Bank of Montreal divest from Microsoft due to military HoloLens contract
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The responsible investment fund of the Bank of Montreal in Canada has sold $275 million worth of Microsoft stock over its involvement in the military’s new IVAS HoloLens-based headset.
BMO sees the $22 billion Army contract as breaching the fund’s rules about avoiding “companies with damaging businesses practices,” with Jamie Jenkins, head of the Responsible Global Equities team at BMO, saying “we class bespoke military equipment as one component of our avoid criteria.”
Many socially focused investment funds bar ownership of defence contractors, with BMO’s regular investment funds not affected.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has insisted that it was Microsoft’s corporate duty to support US Military, saying “We made a principled decision that we’re not going to withhold technology from institutions that we have elected in democracies to protect the freedoms we enjoy.”
via Reuters
