According to Microsoft’s annual proxy filing, Bill Gates, company’s chairman, and Steve Ballmer, retiring Chief Executive, are contesting for re-elections to the company’s board of directors, despite the pressure created by some of the investors to remove Gates from his post.
Gates and Ballmer both have been the soft targets of some of Microsoft’s activist investors who believe that the company needs an immediate transformation by way of new leadership to compete with its growing rivals including Google and Apple.
Recently, in August, Ballmer announced that he was going to step down within 12 months from the post of CEO, though, there are no signs indicating Gates stepping down from the board of the company which he co-founded 38 years ago with Paul Allen.
Three of Microsoft’s top 20 investors this week, pressurized the board to remove Gates from the Chairman’s post or ask him to step down voluntarily, believing that the company needs new leadership and chairman to cope with the increasing competition. Microsoft or its board hasn’t commented on this.
In the annual general meeting of the company to be held on November 19, the company’s shareholders will be voting to elect new board of directors and it is likely that the shareholders will re-elect both Gates and Ballmer to the company’s board.
Microsoft is still searching for Ballmer’s successor and has said that it would take this major decision until next August. Till then, Ballmer will continue to be the company’s CEO. According to the proxy filing, Gates is presently the largest individual shareholder of Microsoft with 4.52 percent share. Ballmer who joined the company as the CEO in 2000 holds around 3.99 percent share.
