THE burden of wealth is get ting heavier for Bill Gates. The 52-year-old mogul can’t seem to cash out his Microsoft stock fortune fast enough to transform himself into the powerful philanthropist he wants to be while he’s still relatively young.
At the current rate that Gates has been unloading shares – mainly to enrich his charitable foundation – he’d be 64 before he sells his last Microsoft share.
In August alone, he sold $350 million in shares – but it barely scratched the deep pot of stock currently valued at $20.3 billion.
This year to date, he’s sold just under $1 billion in stock, but needs to sell more than twice that amount by Christmas to match his stock sales last year of $2.54 billion.
In 2007, he sold 80 million shares, and this year nearly 64 million shares have been emptied from his portfolio, leaving a total of 794 million shares to be sold while his clock ticks away.
Gates has vowed to spend the cash on improving the world, particularly focusing on health issues.
Gates and billionaire Warren Buffett are plowing the bulk of their fortunes – more than $60 billion – into the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, creating the world’s largest trading and investment pool of its kind. The giant foundation, in exchange for retaining its tax-exempt status, will be obliged by law to give away a minimum 5 percent annually of all the investment profits.
Melinda Gates appears to be holding onto to her personal 424,816 shares of Microsoft, according to filings.
Paul Tharp
HEDGE DRAMA
Highflying Harbinger Capital seems to have lost one of its top guys.
Howard Kagan, a managing director and director of investments at the $21 billion hedge fund, is no longer at the firm, which was made famous last year for raking in returns of more than 100 percent by betting against toxic subprime mortgages.
Kagan didn’t return a call for comment, and officials at Harbinger declined to comment.
But a person close to the firm said Kagan was pushed out.
He’s no longer listed on the company’s Web site, and his work voicemail directs callers to his cellphone.
Kagan’s departure leaves Harbinger with two remaining managing directors, Lawrence Clark and James McGinnis, the latter of whom just joined earlier this summer.
Harbinger, which was founded by Phil Falcone, is on track to outperform once again this year, with returns of close to 14 percent.
Kaja Whitehouse
MUSIC MOVE
At a time when Warner Music Group’s Atlantic Records has revived the debate over the wisdom of selling downloadable singles for 99 cents each by holding back hit tracks from Kid Rock and Estelle, independent label Putumayo is endorsing the virtues of bypassing digital music sales all together.
The New York-based specialist in world and roots music, which creates compilation CDs aimed primarily at the over-30 set, is on pace this year to grow its business by 5 percent in a sputtering market without selling a single track online.
“We’re not interested in doing it,” said label founder and CEO Dan Storper.
Storper notes that over 20 of its releases have topped 200,000 copies at $15 a piece, and compilations like its “French Cafe” collection has topped sales of 360,000 copies in the US. Plenty of that business is coming through non-traditional retailers, ranging from Whole Foods to museum gift shops.
Putumayo is now looking to expand its reach through selling kids music – another genre with a limited digital presence in terms of either sales or piracy. A new series of Sesame Street-branded compilations kicks off later this month.
Brian Garrity
busines@nypost.com