Shulou(Shulou.com)12/24 Report--

CTOnews.com Former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is set to receive about $1 billion a year in dividends from Microsoft, putting him on track to become the world's fourth-richest man.

Ballmer is currently the world's sixth-richest man and Microsoft's largest individual shareholder. Ballmer owns 333.2 million shares of Microsoft, or about 4% of the company, according to 2014 disclosures.

Thanks to a 55% rise in Microsoft shares this year, Ballmer's wealth has increased by $42 billion, bringing his total assets to $128 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Ballmer worked at Microsoft for 34 years, joining the company in 1980 as Microsoft's 30th employee. He took over as Microsoft CEO in 2000 near the peak of the dotcom bubble and was succeeded by current CEO Satya Nadella in 2014.

Microsoft pays a dividend of $2.79 per share in 2023, or about $930 million a year based on ballmer's stake. Recently, Microsoft increased its dividend by 10 percent to $3 a share per year. That would bring Ballmer's annual dividend to $999.6 million in 2024, a figure that could be higher if Microsoft continues to raise the dividend annually.

Microsoft has increased its dividend for 18 consecutive years, so Ballmer's annual dividend is likely to exceed $1 billion in 2024 and continue to grow in the coming years.

Ballmer's huge stake in Microsoft puts him one step away from becoming the world's fourth-richest man, and he's currently only a few billion dollars less wealthy than Larry Ellison and his former boss Bill Gates.

Since leaving Microsoft, Gates has diversified his fortune from Microsoft into cash and other public equity. In fact, in 2014, Gates also owned about 4% of Microsoft and owned 330 million shares. But multiple divestitures over the years have left Gates with a stake of just over 1% in the software giant.

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