The Greatest Victory is the one with Least Bloodshed: The Microsoft & Valueact Edition

By Long Short Trader Even former Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) CEO Steve Ballmer noticed a change at his company when ValueAct showed up last April, saying shares were undervalued in part because investors were overlooking Microsoft’s continued success selling many of its software products to corporations. The longtime executive credited ValueAct for helping to change investor sentiment toward Microsoft. “Maybe starting with the ValueAct investment…there was a wave of, ‘Oh yeah those guys have a phenomenal enterprise business,’” Mr. Ballmer said in a May interview. The other sea change at Microsoft around ValueAct’s investment was Mr. Ballmer’s surprise retirement, announced a week before…