I think this is related to the fact that Microsoft announced a deal few years back that any entity with more than 4% stock ownership automatically gets right to

I think this is related to the fact that Microsoft announced a deal few years back that any entity with more than 4% stock ownership automatically gets right to have a seat on the board. During those times, stock was struggling and this might have been strategy to pull some investors who wants to have control as well. In my personal opinion, this was quite unfortunate because such strategies usually invites "activist" investors types. These types are rarely good for long term future of the company as they often enforce short term strategy such as massive buy backs, dividents etc to prop up the stock while actively prevent large capex needed to go after long term big bets.