The parent company of Gay.com, the largest American gay website, PlanetOut, released news saying that the company had received a $26.2 million venture capital investment from Bill Gates, chairman of Microsoft Corporation. The report stated that among the institutions investing in PlanetOut, Cascade Investment was clearly listed. The owner of Cascade Investment is none other than Bill Gates, chairman of Microsoft Corporation.
PlanetOut owns information and service websites targeted at the LGBTQ+ community, including Gay.com, and has acquired several media outlets targeting this demographic. In October 2004, PlanetOut began trading on the NASDAQ in the United States, becoming the first company targeting the LGBTQ+ community to be listed on a major stock market in America.
Cascade Investment's headquarters is located in an unassuming small building in Kirkland, Washington state, not far from Microsoft's headquarters in the northeast of Seattle.
According to the 13F disclosure document submitted by Cascade to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on May 15th, as of March 31st this year, the company held 11 stocks listed on the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ, with a total market value of nearly $3.7 billion. On June 30th last year, the company announced a stock portfolio market value of approximately $3.4 billion; in less than a year, this investment portfolio has grown by 8.82%.