Microsoft shareholders will vote on Bitcoin in December
Microsoft shareholders will vote on whether to consider investing in Bitcoin, among many topics, at its annual shareholder meeting in December. This follows an inflationary trend of companies adding Bitcoin to their accounts. Noting that the company's management has carefully considered the matter, Microsoft's board recommends against voting on the request.
Documents recently filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) show that Microsoft intends to put the topic of investing in Bitcoin up for a vote at a shareholder meeting scheduled for December 9, 2024. However, the proposal does indicate that Microsoft is considering adding Bitcoin to its balance sheet. It is not clear whether the sheet or simply as an investment is seriously considered.
Micro strategy and the trend of corporate Bitcoin treasuries
Corporations adding bitcoin to their balance sheets began with business intelligence software provider MicroStrategy, which boomed in 2020 by buying bitcoin in bulk when the cryptocurrency was not accepted by corporations.
Since then, the trend has grown following the success of microstrategy efforts. The stock price has increased 246% this year, from $68.39 to $235.89 on January 2, as of writing, which is mainly due to the large Bitcoin stash worth 252,000BTC as of writing, which is around $17.1 billion.
Since MicroStrategy, companies like Tesla and Metaplanet Inc have added significant Bitcoin positions to their balance sheets.
As crypto recognition and adoption grows, more companies are coming to view Bitcoin as a hedge against inflation.
Some objections remain
While there's no denying bitcoin's historical performance over the past decade versus other asset classes, some companies are skeptical about jumping on the bandwagon. Most major tech companies in the US have not invested in Bitcoin as an asset class or added it to their balance sheets.
Microsoft's board advises shareholders not to vote against bitcoin as an investment at a proposed meeting. According to the SEC filing, “Microsoft management has already carefully considered this topic.
