As the year draws to a close, Microsoft plans to hold its annual shareholder meeting on December 10th. This year's list of “ballot items” for shareholders includes a proposal to diversify Microsoft's assets and increase shareholder value by investing in Bitcoin, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing published Thursday. It is. The company's board of directors is urging shareholders to vote against it.
The proposal, titled “Evaluating an Investment in Bitcoin,” assumes that Microsoft's current corporate bond investments barely outpace inflation, and assumes the company has “a good, if not the best, inflation rate.” He suggests that investors should consider diversifying their assets with Bitcoin, which is a “hedge”.
“Therefore, in these inflationary times, companies should, and perhaps have a fiduciary duty to diversify their balance sheets with assets that appreciate more than bonds, even if those assets are more volatile in the short term. “,” the proposal states. .
Beneath the proposal is a section called “Board of Directors' Recommendations,” in which Microsoft's board of directors recommends that shareholders vote against the proposal. The board explained that the company does not need to evaluate its Bitcoin investment because “Microsoft's management has already given careful consideration to this topic,” the filing states. .
The tech giant, whose largest shareholders include Vanguard, BlackRock, and State Street, has created a global treasury and investment service that regularly evaluates vast investment potential to effectively diversify Microsoft's assets and protect shareholders from inflation. He said he has a team. Microsoft said in its filing that the team has considered Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in past evaluations.
“Microsoft has strong and appropriate processes in place to manage and diversify its debt obligations for the long-term benefit of its shareholders, and this requested public evaluation is unwarranted,” the filing states. has been done.
The proposal was put forward by the National Center for Public Policy, a conservative think tank. The organization serves on the advisory board of Project 2025, a far-right policy initiative that would expand presidential powers and impose a traditionalist social order under the incoming Republican administration.
The proposal notes that the company should consider investing in Bitcoin, but should not jeopardize shareholder value by investing too much of its assets in the cryptocurrency. The group suggests that Microsoft is “evaluating the benefits of holding a portion of its assets, even 1%, in Bitcoin.”
The offer comes as MicroStrategy, another major technology company, has hit a new high of $241 this year, largely thanks to its strategic pivot to investing in Bitcoin. Since 2020, the company has accumulated 252,220 Bitcoins worth approximately $17 billion.
This has helped MicroStrategy's stock price soar 250% over the past year, compared to Microsoft's 16% rise.
