Dive Brief:
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Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates donated 64 million shares of Microsoft worth a total of $4.6 billion to unnamed organization, according to Geekwire and a filing with the SEC just released this week. But in a separate filing to the SEC, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation disclosed it now holds 64 million shares of Microsoft, making it the likely recipient.
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The move reduced Gates’ stake in Microsoft to just 1.3%. By comparison, in 1996, Gates held 24% of the company’s stock.
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It’s Gates’ biggest donation since he gave away $16 billion worth of shares in 1999 and $5 billion worth in 2000, according to Bloomberg. Gates has been a regular contributor to the charity he formed with wife Melinda.
Dive Insight:
Creating the world’s biggest software company apparently pays quite well.
Even with his latest donation, Gates is still the richest person in the world, according to Bloomberg, which values Gates at $86.1 billion. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos passed Gates briefly last month but when Amazon’s share price dropped, Gates was back on top.
Former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is still the largest holder of Microsoft stock at 4% as recorded in 2014. Gates still comes in second and followed by current Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, according to Investopedia.
However, The Verge estimates Gates donating 80 million shares per year. At that rate, Gates is projected to have zero shares in Microsoft by 2019. Gates has been slowly dispersing his shares over the last several years, albeit primarily to his own philanthropy.
