Official : Bill Gates is retiring

G

Well...today it is made official; Bill Gates is retiring from Microsoft after 30 years of work there. He made what the computer industry is today, Windows, the largest used operating system out there, which just Works, fine for everybody...

It is said, that he will leave the post of Microsoft CSA & will work as the chairperson of board of directors. He wants to concentrate more on the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation, which has already helped the world a lot by charity of up to $30 billion.

Bill Gates is really an idol, he is like an ideal business man, he knows how to sale a product despite critics, so much that it has nearly taken over the Personal Computing industry....with the newcomers, still acting as newcomers even after years of existence

Microsoft Press relese

Well, he won't be giving much attention to the Windows Software developement ,but more to the bussiness, which is also good

I think this is going to be good move by him in a longer run.

well windows will certainly miss him !

sms_solver said:
I think this is going to be good move by him in a longer run.

His run ends man!

anyways, he didnt make much stride past 2 years, may Vista retire him in peace. Will miss him... (and hope Steve Ballmer doesnt throw more chairs!)

QwertyManiac said:
His run ends man!

anyways, he didnt make much stride past 2 years, may Vista retire him in peace. Will miss him... (and hope Steve Ballmer doesnt throw more chairs!)

Well hope he'll not be throwing chairs but he's gonna thow a lot of parties .

Ok he has become old now. So it's time to retire. Definitely he will have a say on
what Microsoft should do & other things that interest him. Gates will do things
in the background to make Microsoft stand top of the OS charts.

I think this decision is somewhat influenced by his friendship with Warren Buffet. Off lately, Bill Gates must have realised that to stay on top of the list that he is on, he needs to invest in other arenas too. And this fact must have been boosted by the falling revenue that he is getting as compared to earlier. Anyone in his place would think so (having touched $100 billion mark in 1999, and then still sitting at around $50 billion after 7 years, who would not think that?).

So this, I think, is a well coordinated plan by him - first giving the post of CEO to Steve Ballmer, and now CSA to Ray Ozzie. The main reason is that Microsoft is his brainchild, so he can't get off it in an instant as this will leave him and MS in a lot of legal as well as moral difficulties. Bill Gates, Microsoft and Windows are synonymous, so that is not possible at all. So first he resigns as CEO, and then as CSA, so he could give more of his time to other ventures. As for saying that he would be devoting more of his time to "Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation", if we take a look at this foundation's last financial statistics, its worth more than $29 billion. That's a large chunk of his wealth to invest in other areas. As for this foundation, all the board members are Gates family members, except for Patty Stonesifer, who herself has been a key MS official and has worked on some key projects of MS like Encarta. So with all this money he can invest in ventures like healthcare (cuz the foundation is mainly aiming at healthcare like AIDS causes, etc.), which everyone knows today is a booming market. And he will have the guise that he has invested in medical research, which will help the causes that his foundation stands for, but eventually who will gain from the product that will evolve if any such venture takes place, and succeeds. Bingo.
He even is a Board of Director in Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (this is Warren Buffet's company, and one of the largest investment firms in the world.)

So if we see his strategy of the past few years, we can see that he has closely observed Warren Buffet and his style and principles, and is implementing them in a large way. Although Mr. Buffet does not believe in investing in technology, Gates can be exempt in this matter as he himslf has emerged from this field.

So all I think of this whole thing is that it is a strategy, and a good one at that.

PS: Don't think by the above that I am anti-Gates. I admire him (gx knows that), but this is what I think.

Btw, this is an interview of Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer, taken by Forbes today morning (EST).

G

dreamer

man u dream a lot.......everything u said is pure assumption, thats what i feel

This is not called dreaming, this is called analysis, backed by real facts.

Btw, the results of the penultimate stage of Code4Bill is out, you can check it here. Sad to know that there are no girls in it.

G

whatever, u wanna start a bill vs non-bill flame war here?

B

Bill Gates was blamed for the continued delays for Vista & other company problems. MS employees have even called for him to step down. This guy Bill is just running away. There have been calls for Ballmer to step down too.

hope he makes vista freeware through the Gates-Melinda charity org b4 retiring

M

Bill Gates here is being a shrewd businesmen as he's always been. He is a really good businessman and knows what to do and what not to do when. Over the years he's shown really good businessmanship in bringing Microsoft to the dizzying heights. Yes, he's gone through controversies, legal hassles and a lot of negative ratings. But, in the end he's been able to bring Microsoft what is good for it. And in the process he has himself been able to make billions. Now, he can make use of his name and goodwill to earn lot more of himself while passing on the buck of handling Microsoft to next generation.

anyone may say anything abt him............but he is simply gr8...and will be gr8 for ever.
the world will always remember this person who gave new meaning to the word "window".
We will miss him.

anywayz, he is not retiring as such. he is just leavings his day-to-day activities. he is going to spend time at charity. cant say whether that's a good move or not. well, he he doesnt stand to lose anyway.

Yeah...read this in TOI today.
It was to sad to hear Billy is stepping down...but i s'pose he is not stupid enough to leave his multi-billion dollar industry just for the sake of charity. He is just 50...thats no age for retirement. Warren Buffet is 70+, so u cant comapre Bill with him.
But yeah, (as Dreamer quoted), it might be a strategy...a business strategy...MS share prices r falling...he may be looking to do something else now, maybe a new venture or....dunno...we'll see that soon enough

PS: BTW, Narayan Murthy is also stepping down this year as the Chairman of Infosys (is Bill a copycat

)

MysticHalo said:
Narayan Murthy is also stepping down this year as the Chairman of Infosys (is Bill a copycat )

I think here that Mr. Murthy copied Mr. Gates long ago, when after Gates gave over his CEO post to Steve Ballmer, and took a new title of CSA, he started a trend of sorts for other enterpreneurs to follow. After this only did Mr. Murthy took the title of CMO (Chief Mentor Officer) in Infosys.

Well You Can't Deny That He's Intelligent ! You just Have To Accept It . It's The Truth . No matter What U Say But He IS The Richest Man and Has Been For A Decade .

T

He is not retiring. He will be back in two or three years. Give him a break. He has done a lot of windows and thanks him for making windows instead of bring him down.

Huh,Man what will he do with so much money........hey can live and eat as much he wants and whenever he get fat,he can do an operation to make him thin again and then eat! And he can continue this for his next 9 lives with that much money!!

Zeeshan Quireshi said:
Well You Can't Deny That He's Intelligent ! You just Have To Accept It . It's The Truth . No matter What U Say But He IS The Richest Man and Has Been For A Decade .

I dont understand the co-relation between his wealth, intelligence and his stepping down ?????

whatever may be the differant views but thats true that he was brilliant and gave world most used operating system windows and rocked the world !!! He always be in news either good or bad!!

Here's a copy of e-mail Bill mailed to all Microsoft employees:
*www.neowin.net/index.php?act=view&id=33654