He's the lead investor for the hedge fund

swombat · on May 26, 2011

I'm not sure why you're being downvoted, since you're correct. I guess it's because you didn't provide any supporting information. Here it is:

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-05-26/greenlight-s-ein...

> Greenlight Capital Inc. President David Einhorn called for Microsoft Corp.’s board to replace Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer, saying the software maker suffers from “Charlie Brown management."

Einhorn is the president of Greenlight capital, a hedge fund.

> Greenlight, a New York-based hedge fund, added 1.39 million Microsoft shares last quarter, for a total of 9.07 million, according to a filing. The stake is worth $230.2 million. Microsoft’s shares have underperformed the S&P 500 in four of the past five quarters.

Also from this article:

> Ballmer is the company’s second-biggest shareholder -- with more than 333 million shares, or almost 4 percent. Co-founder and Chairman Bill Gates owns more than 561 million shares, or a 6.7 percent stake, according to Bloomberg data.

So Bill Gates + Steve Ballmer don't own 33%, as has been stated elsewhere, but "only" 6.7 percent of this $200bn company.

Flenser · on May 26, 2011

  333 million shares =  4.0% for Ballmer
  561 million shares =  6.7% for Gates
  So the combined total is:
  894 million shares = 10.7% for Gates + Ballmer

nl · on May 26, 2011

Thanks for the support!

I guess I thought the first line of the linked article (the one this whole post is about) was sufficient:

David Einhorn, the head of the hedge fund Greenlight Capital

I suspect that many thought that "lead investor" meant that he is personally a lead investor in Microsoft. English has plenty of room for everyone to be right there (but you are correct - I'd have preferred people to explain their downvotes). I didn't write the title, though.