Wow. A 2% stake. He's going to get loads of influence.
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, …
-
Wednesday 12th March 2014 14:22 GMT 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).
-
Wednesday 12th March 2014 15:34 GMT 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.
-
Wednesday 12th March 2014 20:25 GMT 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.
-
Wednesday 12th March 2014 20:56 GMT 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.
-
Thursday 13th March 2014 14:01 GMT Michael H.F. Wilkinson
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).