$ cat ./records/eu-fines-microsoft-732-million-for-violating-browser-ballot-conse-2013.txt
EU fines Microsoft $732 million for violating browser ballot consent decree
[RECORD.TXT] · cat --full
The European Commission fined Microsoft $732 million for failing to display the browser ballot screen — a legally required prompt giving European Windows users a choice of web browsers — in Windows 7 Service Pack 1. Microsoft had committed to showing the ballot for five years as part of a 2009 consent decree. The failure affected users from February 2011 to July 2012. EU antitrust chief Joaquin Almunia called it the first time the Commission had fined a company for breaching a legally binding commitment. Microsoft did not contest the fine.
Source: https://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-13-196_en.htm
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Related Accomplishments
2026
Gates Foundation Trust Sells Off the Last of Its Microsoft Stock
In the first quarter of 2026, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust sold its remaining Microsoft shares, fully exiting a position in the very company that created Gates's fortune — capping a long, deliberate diversification away from the stock. The endowment that funds Gates's philanthropy, managed separately from its grant-making through Cascade, is now anchored instead by Berkshire Hathaway, Waste Management, railroads, and heavy-equipment makers. The sale underscored how thoroughly Gates's giving had decoupled from Microsoft's day-to-day fortunes.
2026
Gates's Charitable Endowment Is Now Led by Berkshire, Not Microsoft
By 2026, the publicly disclosed stock portfolio of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust — the endowment that funds Gates's philanthropy — was led not by Microsoft but by Berkshire Hathaway, Waste Management, Canadian National Railway, Caterpillar, and Deere. Decades of diversification, plus Warren Buffett's stock gifts, left it concentrated in railroads, waste, heavy equipment, and Buffett's conglomerate, while Microsoft — the source of the original fortune — had largely been sold down. The unglamorous, value-oriented mix reflects the long stewardship of Gates's money manager, Michael Larson, through Cascade Investment.
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