I thought he had at least 30-40% of Microsoft’s stock, and considering its market cap, I would say at least well over 100 billion.
There is no safety for honest men but by believing all possible evil of evil men.
–Edmund Burke
People, listen to me! Just look up the number of Microsoft shares Bill owns. I’m sure it’s in the latest prospectus or something. Then look in the business section of today’s paper, find MS’s price, and multiply the two numbers. Bingo!
Funny you should mention that.
Just about everything you ever wanted to know about a publicly traded company appears in a public document available on the web.
I gleaned the following from Microsoft’s Proxy Filing, which will be on the SEC’s regular EDGAR site tomorrow. (The form is called DEF 14A if you care) If you want it tonight, try www.freeedgar.com. A test of a direct link to the document on that site screwed up “About This Message Board,” so I won’t repeat the error here.
Mr. Gates holds 787,055,600 shares of MSFT common, 15.3% of shares outstanding. MSFT has not split since the disclosure date of 9/10/99. The stock closed today at $89.5. That adds up to $70.4 Billion. This does not include shares that live in his foundation.
So take $70.4B, add in a couple billion left over from stock he’s sold over the years (he sold $1.8B in ’98), add some more for appreciation of other assets in which he has an interest (Corbis, the Codex, some other stuff), subtract out a guess of cash charitable contributions. There you have it.
Now leave Bill alone.
Livin’ on Tums, Vitamin E and Rogaine