20 March 2024
Michael Saylor faced obstacles before he successfully added Bitcoin to MicroStrategy’s balance sheet in 2020.
Speaking at the 2024 Abundance360 Summit this week, Saylor revealed how he offered to buy out MicroStrategy shareholders in a Dutch action when they moved to first acquire $250 million worth of Bitcoin.
The comments come after Saylor and his company announced earlier this week that they had purchased approximately 9,245 bitcoins for around $623 million. This latest acquisition brings MicroStrategy’s total holdings to about 214,246 BTC.
In a video clip from the conference, Saylor explained how he offered MicroStrategy shareholders the option to tender their shares back to the company as they were buying Bitcoin.
“We announced that we would do a Dutch auction and buy back $250 million of the stock at a premium. The stock was about $121-$122. We offered to buy our shareholders out at $140. We gave 20 days to think about it.” Saylor explained.
He said his philosophy was to “buy Bitcoin” and that he was willing to do whatever it took to accumulate more. At the time, the Bitcoin was price was roughly $11,000, down from all-time highs at $20,000 set in 2017.
Saylor’s aggressiveness in acquiring Bitcoin for MicroStrategy has made the enterprise software company one of the largest corporate holders of Bitcoin. The company currently holds over $13.7 billion worth of BTC, making Bitcoin its primary corporate treasury asset.
MicroStrategy has since financed its bitcoin purchases through debt offerings and equity issuances, even as the bitcoin market has declined, and has made clear he has no plans to sell his stash anytime soon.