Members of Microsoft Corp's board have held talks with ValueAct Capital Management LP in recent days over the activist shareholder's demands to secure a seat on the company's board, two sources close to the matter said on Friday. ValueAct, which wants a say in the way the world's largest software company is adapting to the new world of mobile computing, is seeking to nominate a person from its own organization, the sources said. The news comes as Microsoft had its biggest sell-off in four years, wiping $34 billion off its market value, after quarterly results were hit by weak demand for its latest Windows system and poor sales of its Surface tablet.
San Francisco-based ValueAct, which manages more than $10 billion for clients, owned 33 million Microsoft shares as of March, which is 0.4 percent of total shares outstanding, but it is believed to be buying more. The fund, co-founded by finance industry veteran Jeff Ubben in 2000, has made a reputation for building stakes in companies and working with management in private to change fundamental strategy. ValueAct's other major holdings include Adobe Systems Inc, Motorola Solutions Inc and Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. In recent months a number of Microsoft's top institutional investors have contacted ValueAct, expressing concern over management execution and strategy, the sources said.
High among the issues in the talks, which the sources described as ongoing, is the apparent lack of succession planning at the top of the company. Steve Ballmer has held the chief executive job since 2000
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