Image: WPCentral
For the first time in Microsoft’s history, Bill Gates is no longer the company’s largest individual shareholder, as of this afternoon.
A stock sale by Gates made public a few minutes ago reduced his ownership to 330.1 million shares, compared to more than 333 million owned by former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer as of the company’s last proxy filing.
Gates has been steadily selling Microsoft shares for years, at an average of 80 million shares annually, primarily to endow the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, funding its philanthropic work in education and global health. Gates stepped down as Microsoft chairman when the company named Satya Nadella as its new CEO, but said he would be spending more time at the company as an adviser.
