Chapter 756 Microsoft Board of Directors

When Feng Yu said something happened, it was not an excuse, but something really happened. He was looking for someone to inquire about the members of Microsoft's board of directors. Before this, he didn't know about it.

Among the directors of Microsoft at this time, the only one Feng Yu has an impression of is the future Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, a person who is not the founder and has no money to invest, unexpectedly got a very high share!

At the time of Microsoft's IPO in 1986, Bill Gates held 49 percent of the shares, Paul Allen 35 percent, Steve Ballmer 8 percent, and other employees 100 percent. 8/8. Of course, these refer to voting shares.

During the days when Paul Allen left Microsoft, he invested in many companies, but they all ended badly. Just last year, the cable TV company he invested in rejected his request to increase its holdings, so he sold all his shares angrily As a result, after the sale, the company's market value rose by 50%.

Paul Allen is also considered by many to be the dumbest investor. Feng Yu is not particularly optimistic about Paul Allen. Paul Allen may have been good at technology and ideas, but he is really not a qualified manager. He also likes to do things himself and is not willing to delegate power.

Because of the shares, Paul Allen and Bill Gates had quarreled more than once. Bill Gates means that Paul Allen needs to sell Microsoft shares because of investing in other businesses, which will reduce their right to speak in Microsoft. It is better to sell directly to Bill Gates, while Paul Allen believes that he has sacrificed It's been done once, and you can't suffer again. Paul Allen also complained about Bill Gates giving Steve Ballmer so many shares.

Steve Ballmer. Now it's just a vice president of Microsoft. Of the remaining directors, except for one who is the chairman of an investment company, the rest are Microsoft executives, including the chief financial officer. What surprised Feng Yu was that there were only eight members of Microsoft's board of directors.

It seems that Bill Gates has a strong control over power. Even-numbered directors, when voting, are determined by shares. In other words, Feng Yu's 2% voting shares have no right to speak.

In fact, in history, when Bill Gates retired, the number of directors of Microsoft was increased to ten, and it took eight years. The number of directors of Microsoft was only increased to eleven, and at that time, Bill Gates was just an ordinary director, and even the shareholding ratio was no longer the first.

Feng Yu took a look, and the person he should win over here is Steve Ballmer, because Steve Ballmer is very trusted by Bill Gates. In a few years, he will also become the president and CEO of Microsoft, especially because his relationship with Paul Allen is still very bad.

If you can fool Steve Ballmer into making mistakes in some future decisions, for example, Microsoft will never involve hardware, then the chances of even thinking about rising will be greatly increased!

...

a few days later,

The regular meeting of Microsoft's board of directors was held, and the directors all looked at Feng Yu who entered the meeting room in surprise. Who is this young man, looking at his face, he seems to be an oriental man. How did he get in?

Paul Allen glanced at Feng Yu and snorted coldly. Steve Ballmer looked at Feng Yu with great interest. Is this the new director Bill mentioned?

The other directors didn't know about this at all. They didn't know at all that starting today, the board of directors will have one more member, and it's still such a young member.

It's just that they saw that the chairman didn't yell at him, but nodded at the young man, which meant that this person knew the chairman. Judging by Paul Allen's appearance, it seemed that he also knew this young man.

As for who this person is and what he does, they are all at a loss.

"Today's board of directors has something to announce. Feng from the East is the mysterious rich man who has been buying our tradable shares."

Those directors all showed surprise eyes, Feng Yu slightly nodded at everyone, but didn't stand up at all. Others naturally didn't care, after all, Feng Yu's net worth was higher than them.

But Paul Allen was very upset. He felt that Feng Yu was not polite enough, but he didn't think about it. He usually didn't look at the other directors very much.

"I exchanged some shares with Paul and Feng each, about 1 percent, that is to say, Feng has 2 percent of the voting shares, so I nominate Feng to the board of directors."

Bill Gates is the major shareholder, and he has the right to nominate Feng Yu to the board of directors.

Many people have the misunderstanding that members of the board of directors must be shareholders, but this is not the case. The board of directors is elected by the shareholders' meeting. Of course, the general shareholders will nominate themselves, but there are also many non-shareholder directors, but it is rare in China.

Generally, if you can enter the board of directors, you will generally have equity incentives, and you can eventually become a shareholder, even if it is only a small shareholder.

Therefore, if Bill Gates does not nominate, Feng Yu can also nominate himself, but if Bill Gates disagrees, then Feng Yu will definitely not be elected. Bill Gates still has a strong control over Microsoft at this time.

In fact, Bill Gates plus Paul Allen or Steve Ballmer can decide Feng Yu to join the board of directors, so he is not a proposal today, but a notice to everyone, and it is not easy if others do not agree!

The board of directors is the highest management body elected by shareholders, and if it can be elected, it can naturally be removed. It's not that Microsoft's directors have never changed. Well, anyone who opposed Bill Gates' resolution was replaced.

Bill Gates is the largest shareholder, chairman, president and CEO in Microsoft Corporation. In many small companies, the president and CEO are the same person, or there is only one person at all. However, in many large companies, due to administrative management It is more complicated, so the chairman will appoint two people to share the management and check and balance each other.

And Steve Ballmer is the vice president, in fact, what he does is the job of the president.

After hearing Bill Gates' words, the other directors naturally applauded. Only Paul Allen, as if he didn't hear this sentence at all, was still sipping his coffee.

Everyone looked at Feng Yu, who wants to join the board of directors? Seeing this, Bill Gates is very supportive, but Paul Allen is not. Are these two going to have a conflict again?

"Okay, welcome to come here. Next, I propose to appoint Feng as the vice president of Microsoft's Asia-Pacific region, mainly in charge of China's business."

Everyone understood at this time, no wonder it is an oriental, it seems that it should be a Chinese, is the company going to enter the Chinese market?

Steve Ballmer asked at this time: "What business is responsible for China?"

Before Bill Gates could speak, Feng Yu said with a smile: "All. I have the final say on all Huaxia's business. I will not interfere in any other decisions of the company."

Steve Ballmer frowned. Isn't it too hasty to entrust such an important market to China to such a young man? Although Feng is a major shareholder, he is not necessarily a good decision maker.

Why did Bill agree? Could it be that this Chinese person has a high status in China?

Bill Gates also added: "You can rest assured that Feng can help Microsoft completely occupy the Chinese market. Do you have any other proposals today? If not, today's board meeting will be over."

This board meeting was held for Feng Yu.

Steve Ballmer found that Feng Yu smiled at him several times, which made him a little baffled... (To be continued.)

PS: First update, thank you for the monthly tickets of book friends such as Abraham Lincoln, The Stolen Xinjian, Burial Flower, Carlwang, Fu Xinxin, etc. There are so few monthly tickets today, there will be more later