Bitcoin Forum

Michael Saylor has stepped down as the CEO of MicroStrategy as it lost almost $1 billion worth of bitcoin holdings.


https://www.theverge.com/2022/8/2/23289397/michael-saylor-bitcoin-microstrategy-ceo-steps-down

Although he will remain as Executive Chairman and Phong Le taking the role of CEO from him.

And as Executive Chairman, he will focused himself to what he do best, "Bitcoin acquisition and strategy".

What are your thoughts on this moved?

After reading the article, if I look at him, it looks like what happened to Michael Sylor from being the CEO, he will be the Executive Chairman. But from another angle, this is a strategy for them to raise more funds in the future and this will happen by investing millions in cryptocurrency a few years from now. Also, it seems that Michael Saylor can do a better and perfect strategy when he is in the position of being the Executive Chairman of their company, as well as the new CEO according to my analysis on this matter, and apart from this I have no other visible reason.

But on the other hand it has a good impact on those of us who believe in cryptocurrency, it increases the reputation of this industry, which is one of the biggest companies in the world investing millions of dollars because of the great belief in this matter in Bitcoin or cryptocurrency.
I can still say that this is a good decision that Michael Saylor made in the move of putting a large amount of money into this Bitcoin industry.

I think investors have probably brought up some concerns about their Bitcoin position and strategy given the recent losses in this bear market.  This move probably assures them that there is a man at the helm that is focusing on the core business and not just tweeting about Bitcoin and giving interviews every day.  It also frees up Saylor to spend more of his time tweeting about Bitcoin and giving interviews every day.  :)  It might be a bit of an embarrassment for Saylor, but he's managed to keep MSTR from selling their BTC so he's got to still be happy.

He is still at the helm of his company, maybe he will just focus more on investing on bitcoin. And I doubt that he is stepping down as CEO because he is losing billions, for sure we all know that we are in the bear market and so everyone's investment is on the negative.

And when we are in the next bull run, for sure all the risk that he had to take, to become the face of bitcoin will pay-off as his investments will grow larger.

Could do something different
Maybe bad news soon

I'm not familiar with their organizational chart but is he also the company's fist ever Executive Chairman? I get the feeling that the title was just created to save his face. Whatever the case, I share @OgNasty's view on this. They have become more identified as a company that buys and holds bitcoins than a leading software company. I guess we should expect MS to slow down on btc acquisition after this.

What he does best? I reckon that should hire the best traders to manage Microstrategy's investment portfolio in bitcoin because Michael Saylor does not have a good recorded performance in investing.

I speculate this article might be a signal that the worst for the market is finished already, however, everyone should remain very cautious.

https://i.ibb.co/k2FJGJ4/5-C81622-F-2849-46-CF-A1-DE-B0-A1-E08-D5998.png

MicroStrategy founder Michael Saylor once lost $6 billion in a day. His big bet on Bitcoin might sink him once and for all

Source https://fortune.com/2022/08/03/michael-saylor-microstrategy-stock-bitcoin-bet-debt-outlook/

The thing about him stepping down after making a billion dollar loss sounds like a move more strategic for investors (maybe Saylor picked such an ambiguous position for himself to try to stay away from being linked to any new strategy the company comes up with under it's new figurehead). You're no longer investing in a company with a ceo that's made a 1bn loss, you're investing in one that can change leadership and may be run better as a result.

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This news initially sounded bearish to me and I still can't decide if it is or not. I'd guess they could be taking a step back to maybe take a more intensive look at btc and see how the company could've better adapted to relieving its debts.

This wasn't a voluntary step down, it was a nicely worded smackdown no matter how the company want to spin this.  Pretty sure if he didn't comply, it would have gotten really ugly for him.  Too many internal stakeholder and overall shareholder concerns for him to remain as CEO.

Saylor stepping down as Executive Chairman of MicroStrategy lets him focus on acquisition of more bitcoin as the adoption of bitcoin around the globe is into high acceleration. Before making bitcoin treasury strategy the stocks of MicroStrategy were around $100 - $150 for years. This touched a high of $1034 during the February month 2021. The growth is being experienced through bitcoin and surely whatever decision taken relative to bitcoin is gonna bring them growth.

What we see with the stepping down as CEO too is the same. There's loss out of bitcoin, but in the long term it'll surely give the best results. Stepping down is a plan and not out of pressure in my view.

Fortune, one year ago:
People who bought Bitcoin in 2016 have made a large return on it

Fortune, now:

His big bet on Bitcoin might sink him once and for all

Fortune, two years from now:

If you bought $30,000 of bitcoin 5 years ago, you would be a millionaire now

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Look, the magazines don't actually care about anything except for outdoing their rival publications, that's why they make these kind of headlines that make them sound ridiculous.

Do you have any sources to back up that nonsense you say? Saylor has the majority of the voting power in MSTR so what you say makes no sense, he could do whatever he wanted.


Lol, that's what I was thinking. He has a new job within the company to focus on buying Bitcoin? It will surely be what you say. Now he can devote full time to show business, without wasting time on bullshit like managing a business.

1. he didnt lose his job. no one asked him to vacate his office and leave the building within the hour
2. he repositioned himself so he can concentrate on bitcoin(his preferential role/professional hobby) and let another guy delegate the daily tasks of the software stuff(something he is not interesting in pursuing daily himself)
3. they will still acquire crypto, and have no plan for mass sell off
4. they have not made an actual physical loss because they have not actually sold at a loss to be a loss
5. the valuation change compared to last year is just 'paper' stats. which are never in a constant upward directions for any company that has a high collateral of assets to measure. they do have ups and downs even if they have not sold at a loss to actually lose.
6. having 'paper' loses are actually a strategic advantage if utilised well, and some companies actually love having periods of negatives 'on paper' as they can then have a bumper year the next year. its NEVER a case of every year is an exponential rise compared to previous year


seems to be alot of FUD to create negative press. maybe done so to push microstrategy share price down while its down so that people can buy more while already down(cheap) to then benefit more from the uplift after the news FUD cycles shifts

that said the effect microstrategy has on actual bitcoin in the markets of everyone wont get hit bad and thus not a big deal con concern selves over

I wouldn't really say this is a voluntary step down because he basically, owns this company.

But because he is demoted, it does mean he loses votes? Somehow there is the need for inside news for this to be cleared out, the politics inside a company is just hard to govern. If one has great influence among others, he'll get more votes. Phong Le must have swayed people knowing Saylor is like a spokesman of the company as well.

I have no issue with Saylor and believe his moves with MSTR will pay off in the next few years quite nicely, but before you say nonsense, I also look at the business aspects of things.  Sure he could do whatever he wanted, but he is no fool and wouldn't want to spook investors or tank the company.  Many investors, including 'activist' investors, don't have a solid foundational understanding of BTC and have a myopic viewpoint- q2q and as much as it sucks, there is going to be some appeasement for them, esp when you lose over 1B in a q.  He could always take his company private and do what he wants but with current market conditions and climate, going from public to private may not be the move to make right now.

Or on the other hand, it could be that he did voluntarily step down, as you said he basically owns the company but at a time even a Micheal Saylor might want to take that move just to calm the internal temperature of the majority if he believes that the investors have a genuine concern.

It's quite strange that Microstrategy is looking at bitcoin with a short term outlook! Bitcoin is a long term game. I wonder what this company will do once we are back into bull cycle and the price will break the previous ATH. Will they re-instate Saylor as a CEO? As an executive Chairman, Saylor will not have much power to take direct decisions. That's why Microstrategy is offering this post to him. CEO is the one, who will take decisions and Executive Chairman will just have to sign it. That's all the power he will have. So I doubt Microstrategy will ever invest in bitcoin again.

In a way, it's good for bitcoin because a single entity will not accumulate more and take it toward centralization. But it's hilarious to see a company taking such decisions based on a short term outcome. Not good and it lacks vision, clearly!

That they should totally split the company in half:
Microbankrupcy, to take care of their actual business which was already falling pretty hard prior to this.
Lasereyes, to focus on bitcoin purchases and tweeting 24/7.


Biggest in the world? Just lol.
Microstrategy's total market cap is 3.5 billion, Apple's is $2596 billion, it's not even in the first 1000 companies in the world, and not by a long margin.


He doesn't own the company, he has 72% of the voting power through class shares but has only 23.7% of the total shares of the company.

Anyhow, shares are up
313.68+35.42 (+12.73%)
so seems other investors are pleased with the kick in the butt!
 

As long as they are not selling like Musk, they are not really on a loss.
Nobody can identify precisely the bottoms and the tops so, hodling is the best strategy, and Saylor knows it.
Just wait until the next bull run. Then he will be the smartest guy in the room again..
I bought my bitcoins back when the price was 4.5K and I didn't sell them when it hit that 3K in 2019 even tho I was at a loss, of course those were my money, not investor's money, but if you trust the judgment of a guy on a highly volatile asset like bitcoin with your money you should expect this kind of scenarios to happen.

Emotions are really difficult to control.

I don’t know what other guys thinking above and being positive on this news by providing speculation for bigger picture but a CEO will stepped down if he is not performing properly for his job description. He might be voted out by share holders because of the reported losses and not because Saylor want a different role. This is a company with share holders. It’s obvious that the CEO will be kicked out if there company loss tons of money due to CEO decision.

It’s very hard to find an investors in time like this while your company record a billion loss for just a small amount of time after making such decision on investing to crypto. The new CEO might do damage control in the future.

Not that much, whether there's politics related to his company or there's sort of negativity that the media is bringing about his transition and stepping down. What would matter now is the investors that are still believing in his company while we, we're just speculators and followers every time they're going to purchase. I guess they'll still continue the purchase every time they have a budget in doing so and that's what we like to see from them as they take the news all the time they do it.

The fact is the company's money is volatile and you will be faced with a bear market or a loss, so liquidity is accompanied by quite a swell of interest. But when bullish response, everything becomes more fantastic. Saylor may be stepping down from the CEO role, but that doesn't mean she's changed her mind. It will stay the same and only change the strategy a bit for the better. Big Saylor Finance and the companies that have educated investing in the Bitcoin realm have taken an unmissable part.

Or does he want out but knows that since he is the face of the company he has to slowly leave.
According to reports the man still has billions in fiat and a ton of BTC. Did he hit that 'enough' place in his mind and wants to do his own thing.

Although rare it does happen. And, as others have mentioned it could just be time for someone else at the helm.

In the end, both Saylor and Microstrategy will be just fine.

-Dave

It will have a huge impact if he steps down, sell all your bitcoin holdings, and Saylor disappear from his company, and we can conclude that there are power play and maybe his executives and board of directors are against him and his company purchasing bitcoin.

But if he still is around as still the main executive of the company, then there's nothing wrong in there. He still controls it and probably as what his job description is, focus more on bitcoin acquisition.

A sad day for the bitcoin community. I wonder what made him do this. I mean he very well knows that bitcoin is going to make a new ATH in the future, so why step down now? $1b loss is a pocket change for a hedge fund as big as his. And did he close his position? Because if he didn't then he didn't lose anything. 1 btc = 1 btc. A hardcore bitcoin veteran like him should know this.

I can't make sense out of this. Was he... paper hands? Was he full of shit? Maybe he didn't believe in our cause at all. That would be the saddest shit I ve ever heard.

Nothing dramatic happened as some try to show, and especially nothing bad happened when it comes to Bitcoin. I don't understand why some are commenting that it's a sad day for Bitcoin or anything like that, because Saylor hasn't changed his opinion about it and still remains in his company in a very prominent position.

A title does not make a man, and some people obviously overestimate what is hidden behind the abbreviation CEO.

he doesnt want out.
its the same as elon musk

elon owns 'boring', solar, tesla, spaceX, and half a dozen other projects..  yet he decides to position himself with whatever professional hobby peaks his interest the most at that moment and puts someone else into the ceo delegation spot to run the other parts.

EG
CEO of elons neuralink is not elon.. its a guy named jared Birchall
CEO of elons starlink is not elon.. its a guy named Dale charles
CEO of elons solarcity is not elon.. its a guy named Lyndon Rive

well, people want to speculate on things even if there is nothing extraordinary with the movement. doubt if Saylor changes his perspectives towards bitcoin or crypto, but he is not. he maybe want to explore other initiatives that he believes he can do great. people should stop thinking negative things when news like this hits the stand.

Yeah, they really planned this very clearly, their company is a huge company, and a lot of people are relying on them even without the involvement of their stocks or Bitcoins.
franky1 is right, his example with Elon is almost the same with Michael Saylor.
Michael Saylor is still in the company, it's just in a different position, their Bitcoins are still there, as Saylor said, he can have more focus on Bitcoin things from their company.

He announced his resignation as chief executive officer but remained at the company as executive chairman of the board. He's not giving up on bitcoin, leaving as CEO will give Saylor more time to focus on bitcoin. he has not given up bitcoin yet and the company still holds and has not sold any bitcoins. What are you confusing here?

This is another one hehehe. I am shaking my head on how clear that this is only another attack by mainstream media or paid for articles to attack Saylor directly and also attack bitcoin indirectly. I speculate that politicians who hate bitcoin can also begin attacking Saylor as a tactic to also attack bitcoin. They can find something bad about Saylor then use coercion and political pressure to make him sell his bitcoins.



Michael Saylor Bet Billions on Bitcoin and Lost

Source https://www.wsj.com/articles/michael-saylor-bet-billions-on-bitcoin-and-lost-11659538890

Well, I did say some time ago it was bound to happen. You get a vocal guy representing his company less and less as a tech developer (actually I don't even really know what they do) and more and more as a magic internet money holder. Board was never going to sit still, squirming with every Tweet asking companies to stop buying their own stock and buy more BTC instead.

Personal/business lines do get blurred a lot and this was only appropriate.

As long as he is still part of the team, he will still focus on the part where he will re-evaluate his plan for accumulating more BTC. I think the hype is dying down, and it's just the calm before the storm. It will have more time to recover for sure when time goes by. I don't think it's such a big deal that he will step down as CEO. It will still be heavy on his shoulders if it's not going to work. I hope the team there would still be hopeful with the strategy that they are going for. 

Well the Wall Street Journal leans rather conservative in that it tends to favor old money over new money.  But they like a sensational story, whether good or bad, even more.
 They throw shots at Saylor when he is down and will probably big up him and be on the bandwagon in a few years from now if his hands are proven to be diamond.

Agreed. There is nothing wrong in giving investment tips the cryptospace, however, when a CEO of a Fortune 500 company begins becoming the leading circle jerker of a cult and also tells them to refinance their homes to buy bitcoin, this is where it becomes really head shaking. I am not certain why maximalists are very much removed from reality and consider him a genius. Call him a genius after he makes $1 billion in his bitcoin investment not during a loss of $1 billion.

Here is some update,

https://twitter.com/saylor/status/1554849442884456449

Saylor himself clarifies that his decision to step down as the CEO has nothing to do with the company's bitcoin losses.

And Phong Le has been the President for the past 2 years and so obviously anytime he will be the next CEO.


So it's more of him really wanting to be the face for BTC.

@Dave1. If it really was because of Microstrategy's losses in their bitcoin investment, Michael Saylor would never admit that it might be the cause of his step down from being CEO. I reckon Microstrategy itself as a company would also never want the public to know. It would make them look very stupid.

Wait, what?  MSTR isn't a hedge fund, it's....some kind of software company if I'm not mistaken, one that happened to have a bitcoin zealot as CEO.  I kept writing in the other thread about MSTR that he could very well be booted by the board of directors, and I think that's likely what happened.  Be skeptical about what press releases say, because companies can and do make up all sorts of bullshit when something important like a CEO being removed happens.

Exactly.  I'm not sure what kind of communication MSTR has with their shareholders, but I bet the big ones--mutual funds, hedge funds, and the like--probably made some noise about all of Saylor's bitcoin purchases.  After all, buying a notoriously volatile asset to hold in place of cash probably wasn't in MSTR's mission statement. 

Wow.  I shouldn't be surprised, but I am (and I didn't even see this thread until just now).

Microstrategy is a software analytics company. Plus if it was truly a hedge fund, a $1,000,000,000 is NEVER just "a pocket change" for ANY hedge fund.

Michael Saylor will be called many stupid names during the current bear market, just like many of the earliest Bitcoin investors of 2012 were called "crazy" by legacy market investors. BUT, 2025 - 2026 bull market, Chad Saylor will be called the Legendary Genius Investor of the decade.

People with a slightly different vision from others are often ridiculed and part of the public considers them somewhat irrational, but they certainly understand the game of investing much better than the average investor. When Tim Draper said live on Fox News in 2014 that 1 BTC would be worth at least $10 000 in the next three years, everyone laughed at him afterwards, so it turned out that he was right.

Saylor will no doubt end up being called a genius in a few years, unlike some others who freak out every time the price of Bitcoin goes into the red.

The comparisons of Chad Saylor's Bitcoin investment will be with the investments of world's greatest investors, like Peter Lynch, and the man who called Bitcoin rat poison squared, Warren Buffett himself. OR, be in the same class of the investments of the world's greatest, legendary entreprenuers/business giants like John D. Rockefeller and Andre Carnegie. Let's laugh now, but wait for 2025 - 2026. 8)

Bitcoin, there is no second best.

Thank you for this. I did not know they were a software company, I thought they were a hedge fund as well. I mean I never checked them out personally, I just heard about the bitcoin purchases and nothing more, so I assumed they were just an investment related company. Turns out they are just a software company who liked to buy as many bitcoins as possible.

I like a bitcoin zealot, they help me more than they hurt me as far as I can see, they increase the price or at least try to. I definitely agree on the skeptical part though, he is no longer the CEO but he is still the executive chairman, meaning he could remove the CEO and appoint himself anytime he wants if I am not wrong.

Guess he knew this was coming: https://twitter.com/AGKarlRacine/status/1565031380471382019


Going to be interesting to see how this all plays out. Settle it? Fight it out in court? Something else?

I have no idea on how legit it really is and what may or may not be true, but I can see it creating a shitstorm for Microstrategy in general. Having him out as CEO can show they were beginning to clean house.

-Dave

What's interesting is that you wake up and finding out that you have been sued thru Twitter.  ;D

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For those who are interested on the official documents here are the links:

https://oag.dc.gov/sites/default/files/2022-08/2022-08-22%20Complaint%20in%20Intervention_0.pdf

https://talkimg.com/images/2023/11/18/FzbPb.png

As per the documents, Saylor and his company Microstrategy has created an elaborate scheme to defraud DC of taxes amounting to $25 - 100 million. The scheme created an illusion that Saylor lives in Florida a a state without personal income tax.

And it is also take noting that Saylor that this is not the first time that he has been used for defrauding DC, there were whistleblowers who come forward and represented by Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft, filed a lawsuit against Saylor.

https://oag.dc.gov/sites/default/files/2022-08/Tributum%20v.%20Saylor%20-%20DC%20FCA%20Complaint_0.pdf

And after reviewing it, the OAG decided to file it's own case against Michael Saylor and his company Microstrategy which is the co-defendant here.

They absolutely knew this was coming- Saylor, et al.  Removing him from his post was a preemptive strike that they hope will buy the company some goodwill down the line- this situation and also for the appearance of creating distance.

It is beginning to look that way. I’m sure when investigators started sniffing around and disturbing business operations they decided to remove Saylor as a distraction. It seems like we’ve seen a lot less of him since then so maybe he’s laying low or celebrating his freedom.

Possible but it's kinda late as the case have been filed. So yes, 2 options settled out of court or fight it out. But this guy have billions, for sure he could pay those back taxes to DC and still conduct his businesses on that state.

Anyhow, I'm not taking any side, just let the flow of justice do it's job here, whether he is guilty or not, it is on the hands of the court to decide.

Everyone is innocent until proven guilty, although the media will now crucify Saylor and along the way they will surely lash out at Bitcoin as well. I looked at MS's Twitter account and he hasn't commented on this case yet, but considering everything, I don't think he'll be overly upset.

I am quite sure of one thing, and that is that he will not escape from the US, as was the case with John McAfee and his non-payment of taxes, which eventually cost him his life.

Well said. Is it me or somebody is trying to revive the "bitcoin is illicit money" narrative, although it's probably vastly unrelated to bitcoin.
He and the company are clearly not poor, so I don't really feel sorry for them. Justice will have the final word, I guess.


I have a feeling they may try - especially at first - to drag/stall it by fighting in court... at least until Bitcoin price returns on uptrend and MicroStrategy funds start looking good again.