Microsoft is projected to distribute annual dividends of approximately $1 billion to former CEO Steve Ballmer.
At present, Ballmer, the sixth wealthiest individual globally, holds the position of the most significant individual shareholder in Microsoft. As of his most recent ownership disclosure in 2014, Ballmer possessed an estimated 4% stake in Microsoft, or 333.2 million shares of the company.
His stake is currently valued at $128 billion, per Bloomberg’s Billionaire Index, having increased in value by $42 billion this year due to Microsoft’s stock price increasing by 55%.
After embarking on a 34-year professional journey at Microsoft, Ballmer accumulated his stake during his tenure as employee number 30 since 1980. In the midst of the dot-com crisis, in 2000, he was appointed CEO of Microsoft. Subsequently, in 2014, current CEO Satya Nadella assumed the helm.
Microsoft paid $2.79 per share in dividends in 2023, which corresponds to an estimated $930 million annual dividend payment to Ballmer in consideration of his stake in the organization.
This dividend is projected to increase in 2024, as Microsoft recently increased its annual dividend by 10% to $3 per share. This would equate to Ballmer receiving an annual dividend payment of $999.6 million in 2024; furthermore, if Microsoft maintains its current pattern of increasing dividend payments annually, the amount could potentially increase.
Given Microsoft’s history of dividend payment increases spanning 18 consecutive years, it is probable that Ballmer’s annual dividend payout will surpass $1 billion in 2024 and sustain its upward trajectory in the subsequent years.
Larry Ellison and Ballmer’s former boss, Bill Gates, are separated by only a few billion dollars, placing Ballmer within spitting distance of becoming the fourth wealthiest person in the world on account of his enormous stake in Microsoft.
Since resigning from Microsoft, Gates has substantially diversified his wealth away from the company and toward cash and other publicly traded stocks. In fact, Gates owned approximately 4% of Microsoft in 2014, representing a 330 million share stake in the company. Nonetheless, through a series of divestitures throughout the years, Gates has acquired just over 1% of the software behemoth.
