Microsoft Corp. Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates, has been quietly adding cable networks to his personal
portfolio of investments.
An amended 10Q filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission by Cox
Communications Inc. officials recently shows Gates
bought 5.4 million shares last October through his non-profit organization,
the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
That gives Gates, through the foundation and a previous stock bid through
his private investment group, Cascade Investment LLC, 13.5 million shares
in the country’s fifth-largest cable network.
Laura Oberhelman, a Cox spokesperson, said the amended filing and the fact
it was reported by many of the news wire agencies, is much ado about nothing.
“Gates’ total investment in the company is only around 2 percent,” she
said. “He is a person who believes broadband is the future of the
Internet. This (investment) is nothing more than that.”
With 600 million shares available, Cox is in no danger of becoming a Gates
mouthpiece. Cascade’s investment is 8.11 million shares (for $299.4
million), Oberhelman said, while the foundation bought up only 5.4 million
shares (for $199.6 million). A foundation can own up to 20 percent of an
organization before it runs afoul of tax laws.
Cox officials say the Gates investments aren’t related to their failed bid
to acquire AT&T Broadband last year, in which rival Comcast
Corp. eventually
prevailed.
In light of other cable network investments, Gates stake in Cox is
minute. In early 1995, he invested $1 billion in Comcast and his company
invested $5 billion in AT&T Broadband last year in its own attempt to
keep AT&T separate from the other cable companies and have a significant
voice in Ma Bell’s cable enterprise.
