A $1.2 billion publicly-traded company may start investing in bitcoin and gold to avoid inflation

MicroStrategy, a publicly-traded company worth $1.2 billion, told shareholders last week that it plans to invest $250 million in "alternative investments or assets" — a strategy shift that could see the firm buying bitcoin.

The company's president and chief financial officer, Phong Le, made the comments during a June 28 earnings call, according to a transcript published on the Motley Fool. Their remarks came in the context of returning value to shareholders, noting:

"Overall, we've returned more than $245 million to shareholders through the repurchase of 1.8 million shares since the fourth quarter of 2018. Our capital allocation strategy going forward is to return a portion of this excess capital to our shareholders and invest a portion in assets with higher return profiles in cash. Accordingly, today, we are announcing a capital allocation strategy under which we plan to return up to $250 million to our shareholders over the next 12 months. In addition, we will seek to invest up to another $250 million over the next 12 months in one or more alternative investments or assets which may include stocks, bonds, commodities such as gold, digital assets such as Bitcoin, or other asset types."

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Later during the call, CEO Michael Saylor highlighted that "[g]old, silver, and bitcoin are showing strength" and went on to remark that "it makes sense to shift our treasury assets into some investments that can't be inflated away or are less likely to be inflated away."

"So, as we pursue alternative investment strategies for our treasury assets, we expect that we will have more volatility, at least as measured in U.S. dollar terms looking forward," he continued.