Why not just check the 1997 Def14A which gives his holdings and percentage. I could have made a mistake, but the 22.3 per cent is what I have in my notes and appears in the report.
AMOUNT AND NATURE
OF BENEFICIAL OWNERSHIP PERCENT
OF COMMON SHARES AS OF OF
NAMES 9/12/97(1) CLASS
----- ----------------------- -------
William H. Gates............................... 270,797,000(2)(3) 22.3%
Paul G. Allen.................................. 92,298,325(4) 7.6
Jill E. Barad.................................. 12,000(5) *
Richard A. Hackborn............................ 30,000(6) *
David F. Marquardt............................. 598,514(7) *
Robert D. O'Brien.............................. 259,284(8) *
William G. Reed, Jr............................ 458,954(7) *
Jon A. Shirley................................. 3,121,914(9) *
Steven A. Ballmer.............................. 59,906,647 4.9
Robert J. Herbold.............................. 126,301(10) *
Paul A. Maritz................................. 917,931(11) *
Bernard R. Vergnes............................. 857,500 *
Executive Officers and Directors as a group
(21) persons)................................. 436,013,437(12) 35.8
--------
* Less than 1%
(1) Beneficial ownership represents sole voting and investment power. To the
Company's knowledge, the only shareholders who beneficially owned more
than 5% of the outstanding common shares as of September 12, 1997, were
Messrs. Gates and Allen.
(2) The business address for Mr. Gates is: Microsoft Corporation, One
Microsoft Way, Redmond, Washington 98052.
(3) Does not include 54,424 shares owned by Mr. Gates' wife, as to which he
disclaims beneficial ownership.
Oh, by the way, Gates has been remarkable among the cybernaires in refusing to grant himself options, at least in recent year. I wish you luck in finding out how he got as high as 22.3 per cent in 1997. There was a period when IBM owned 10 per cent (or so) of Microsoft (and also of Intel). They sold when they needed cash, but I am not exactly sure when. |
