back to article Shift up, Ballmer: Microsoft expands board, makes room for activist investor

Microsoft has appointed activist investor Mason Morfit to its board after his investment firm ValueAct Capital agitated for a greater say on how the company is run. ValueAct bought a $2bn stake in the software firm last April and immediately started to campaign for change at the company. By August, Microsoft had capitulated, …

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  1. dogged

    Wow. A 2% stake. He's going to get loads of influence.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Could be worse, they could have had 1chan on the board.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    What about technology experts?

    Microsoft seem to be edging towards a 100% totally soul-less money grabbing machine. They've always been close to 100% but if you start listening to the money men then your product strategy just turns from selling products people like into products people are locked into using (much like the Microsoft of old).

    1. BillG
      Devil

      Microsoft seem to be edging towards a 100% totally soul-less money grabbing machine

      Just like Apple & Google.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      People forget

      The primary responsibility of a corporation is to make money for its owners (investors)- without breaking any laws.

      Everything else is just good PR.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        @AC - Re: People forget

        Not even that. Corporations primary responsibility is to make money. Not breaking the law comes second and only if it makes business sense (i.e. not interfering with their primary goal).

    3. ecofeco Silver badge

      "Microsoft seem to be edging towards a 100% totally soul-less money grabbing machine."

      Edging? Seriously, how old are you and where have you been for the last 35 years?

      They passed "edging" literally decades ago.

  4. erikj

    Well, that's the way it works.

    > if you start listening to the money men then your product strategy just turns from selling products people like into products people are locked into

    Creating cash generally trumps creating value. And those who can do the first without bothering with the second are rewarded a hundred fold.

    1. ecofeco Silver badge

      Re: Well, that's the way it works.

      Exactly. The ideal business generates profit without having to give anything in return.

      You have problem with Corporate Communist Capitalism©®™, comrades?

  5. Someone Else Silver badge
    Devil

    "Activist Investor" [sic]

    I'll bet Carl Ichan just shit his drawers.

  6. jnemesh

    Yes, because the solution to Microsoft's woes is to add more "Chiefs"!

    Microsoft has been suffering from infighting between divisions and political infighting for YEARS...giving us such "gems" as Windows 8, Surface, Windows Phone, and the Xbox One! Solution? Bring on MORE board members! Sure. That will solve EVERYTHING, right? It's bad enough that there is no vision in Redmond any longer...now they will kill what is left with a company run by bean counters instead of innovators. Sell your stock now, guys, it's all downhill from here.

  7. Charles Manning

    The Microsoft way of dealing with persistent conflict.

    Somehow the standard Microsoft way of dealing with opposition springs to mind: Embrace, Extend, Extinguish.

    First they ask him to join them on the board, then they extend his thinking until he agrees with them, then they get rid of him.

    Be very, very concerned when the enemy invites you in. Check the contents of the peace pipe before inhaling.

  8. Bladeforce

    Let the..

    Battle of the board members commence!! Talk about a company fighting itself

  9. Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge
    Happy

    Mason Morfit?

    Does he have a white Persian cat? And a headquarters in a volcano?

    With a name like that and loads of money, he just has to be bond villain. Of course, Elon Musk has a similar predicament, and he even builds rockets (and other seriously cool stuff that fits straight into a Bond plot).

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Devil

    Valuable?

    ""Mason brings valuable insights given his financial background, his extensive experience as a public company director and his perspective as a significant Microsoft shareholder."

    And completely clueless about technology.

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