Microsoft Urges Shareholders to Reject Proposal to Assess Bitcoin(BTC) as an Investment Option

In an Oct. 24 U.S Securities and Exchange Commission filing, the item “Assessment of Investing in Bitcoin” is listed as one of the proposals that Microsoft shareholders will be voting for or against in a Dec. 10 annual meeting.

At the upcoming annual meeting on Dec. 10, Microsoft shareholders will be voting on a proposal to conduct an assessment of Bitcoin (BTC) as an investment asset, among other proposals. However, the Microsoft board is recommending that shareholders vote against the proposal.

In a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Oct. 24, the item “Assessment of Investing in Bitcoin” is listed as one of the proposals that shareholders will be voting for or against.

The proposal was put forth by the National Center for Public Policy Research (NCPPR), an independent think tank. In its supporting statement, the NCPPR highlights MicroStrategy’s Bitcoin investment strategy and how the technology firm’s stock has outperformed Microsoft by over 300% this year “despite doing a fraction of the business” that Microsoft has done.

The think tank also points out that more and more companies are adopting Bitcoin as instruments of investment. Meanwhile, Microsoft’s second largest shareholder, BlackRock, started offering Bitcoin exchange-traded funds earlier this year.

“Bitcoin is an excellent, if not the best, hedge against inflation and corporate bond yields are less than the true inflation rate, companies should also not risk shareholder value by ignoring Bitcoin altogether,” the NCPPR stated.

The proposal calls for Microsoft to conduct an assessment of the benefits and drawbacks of investing a small portion, even as little as 1%, of its assets in BTC. The assessment would then be presented to the board of directors within 90 days.

According to Microsoft’s latest 10-Q filing, the company had $104.7 billion in cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investments as of June 30. If Microsoft were to allocate 1% of its liquid assets to BTC, the company would end up purchasing around $1.04 billion worth of the cryptocurrency at current prices.

However, the Microsoft board countered the proposal by saying that an assessment of Bitcoin would be unnecessary due to the fact that the company has “already carefully considers this topic.”

“Past evaluations have included Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies among the options considered, and Microsoft continues to monitor trends and developments related to cryptocurrencies to inform future decision making,” the board wrote in response to the proposal.

The software giant did offer Bitcoin as a payment option for its online Xbox store between 2014 and 2018. In Sept. 2023, a leaked document obtained by Axios seemingly revealed that Microsoft plans to add crypto wallets to its next Xbox console in 2028.