Microsoft, who are the Italians who contest Nadella and why
From the acquisition of Activision Blizzard in the field of videogames to doubts about artificial intelligence, up to the emoluments of top management: all the blows from the metalworkers of the Cometa Fund to Microsoft
The Cometa Fund has announced that it will participate in the Microsoft shareholders' meeting on Thursday 7 December by voting against "numerous proposals from the company".
WHAT IS THE COMET FUND
The Cometa Fund, chaired by the economist Riccardo Realfonzo (in the photo), is the main Italian pension fund, boasts around 450 thousand members and 13 billion in managed pension savings. We are talking about the National Supplementary Pension Fund for workers in the metalworking industry, plant installation and related sectors and for employees in the gold and silversmith sector.
THE POINTS THAT DO NOT GO DOWN TO THE COMET FUND
The intention of the Cometa Fund is to arrive at the meeting to ask "with conviction that the company intervenes on its critical issues in terms of salaries, human rights, governance and on the potential risks of misinformation linked to ChatGPT's artificial intelligence" –
COMPENSATION AND TAX TRANSPARENCY
Cometa will first of all oppose the compensation paid to the president and CEO Satya Nadella for the 2022/2023 financial year, equal to 48.5 million dollars, “approximately 250 times the median salary of the Group's employees. Serious concerns are also expressed about the overall amount of variable compensation, equal to 1826% of the basic salary" –
Cometa "will push for greater fiscal transparency (Microsoft in fact does not provide any information on revenues and profits made in non-US markets) and for more virtuous and adequate governance mechanisms".
SURVEILLANCE OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
The Fund will instead vote in favor on the proposal aimed at requiring the publication of an annual assessment of the operational, financial and social risks "arising from the phenomena of misinformation and disinformation generated by artificial intelligence". This is a topic introduced by shareholder Arjuna Capital, an advisor specialized in sustainable investments as well as a b-corp particularly attentive to social issues (no stranger to getting in the way of Big Tech).
The request is that "the report also indicates the actions that the company intends to undertake to mitigate the risks and remedy these phenomena. Microsoft is in fact among the developers of ChatGPT, in which according to press sources it has invested around 13 billion dollars, and despite having committed to the US Government in July 2023 to publish a transparency report on AI management practices, to March eliminated the very team dedicated to ensuring compliance with ethical principles in the development of this technology."
THE ACQUISITION OF ACTIVISION
The gaming sector also sees the Cometa Fund raise several critical issues in the context of the operation that led Microsoft to acquire one of the largest and most important US software houses.
In particular, the Italian fund raises "concerns about the conduct of Activision Blizzard, a video game production and distribution company acquired in October 2023 for a value of 68.7 billion dollars. The company is in fact involved in numerous cases of gender discrimination and sexual harassment which have also led to the dismissal of 37 employees following a lawsuit brought by the State of California in 2021. Activision Blizzard has also been accused of hindering the unionization of employees . If the acquisition by Microsoft can allow the application of rules to combat gender discrimination and greater openness to trade union freedom – say the Cometa Fund – there remain strong concerns about the complexity of its cultural reform process, as well as the risk of Microsoft's involvement in the lawsuits brought against the acquired company."
HUMAN RIGHTS
Cometa will also vote in favor of an independent analysis of the critical issues arising from the establishment of data centers in countries "at high risk of violation of human rights. The concern in this case is that IT platforms could become government monitoring tools to identify political dissidents in non-democratic countries where the data centers are located.”
CLIMATE CHANGE
Cometa will also support with its vote the proposal of the As You Sow organization to "prepare a report that reports the ways in which the corporate pension fund – 401(k) Plan – considers long-term climate risks in defining investments. The objective is to increase the level of information provided by the company fund to its members.”
MILITARY SUPPLIES
The Fund also fully supports the "request that the Board of Directors commission a third-party and independent analysis of the reputational and financial risks deriving from Microsoft's involvement in the military industry".
The Cometa Fund's concerns specifically concern the contract signed by Microsoft with the US Ministry of Defense in 2021 for the supply of combat simulation systems based on augmented virtual reality: "these applications would risk alienating the user from the reality of combat , catapulting it into a sort of video game, as reported by the company itself in the warnings. The concerns appear confirmed by the US Senate's decision in January 2023 to cut the supply of these systems also due to physical and mental disorders suffered by the soldiers who used them".
THE OTHER BATTLES OF THE COMET FUND
The Cometa Fund is ready to do battle with the US multinational and identifies itself quite well with the image of the grumbling pensioner always ready to beat others up, especially in the technological field. For example, the battle within Apple to replace Tim Cook is engraved in the annals. There are numerous battles carried out within the shareholders of large groups from Ferrari, CNH and UBS , through Stellantis, Rio Tinto and Campari, just to mention the most recent cases.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/economia/microsoft-chi-sono-gli-italiani-che-contestano-nadella-e-perche/ on Wed, 06 Dec 2023 13:33:20 +0000.