Bill Gates Sells 2 Million Microsoft Shares

Hugh Collins
Updated
Bill Gates
Bill Gates

Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft Corp. (MSFT), sold 2 million shares in the company.

Gates sold the shares in the open market on Nov. 2 at an average price of $27.23, according to an SEC filing. The transaction left Gates with 618,973,551 shares in Microsoft.

Gates co-founded technology giant Microsoft and was at one time the world's richest person. In recent years, he has devoted himself more to philanthropy and has vowed to leave a large chunk of his wealth to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. In 2009, he urged the world's ultra-rich to give their wealth to good causes rather than leave it to a few family members.

"I think all billionaires should give away the vast majority of their fortune," Gates said in June 2009, according to Agence-France Presse.

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