After Steve Ballmer announced in August that he will step down as Microsoft Corp.’s (NASDAQ: MSFT) chief executive officer, director John Thompson was put in charge of the company’s efforts to find a new CEO. However, as well as being on Microsoft’s board, Thompson is also CEO of Virtual Instruments, which is a cloud-computing company that sells licenses and devices to Microsoft. Due to that potential conflict of interest, proxy advisory firm Glass Lewis is recommending that Microsoft shareholders vote against the reelection of Thompson to the board.

Thompson is a former International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE: IBM) executive and was appointed to Microsoft’s board in February 2012. Microsoft’s next shareholder meeting is coming up on November 19. Glass Lewis recommends that shareholders vote to reelect the company’s other eight directors, including Ballmer and chairman and co-founder Bill Gates. Investors are under no obligation to heed the advice of companies like Glass Lewis that make recommendations to shareholders based on corporate governance guidelines.

There has been talk among investors and analysts that for Microsoft to radically reform itself in order to keep up with market leaders like Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) and Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG), Gates and Ballmer should go as well. The new CEO can never be truly independent as long as these two men remain on the board. However, after the surprisingly strong results for the most recent quarter, 24/7 pondered what would happen if Microsoft asked Ballmer to stay on as CEO.

Thank you for reading! Have some feedback for us?
Contact the 24/7 Wall St. editorial team.