News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re: by thomasknowles on Wednesday February 09, 2011 @12:05PM (#2198166)
When did selling shares (especially when you have many) become dumping? As I recall he's doing his humanitarian bit nowadays, which strangely enough costs money.
Re: by jlgosse on Wednesday February 09, 2011 @12:09PM (#2198188)
I'm pretty sure you're right - Bill donates BILLIONS of dollars to charity and humanitarian cause(s), so he needs to have billions on hand to do that.

You don't see Steve Jobs "dumping" his shares because he doesn't donate most of his money, like Bill Gates does.

Re: by notahacker on Wednesday February 09, 2011 @12:16PM (#2198233)
Also, Steve Jobs (until recent health issues) was very active in every aspect of Apple, whereas Bill Gates has been in the process of disengaging himself from Microsoft.
Re: by zachallaun on Wednesday February 09, 2011 @12:07PM (#2198173)
And just a little while ago Eric Schmidt was dumping his shares!

You're completely correct. There's many reasons to "dump" shares, and very few of them are indicators of something bad.

Re: by corin_ on Wednesday February 09, 2011 @12:17PM (#2198241)

  If you invested one dollar in Microsoft in 2001 and cashed out that holding today, your compound annual return over the five-year period
Am I missing something... how is 2001-now a five-year period?
Re: by gte910h on Wednesday February 09, 2011 @12:18PM (#2198250)
He's working on eradicating polio (via immunization campaigns in the hot spots of the world). There are some big expenses for that.

He's playing a real world game of Pandemic with the resources of basically a man and it sounds like he's getting somewhere.

Re: by anthonycerra on Wednesday February 09, 2011 @12:18PM (#2198246)
"..in the past 12 months, Gates has sold off a whopping 90 million shares—reducing his holdings of Microsoft common stock by 13%."

Since when is 13% a whopping number? Cut that out of a pie chart and you barely have a Pacman.