Even a personal appeal by MicroStrategy Inc.’s Michael Saylor failed to persuade software giant Microsoft Corp. to follow in his footsteps by investing in Bitcoin.
Saylor, who has transformed the once obscure enterprise software maker he co-founded into a Bitcoin proxy owning more than $40 billion of the cryptocurrency, made the case at Microsoft’s virtual shareholder meeting on Tuesday. Investors rejected a ballot proposal requesting that the board conduct an assessment to determine if diversifying the company’s balance sheet by including Bitcoin is in the best long-term interests of shareholders. Saylor spoke on behalf the Free Enterprise Project, which sent a nearly identical proposal to Amazon.com Inc. and may do the same with other corporations, according to Ethan Peck, deputy director of the shareholder activist group.
