According to regulatory filings released on Tuesday, over 7 million Microsoft (NASDAQ:$MSFT) shares have been sold by activist fund ValueAct Capital, led by Mason Morfit.
Shares were sold at a price per share between $72.50 and $72.61. At 7 million shares, the sell-off was valued at just over $500 million.
Despite shareholder scrutiny due to Microsoft’s performance under Steve Ballmer, CEO at the time, Morfit and ValueAct publicly announced a $2 billion investment in Microsoft on CNBC. As a result of this campaign, Morfit was given a position on Microsoft’s board of directors.
Coincidentally, Ballmer stepped away from his position right before ValueAct took a seat on the board. Although he commented that his resignation had nothing to do with any involvement by ValueAct.
Microsoft shares were trading between $30 and $35 a share at a the time of Ballmer’s retirement announcements in August 2013. Since, Satya Nadella has taken over as CEO, and Microsoft shares have experienced gains of almost 125%. Under new leadership, Microsoft has directed greater efforts to cloud computing and computer hardware, and has also acquired LinkedIn. That should allow Microsoft to tap into the recruiting and human resources industries.
ValueAct is an investment firm that has about $15 billion in assets under management. With the fund’s recent sell-off of its stake in Microsoft, ValueAct is refocusing its attention to other companies such as Valeant Pharmaceuticals (TSE:$VRX), and investments in a variety of energy, healthcare, and technology companies.
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