Microsoft Corp. co-founders Bill Gates and Paul Allen plan to sell a total of $109.3 million of stock in the company.

Microsoft Corp. co-founders Bill Gates and Paul Allen plan to sell a total of $109.3 million of stock in the company, the world's largest provider of software, regulatory filings showed on Thursday. Gates, chairman of the company, intends to sell 850,000 common shares valued at $59 million, while Allen plans to sell 720,000 shares valued at $50.3 million, according to their filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The filings do not indicate if the shares, which were part of founders' stock they acquired in June 1981, have been sold. The stock may be sold within 90 days of the filings, which Gates made on Sept. 8 and Allen made on Sept. 7. A Microsoft spokesperson said Gates sold his shares as part of ``a regular program where he periodically sells off a small fraction of his holdings as part of a portfolio diversification.'' The amount of remaining shares Gates holds will be disclosed in Microsoft's next proxy statement which may be released later this month, the spokesperson said. In the past three months, Gates has sold 4.15 million shares valued at about $291.2 million, while Allen has sold 16.26 million shares valued at about $1.2 billion, according to the SEC documents. Shares of the Redmond, Wash.-based company closed down $2-7/16 to $65-13/16 on Nasdaq.