Ralph Nader wants Microsoft to pay dividends to investors, saying the software giant’s $36 billion cash pile amounts to an illegal tax shelter for wealthy shareholders such as Chairman Bill Gates.
“It is significant that a small number of persons who run the company hold a substantial share of the stock in the company, a fact that is very unusual for such a large publicly traded corporation,” the letter said.
“This also raises questions about whether or not these persons, including yourself, are accumulating these staggering sums of cash to advance other agendas, rather than to advance the interest of shareholders,” it said.