When Feng Yu said something happened, it was not an excuse, but something really happened. He was looking for someone to inquire about the members of Microsoft's board of directors, which he had not known before.
Among the directors of Microsoft at this time, the only one that Feng Yu had an impression of was that future Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, a man who was not a founder and did not invest money, actually got a very high share of the shares!
When Microsoft was founded, Bill Gates held 49% of the shares, Paul Allen held 35%, Steve Ballmer held 8%, and other employees held 8%. . Of course, these are all voting stocks.
During the days when Paul Allen left Microsoft, he invested in many companies, but they all ended in dismal results. Just last year, the cable TV company he invested in refused his request to increase his holdings, and he angrily sold all his shares. After the sale, the company's market value increased by 50%.
Paul Allen and Bill Gates have quarreled more than once because of the stock issue. What Bill Gates means is that Paul Allen needs to sell Microsoft shares because he invests in other businesses, which will reduce their voice in Microsoft. It is better to sell it directly to Bill Gates, and Paul Allen thinks that he has sacrificed You've done it once, you can't suffer again. Paul Allen also criticized Bill Gates for giving Steve Ballmer so many shares.
Steve Ballmer is now just a vice president of Microsoft. Except for one of the remaining directors, who is the chairman of an investment company, the rest are Microsoft executives, including the chief financial officer. What surprised Feng Yu was that they were members of Microsoft's board of directors. There were only eight.
It seems that Bill Gates has a strong control over power. If there is an even number of directors, then the voting will be decided by shares. In this way, Feng Yu's 2% voting shares have no say.
In fact, historically, eight years passed before the number of Microsoft directors increased to ten when Bill Gates retired. The number of directors at Microsoft had only increased to eleven, and at that time, Bill Gates was just an ordinary director, and even his shareholding ratio was no longer the first.
Feng Yu took a look and found that the person he should win over was Steve Ballmer, because Steve Ballmer was trusted by Bill Gates and would become the president and CEO of Microsoft in a few years. Especially his relationship with Paul Allen is still very bad.
If you can fool Steve Ballmer into making mistakes in some decisions in the future. For example, if Microsoft is not involved in hardware, Lianxiang's chances of rising will be greatly increased!
…
A few days later, Microsoft's regular board meeting was held, and the directors looked at Feng Yu in surprise as he entered the conference room. Who is this young man? Looking at the face, he looks like an Oriental. How did he get in
Paul Allen glanced at Feng Yu and snorted coldly. Steve Ballmer looked at Feng Yu with interest. Is this the new director Bill was talking about
The other directors didn't know about this at all, they didn't know about it at all. Starting today, the board of directors will have one more member, and he is such a young member.
But when they saw that the chairman did not scold him and nodded to the young man, it meant that this person knew the chairman. From the look of Paul Allen, it seemed that he also knew this young man.
As for who this person is and what he does, they are all confused.
"Today's board of directors has something to announce. Feng from the East is the mysterious rich man who has been acquiring our circulating shares."
The directors all looked surprised. Feng Yu nodded slightly to everyone, but did not stand up at all. Naturally, the others didn't care either. After all, Feng Yu's net worth was higher than theirs.
But Paul Allen was very unhappy. He felt that Feng Yu was not polite enough, but he never thought that he usually didn't look directly at other directors.
"I exchanged some stocks with Paul and Feng each, about 1%, which means that Feng has 2% of the voting shares, so I nominated Feng to the board of directors."
Bill Gates is the major shareholder and has the right to nominate Feng Yu to the board of directors.
Many people have the misunderstanding that board members must be shareholders, but this is not the case.
The board of directors is elected by the shareholders' meeting. Of course, most shareholders will nominate themselves, but there are also many non-shareholder directors, but they are rare in China.
Generally, those who can join the board of directors will receive equity incentives and eventually become shareholders, even if they are only small shareholders.
Therefore, if Bill Gates does not nominate, Feng Yu can also nominate himself. But if Bill Gates does not agree, then Feng Yu will definitely not be elected. Bill Gates still has extremely strong control over Microsoft at this time.
In fact, Bill Gates plus Paul Allen or Steve Ballmer can decide whether Feng Yu will join the board of directors, so what he is actually not suggesting today is just informing everyone that it will not work if others do not agree!
The board of directors is the highest management body elected by shareholders. If it can be elected, it can naturally be removed. It's not like Microsoft's directors have never been replaced. Well, everyone who opposed Bill Gates's decisions has been replaced.
Bill Gates is the largest shareholder, chairman, president and CEO of Microsoft Corporation. In many small companies, the president and CEO are the same person, or simply there is only one. However, in many large companies, due to administrative management It's more complicated, so the chairman will appoint two people to share management and check and balance each other.
Steve Ballmer is the vice president, and he actually does the job of the president.
After hearing what Bill Gates said, the other directors naturally applauded. Only Paul Allen seemed to have not heard the words at all and was still sipping his coffee.
Everyone looked at Feng Yu, is this person going to join the board of directors? Judging from this, Bill Gates is very supportive, but Paul Allen is not. Are these two going to have conflicts again
"Okay, welcome to this place. Now I propose that Feng be appointed as the vice president of Microsoft's Asia-Pacific region, mainly responsible for China's business."
Everyone understood at this time, no wonder he is an Oriental, it seems that he is from China. Is the company planning to enter the Chinese market in a big way
Steve Ballmer asked at this time: "What business are you responsible for in China?"
Before Bill Gates could speak, Feng Yuyou said with a smile: "Everything.
I have the final say on all business in China. I don't get involved in any other decisions of the company. "
Steve Ballmer frowned. Isn't it a little too hasty to hand over such an important market in China to such a young man? Although Feng is the major shareholder, he is not necessarily a good decision-maker.
Why did Bill agree? Could it be that this Chinese person has a high status in China
Bill Gates also added: "You can rest assured that Feng can help Microsoft completely occupy the Chinese market. Do you have any other suggestions today? If not, today's board meeting will be over."
This board meeting was simply held for Feng Yu.
Steve Ballmer found that Feng Yu smiled at him several times, which made him a little baffled... (To be continued.)
PS: The first update. Thanks to book friends such as Abraham Lincoln, The Stolen Account, The Injury of Burying Flowers, and The Flirting Heart for their monthly passes. There are so few monthly passes today, and there will be more to come.