Satya Nadella, the CEO of Microsoft, recently dumped off half of his stake in the company which was worth almost $300 million. As revealed by an SEC filing, Nadella sold 840,000 shares for the price of over $285 million.
A Microsoft spokesman said in a written statement to the Wall Street Journal, “Satya sold approximately 840,000 shares of his holdings of Microsoft stock for personal financial planning and diversification reasons. He is committed to the continued success of the company and his holdings significantly exceed the holding requirements set by the Microsoft Board of Directors.”
The shares were sold in a price range from $334.37 to $349.22, bringing his total share count to 831K shares.
It was done in advance as Washington State is going to implement a controversial new capital gains tax. The new law passed in April, primarily targets stock and business ownership sales with a 7% tax on long-term capital gains of more than $250,000.
It is the first such tax in state history, will come in effect from Jan 1, 2022.
As per the Wall Street Journal, this new Washington State’s new capital gain tax will raise nearly $550 million annually in fiscal year 2023 contributing majority of its funds towards early education and child care.
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According to the article by The Hill, Nadella was first named CEO in February of 2014 after holding leadership roles in both consumer and enterprise businesses across the company. Ever since taking over the company's helm, the Journal reported that the company traded at a massive $2.53 trillion market capitalization which is up about 780% ever since his appointment as CEO of Microsoft.