked and will likely initiate a two hour ordeal of patch downloading upon installation... be my guest. FAILURE!

[ShamelessHussy]

19. I always recommend to my friends to get a mac - less hassle and it runs windows, linux, too =)

http://www.apple.com/macbookpro

[WriteDown]

24. Proving that monopolies can be effective. nt

[Deja Q]

29. Yup. Seconded. You pay more, but OS X is THE most refined OS I have used...

I've been there, done that with Linux, BeOS, Windows... DOS... I'm a computer slut...

* OS X supports hardware Linux won't (a Epson scanner)
* has direct support for Adobe apps (they are pricey too, but will rub any cutesie $100 program into the ground in terms of competent features) whereas Linux+emulator+WinAdobe=SLOOOOOOOOOOW...
* And feels the most refined

No need to fiddlefuck with activation, drivers, et al -- it's automatic and it just works and dayum does it work well. :D

[sofa king]

22. Hey, CF, can I run MS-based games well on an Ubuntu box with some VM?

Because that's been the last tumbler in the lock for me for several years now. I'll confess that XP Pro (post-SP2) made me quite happy, but it's clear now that XP was a happy accident that Microsoft has worked hard to put behind them.

Honestly, I think they had to take a step back from issuing a product that (eventually) worked with little drama. Issuing a shitty product that is incrementally "improved" from year-to-year, like the W9x series, is probably much more profitable. Planned obsolescence, and all that.

[BlooInBloo]

23. Some games. And there will be a perf hit.

[alfredo]

31. Dual boot. Win for games, Linux for communicating

with the real world.

[ChromeFoundry]

30. Yes... but....

Your biggest problem is NOT going to be CPU or memory, it is going to be your video. If the games you are playing require a high FPS, a Virtual machine is not going to be suitable. Since you can now get a quad-core and 8GB of RAM fairly cheap, those will not be performance bottlenecks.. especially while running on a host 64-bit OS.

The problem with the video in a VM is that it is visualized hardware...you are not going to be able to use high performance excellerated drivers for your hardware... the video hardware will appear very generic to the Virtual Machine.

I hope that answers your question.

[sofa king]

32. Yep, that answers it well.

Thanks to all of you for your replies. I was afraid that would still be the answer. "Games" was the way I posed the question but far more importantly I do a lot of 3D renders and I can't go back to the eight-hour overnight job now that The Streetbeater can bust out a dozen a day (and more when I don't sleep). I suppose the problem is compounded because the program I use, DAZ3D, is Windows-based and more-or-less free, which is right in my price range.

So I guess I'm still looking for the magic bullet. That, and some artistic talent, so I can just draw what I want to see.

And sorry to all of you for the tangent. To assuage your anger, here is the sort of thing I'm talking about:



Come to think of it, that might cause more anger than it salves.

[Psephos]

35. If you want to "just draw what I want to see"...

...try this book.

It's a world-changer.

http://www.amazon.com/New-Drawing-Right-Side-Brain/dp/0874774195/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1250048409&sr=8-4

[ChromeFoundry]

36. you could always look into...

a 3D rendering engine that is OpenSource on Linux...and ditch windows all together.

Here are a few:

http://www.povray.org/
http://www.lightflowtech.com/
http://www.blender.org/


BTW, DAZ3D may have a native linux version in the near future:
http://forum.daz3d.com/viewtopic.php?p=1098594#1098594

[Occulus]

37. Since you're doing 3D renders, go take a look at

Blender. Be sure to also check out the gallery.

By the way, Blender also comes with a game and physics engine built into the software. Learn Python, as this capability includes a lot of scripting.

Oh yeah- it also has a fluid simulator.

Blender also supports a number of external rendering engines in addition to its own internal renderer. Supported engines include Yafray, Yaf(a)ray, Lux Render, Kerkythea, Indigo, and others.

Blender has a lot of power. If you export your DAZ scenes as a .obj, you can use them in Blender, and from there also export to other formats.

I encourage you to take a look at Blender if you haven't already. It's very powerful, has functionality available in application costing thousands of dollars, and it's free.

Check it out!

[sofa king]

38. A fluid simulator is just what I need!

I messed around with Blender first, but I ditched it for DAZ because at the time my previous computer, Lamont, was responding better to DAZ.

But DAZ fails to provide me with the oceans of blood I require to add a touch of class to my project. Now there will be blood. Oh, yes.

Again, thanks to all of you!

[Occulus]

39. I have to give you more :D

This video, this video, and this video. Blender fluid sims all, so you can get a good idea of what's possible.

I've played with Blender fluid simulations before, and it's a process. I'd Google some 'Blender fluid tutorial' links before you even open the application, and read them closely. Blender fluids are hard to set up as of 2.49- perhaps the 2.50 release will make this process easier.

[Deja Q]

26. What MS needs to be done they damn well won't ever do:

Replace FAT32 or NTFS with a non-fragmenting file system (they tried but pulled out of "WinFS" for Vista and Win7)

Add PAE to the 32-bit client, so the more compatible version of Windows can access more than 4GB total RAM like how everyone else has done for YEARS

Reduce hardware requirements and footprint so we don't need a $1500 computer costing $20/mo in electricity to run the bloody thing

GET RID OF THE FUCKING REGISTRY

Make activation work properly and not be triggered by a BIOS upgrade

Don't tell customers that, for a newly released product, to wait for the NEXT VERSION for the bug to be fixed (Expression Media 2)

Don't engage in bait'n'switch tactics (DirectX 10 w/Flight Simulator X)

And most importantly, and this is a two-fer: Not to claim they support piracy while at the same time condoning it: http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2007/07/23/100134488/ (bottom of page 1, they freely admit their double-standard on piracy, for a country that has a ~90% piracy rate (Source: Cnet Asia, 2007)...

Have them sell Windows+Office for the same price instead of giving sweet deals to crooks ($3 for Windows+Office (source: "How Microsoft conquered China", link already given)).

Just how long a list would you like? :rofl:

[Barack_America]

4. Who knows? Maybe he wants to free up some cash for the Gates Foundation.

It doesn't have to be a bad thing.

[ChromeFoundry]

5. oh yeah.....

that saintly Gates Foundation. :eyes:

[WriteDown]

6. I think he wants to reinvest it in the Jobs foundation...

I am trying to figure out where to send my check to as well.

[Psephos]

33. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is a godsend and extraordinarily generous

What do you know that the rest of us don't?

[Deja Q]

27. Or use it so he won't have to fire any more overpaid US workers

:shrug:

I've worked with Microsoft products for 20 years. See one of my other responses in this thread. Been there, done that...

I will say this: Gates genuinely is a saint when compared to that hyperactive rat, Steve Ballmer.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGvHNNOLnCk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHCRimwRGLs

[bemildred]

7. It's going to take a long time to dump it all at this rate.

A good time to get started, I think. Microsoft's market niche is technologically obsolescent on several grounds. Commodity hell is coming to the operating system market soon. They stand to go the way of Sun Microsystems soon, and Sun made a better operating system.

[Old and In the Way]

8. I read in MS's latest filing with (I think) the SEC that they are finally

acknowledging that Open Source operating systems (ala Linux) will be having a financial impact on their revenue, going forward. If so, I'm not surprised that Gates wants to divest out of some of his MS portfolio now while he can still get premium value.

[GunTotingLib]

9. So will The richest man in the USA........

pay only a 15% capital gains tax on that sale while I pay 28% + 7.65% SS/med on my Overtime?

[Turbineguy]

14. Perhaps

if you were willing to accept $5200 per hour like some health"care" CEO you wouldn't be having this problem.

[ManiacJoe]

15. Bill has standing orders to sell shares every month.

It helps fund his foundation, amoungst other things.

The multiple sales in one month is probably not common.

[onehandle]

16. What it's all about is that a few weeks ago one analyst said "sell your Microsoft."

It's tanking.

[cbdo2007]

21. bawahahah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

funniest thing I read all day. Thanks!

Bill Gates is taking stock tips about Microsoft from "one analyst"? Yeah...I'm sure he knows a lot more about where Microsoft stands than Bill Gates does.

hahahahaha ha hahahahahahaha *cough cough* sorry ha ha ha ha ha hahahahahahah

[ShamelessHussy]

18. Maybe he saw the 'upgrade' chart put out by the MS marketing dept. the other day - YIKES

Deciphering Windows 7 Upgrades: The Official Chart

source...
http://mossblog.allthingsd.com/20090804/deciphering-windows-7-upgrades-the-official-chart/

:shakes-head:

[Deja Q]

28. They fixed the Vista bug to bypass doing a full install with an upgrade license...

but the stupid wankers still can't figure out how to upgrade to a 64-bit version from a 32-bit version. :spray:

It's only downhill from here; I recall all the times they went back to the start for Vista... (and not delivering on, what, half their claimed features... any other company would have been laughed out of existence. It's appalling.)

[Javaman]

20. Sounds like he's betting on the success of the new microsoft stores...

....Bwahahahahahaha!! sorry couldn't hold it in anymore LOL

[Deja Q]

25. Did Bill encourage his workers to buy stock beforehand?

And you're right, what does he know...

[Psephos]

34. ??? why would they buy it when the company gives it to them through options?

Why do you think people want to work there? Thousands of employees became millionaires through MS stock options, and many, many more did very well.

[Deja Q]

40. Think "Enron", because that's what they did. Also,

with Gates firing people left and right despite multi-billion in profits, why would anybody work there? Not logical.