Michael Saylor, MicroStrategy’s co-founder and executive chairman, has told Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) CEO Satya Nadella that he could help the company make “the next trillion dollars for MSFT shareholders.”
In a post on the microblogging platform X (formerly known as Twitter). Saylor tagged Nadella and added along an image with a recent proposal for Microsoft shareholders to weigh in on adding Bitcoin to the company’s balance sheet.
While the proposal, put forth by the National Center for Public Policy Research (NCPPR), has garnered attention, Microsoft’s board of directors has recommended voting against it. The company’s board argues that it has already evaluated many investment opportunities, including Bitcoin.
The NCPPR’s rationale for the proposal centers on the success of Nasdaq-listed business intelligence firm MicroStrategy’s Bitcoin investment strategy, which saw it outperform Microsoft by over 300% this year on the market even as it conducted a “fraction of the business” of the tech giant.
Hey @SatyaNadella, if you want to make the next trillion dollars for $MSFT shareholders, call me. pic.twitter.com/NPnVvL7Wmj
— Michael Saylor⚡️ (@saylor) October 25, 2024
The proposal points out that Microsoft has $484 billion in total assets “the plurality of which are US government securities and corporate bonds that barely outpace inflation,” and argues that corporations have a “fiduciary duty” to consider “diversifying their balance sheets with assets that appreciate more than bonds, even if those assets are more volatile short-term.”
It points out that Bitcoin’s price has been rising significantly and that MicroStrategy, the largest corporate holder of Bitcoin, managed to see its shares outperform those of Microsoft this year by more than 300%, despite “doing only a fraction of the business that Microsoft has.”
The NCPPR’s proposal also points out that Microsoft’s second-largest shareholder BlackRock – the world’s largest asset manager – offers its clients a spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) that can be used to gain exposure to the cryptocurrency.
Per the independent think tank, BTC’s volatility means companies “should not hold too much of it,” but given its track record as a hedge against inflation companies should “also not risk shareholder value by ignoring Bitcoin altogether” and recommends a minimum allocation of 1% of the company’s assets to Bitcoin.
Featured image via Pexels.
