According to a Thursday SEC filing, Microsoft shareholders are set to vote on a proposal to assess whether the tech giant should diversify its balance sheet by putting the world’s largest and oldest cryptocurrency, Bitcoin (BTC), in their Dec. 10 meeting. However, the company’s board has officially recommended voting against this proposal.
Microsoft Says No To Bitcoin Investment
In a Notice of Annual Shareholders Meeting and Proxy Statement 2024 filing with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday, Microsoft outlined issues that will be discussed at the company’s next shareholder meeting. One proposal suggests that the tech firm consider investing in Bitcoin to hedge against runaway inflation and other macroeconomic forces.
The board urges shareholders to vote against this proposal, the filing reveals, arguing that the proposal was “unnecessary” as Microsoft already “carefully considers this topic.”
“Microsoft’s Global Treasury and Investment Services team evaluates a wide range of investable assets to fund Microsoft’s ongoing operations, including assets expected to provide diversification and inflation protection and to mitigate the risk of significant economic loss from rising interest rates,” the company wrote.
“Past evaluations have included Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies among the options considered, and Microsoft continues to monitor trends and developments related to cryptocurrencies to inform future decision-making.”
The tech behemoth also observed that volatility “is a factor to consider in evaluating cryptocurrency investments” and that it already has “processes in place to manage and diversify its corporate treasury.”
The National Center made the Bitcoin diversification proposal for Public Policy Research. The conservative think tank believes Bitcoin is possibly the best inflation hedge. “At a minimum, companies should evaluate the benefits of holding some, even just 1%, of its assets in Bitcoin,” it added.
National Center for Public Policy Research also thinks Microsoft should borrow a page from the playbook of Michael Saylor’s business intelligence firm, MicroStrategy, by adding Bitcoin to its balance sheet. MicroStrategy outpaced Microsoft by over 300% this year “despite doing a fraction of the business” of Microsoft.
Microsoft is currently the third-biggest tech firm in the U.S. with a market cap of a whopping $3.16 trillion. If the proposal ever came to fruition, the company would be the biggest publicly traded BTC holder, overtaking MicroStrategy and Elon Musk’s EV maker Tesla.