Michael Saylor, the co-founder of Microstrategy and Bitcoin Maximalist, announces he is stepping down from his position as CEO to become an executive chairman.
Saylor said he wants to focus on the Bitcoin acquisition strategy to recover from the Q2 2022 $1.062 billion loss after losing $917M to pay impairment charge for its Bitcoin holding.
In June 2022, Microstrategy prided itself on having $250M worth of Bitcoin. As of now, the company holds $1.98B in Bitcoin.
Saylor, on stepping down from his role, said “I believe that splitting the roles of Chairman and CEO will enable us to better pursue our two corporate strategies of acquiring and holding bitcoin and growing our enterprise analytics software business.
Microstrategy’s new CEO will be Phong Le who is currently serving as the President of the company. “I look forward to leading the organization for the long-term health and growth of our enterprise software and bitcoin acquisition strategies,” Phong said.
Many wondered why Saylor suddenly changed his roles at the company to which he explained, “As Executive Chairman I will be able to focus more on our bitcoin acquisition strategy and related bitcoin advocacy initiatives, while Phong will be empowered as CEO to manage overall corporate operations.”
Saylor has always been interested in Bitcoin more than anything else. His new role as a chairman will surely boost the company’s existing Bitcoin reserves in the long run.