Yesterday, Michael Saylor relinquished his title as CEO of MicroStrategy. This is very unexpected for many, but the reason is understandable. Saylor will not be leaving the company but will be focusing more on bitcoin.
New position
In a new statement, Microstrategy states that Saylor will take up a new position in four days’ time (as of 8 August). He will then become the new executive chairman instead of the CEO. His duties will then lend themselves perfectly to a focus on bitcoin, as he will have to concentrate on innovation and long-term business strategy.
This does not mean that Michael Saylor is quitting all other roles at once. He will still fulfill his role as chairman of the board of directors and remain head of the investment committee also. When you then consider that he also has to deal with the company’s investment strategy — and so often has to give interviews — it is clear that he will not be bored as a ‘non-CEO.’
How many bitcoins?
During Saylor’s time at MicroStrategy, the company bought a lot of bitcoins. At the moment, the company owns almost 130,000 BTC, which are worth almost $3 billion.
MicroStrategy bought these bitcoins at an average price of USD 30,664, which means that they made a loss. The current bitcoin price is about 23,000, so the loss per bitcoin is about 7,600 dollars. The total loss amounts to a mega sum of almost $1 billion.
Acquiring and holding on
Despite these large losses, Michael Saylor continues to make decisions about bitcoins at Microstrategy. He still remains a big supporter of bitcoin and will therefore not be selling these digital coins any time soon. This is what he says about his new position:
“I believe that splitting the roles of chairman and CEO will allow us to better pursue our two business strategies of acquiring and holding bitcoin and growing our enterprise analytics software business. As executive chairman, I will be able to focus more on our bitcoin acquisition strategy and related bitcoin advocacy initiatives.”
