Steve Ballmer owns more Microsoft shares than Bill Gates

Former Microsoft chief Bill Gates, is on track to have no direct ownership in the company he co-founded by mid-2018 if he continued with his recent share sales.

Gates, who founded the company that went on to revolutionise personal computing, with school-friend Paul Allen in 1975, had sold 20 million shares each quarter over the last 12 years under a pre-set trading plan.

Assuming that the pattern would remain unchanged, Gates would not have any direct ownership of Microsoft shares at all four years from now.

With his latest sales this week, Gates' stake had fallen behind the current largest individual shareholder, former CEO, Steve Ballmer, who retired in February, but had held on to his stock.

Gates too relinquished his position as chairman of the board in February.

According to documents filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission yesterday, Gates now held 330 million Microsoft shares after the sales this week. Ballmer owned a little over 333 million, Thomson Reuters data revealed.

With the development both men now held approximately 4 per cent each of the total outstanding shares, making them by far the biggest individual Microsoft shareholders. Thomson Reuters data further revealed fund firms The Vanguard Group, State Street Global Advisors and BlackRock held slightly bigger stakes.

Gates has dedicated his resources to fighting disease around the world and supporting education through Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, a charity he founded with his wife.

Gates, Ballmer and Allen all amassed huge fortunes making Microsoft into a software giant. Gates became the wealthiest man in the world with a fortune of $77 billion, while Ballmer with $20 billion, came in as the 34th richest in the world, according to Forbes. Allen, one of Gates' childhood buddies, is the 55th richest in the world with a fortune of $16 billion.

Gates involvement with the company lasted until June 2008, when he stepped back to focus on giving away the fortune he had earned from Microsoft's success.

Gates had been the richest man in the world for 15 of the last 20 years, despite having given away at least $28 billion. Gates' 4-per cent stake of Microsoft is now worth $13.3 billion.