4 ms·
Bill Gates started selling off his microsoft stake in the late 90s. It took him more than two decades to get from 49% ownership down to the 1.9% he has today.
by jdsully 5y ago
Bill Gates started selling off his microsoft stake in the late 90s. It took him more than two decades to get from 49% ownership down to the 1.9% he has today. It's hard for figure heads to divest without crashing the stock because it carries substantial signal risk.
The stock market is only liquid at smaller scales, bigger transactions will have dramatic effects on the price.
- HWR_14 5y agoYou're assuming Gates was trying to divest from MSFT. There's no evidence he was in a hurry. You are right that insiders selling can be a signal. That's why we have laws that govern their actions. But that's because it is assumed Gates knows more than the average MSFT investor. Yes, if Bezos woke up tomorrow and wanted to crash AMZN by selling his shares, he could. But he routinely liquidates over a billion dollars worth a quarter.
- jdsully 5y agoNo assumptions are needed. He created a public divestment plan and sold 20 million shares per quarter since. While it’s normal for insiders to declare trades well in advance doing so decades prior is a bit notable. He was pretty upfront about wanting to diversify after Ballmer took over.
- HWR_14 5y agoSorry, yes he wanted to diversify as he was no longer in charge. I meant to write something about assuming he cared about diversifying quickly (lost faith in MSFT) as opposed to so he could reduce his risk and think less about his asset distribution.