Microsoft Shareholders Vote Against Bitcoin Buying Proposal

Software giant Microsoft will won't be buying Bitcoin just yet, after shareholders voted against a proposal at the tech giant's annual meeting Tuesday.

Shareholders of Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) voted on the proposal at the annual meeting. Microsoft's board in October told shareholders that it recommended voting against the item.

A filing with the SEC noted that "Microsoft's management already carefully considers this topic."

A number of public companies already buy Bitcoin. The biggest is MicroStrategy, a formerly sleepy software company that first bought the cryptocurrency back in 2020.

MicroStrategy co-founder and Executive Chairman Michael Saylor came up with the idea during the pandemic to get the best return for shareholders.

The company’s stock has since soared, and MicroStrategy is now a “Bitcoin development company” that securitizes the asset—meaning investors can buy shares of the company and get exposure to Bitcoin. MicroStrategy now holds 423,650 virtual coins, valued at over $40 billion.

Saylor also tells CEOs and companies to do the same: Earlier this month, he shared a Bitcoin adoption strategy with Microsoft’s board of directors. That same presentation played for shareholders on Tuesday.

The National Center for Public Policy Research think tank drove the effort to persuade Microsoft to buy Bitcoin too. Earlier this month, it submitted a proposal to Amazon too, advising the retailer and tech giant to put 5% of its assets in the orange coin.

It argued in both cases that buying Bitcoin would protect shareholders from inflation.

Other big companies that have bought Bitcoin include electric car giant Tesla, which currently holds nearly $1 billion in the asset. A number of major publicly-listed American Bitcoin miners also hold the cryptocurrency.

Edited by Andrew Hayward

Editor's note: This is a breaking story and will be updated.