__/ [ Rafael ] on Thursday 01 March 2007 21:52 \__
> John Locke wrote:
>>> Estimated worth:
>>>
>>> 922,924,402 x $26.76 = $24,697,456,998, say $25 billion US.
>>>
>>> No, he isn't selling out like some think.
>>
>> If Microsoft keeps up its current policy of:
>> "the customer will get what we give them and be happy"
>> then we might have the penny stock disaster:
>>
>> 922,924,402 x $0.05 = $ 46,146,220
>
> Most certainly, a 23 million quid cheque will not send him into the poor
> house. It could make for a new Monty Python episode, though. :-)
Rest assured he invests that money elsewhere. Indirectly, this could even
assist the company which he co-founded.
Gates Foundation's 'dirty secret'
,----[ Quote ]
| Mr Gates personal ideological view is that knowledge should be treated
| as property, and that the owners should always seek monopoly-rents
| (royalties) and he's said to direct the Gates foundation to mirror
| this ideology, harming the very people he is trying to help.
|
| [...]
|
| In my ideal world, we could turn Gates ideology into honest
| philanthropy, but I'm skeptical that a man who became the richest
| man on the planet via societal misinformation around the nature of
| knowledge is going to turn around any time soon.
`----
http://p2pnet.net/story/10944
Politics and tech companies: follow the money
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft took first place with $651,100 given out, while
| Hewlett-Packard gave only $185,550, and Gateway gave a paltry
| $2,000. Microsoft's donations certainly illustrate well the true
| size of the company and the extent of its political concerns.
|
| [...]
|
| For instance, Microsoft's PAC spent $1.7 million in the 2006 election
| cycle, but only a third of this went to federal candidates. What
| happened to the rest? It went to local campaigns, paid out a few
| thousand dollars at a time to groups like "Boal for Iowa House" in
| Ankeny, IA. It also funded other PACs like the "Associated Republicans
| of Texas" and the "Blue Dog Political Action Committee." No race is
| apparently too small to be funded; even Indiana State Representative
| Terri Austin of Anderson, IN got $500.
| Lobbyists
|
| But the real money isn't even given to the candidates directly. It
| goes to lobbyists, which can be safer investments since they stand no
| chance of losing at the polls. The complete-year figures from 2005
| show that Microsoft spent $8.7 million on lobbyist expenses. Almost
| a million dollars of that money went to Covington & Burling, a
| lobbying firm that also represents the National Football League and
| the Pharmaceutical Research & Manufacturers of America. Microsoft's
| total spending on lobbying has risen substantially from the $4
| million it spent in 1998.
|
| [...]
|
| Where does it come from?
|
| Although some of this money comes from large employee donations,
| most of it does not. Take Microsoft, for instance; the Center for
| Responsive Politics says that the company received only $302,599
| from individual donors who gave more than $200 in this election
| cycle, only a small fraction of the $1.7 million actually spent.
| As is typical, much of this money came from the company's top
| brass, while the rest was made up of small contributions.
|
| The maximum individual contribution to a PAC is $5,000 a year.
| Melinda, whose occupation is listed in Federal Election Commission
| records as "homemaker," regularly contributes this amount, as does
| Bill. Steve Ballmer coughed up, too. Microsoft can use general
| company funds to support the PAC and its operations, but cannot
| give directly to candidates.
`----
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20061110-8194.html
Gates sold 100,000 Univision shares-SEC filing
,----[ Quote ]
| The foundation said it sold its remaining stake in Univision,
| which is in the process of being acquired by private investors,
| for an average of $35.34 per share in open market transactions.
`----
http://yahoo.reuters.com/news/articlehybrid.aspx?storyID=urn:newsmlreuters.com:20070105:MTFH49951_2007-01-05_22-11-13_N05298823&type=comktNews&rpc=44
http://tinyurl.com/yll88p
Bill Gates lends cash to buy newspapers
$350 million to MediaNews
,----[ Quote ]
| Gates involvement has been very behind the scenes. In fact many of
| those involved in the deal didn'teven know he was one of the investors.
| It was carried out through the Gates Foundation, the world's largest
| philanthropy outfit.
`----
http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=33849
--
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