Will Bill Gates have to un-retire from Microsoft?

Posted Jun 27th 2008 12:38PM by Jonathan Berr
Filed under: Management, Google (GOOG), Dell (DELL), Starbucks (SBUX), International Business Machines (IBM)

Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) co-founder Bill Gates is riding off into the sunset today, at least he sort of is. The man who made nerds and geeks "cool" is shifting his focus away from the world's largest software company to his philanthropic work.

Gates contributions to modern society cannot be understated. When he gets older, my 20-month-old son will no doubt be surprised to learn that there was a time when computers were expensive, impersonal devices the size of several refrigerators. Gates helped make the computer personal. Of that there is no doubt. How he did it remains open to debate. The elite geeks despise Microsoft for developing expensive, inferior operating systems that are prone to crashes and computer viruses.

The shift by Gates, which has been expected for some time, comes as the Redmond, Washington-based company is at a crossroads. Back in the 1970s and 1980s, Microsoft was the underdog that upended the tech establishment lead by International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE: IBM).

This time, Microsoft finds itself in the role of Big Blue and Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) has taken on the Microsoft role. Google is trying to pry open Microsoft's lock on the desktop by offering services that the software company sells for big profits such as e-mail and spreadsheets for free. Microsoft also has tried and failed to make a dent in Google's share of the search market.

Will Gates stay retired? I am sure that the good works of The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will keep him busy. But other CEOs such as Michael Dell from Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) and Starbucks Corp (NASDAQ: SBUX)'s Howard Schultz have tried to walk away from the companies they have founded only to wind up running them again. Shares of Microsoft are down more than 20% this year. Some on Wall Street think the company's best days are behind it.

Gates, of course, is well aware of all of this.

He may be non-executive chairman but he also remains a huge Microsoft shareholder. If things don't improve over the next few years, Gates may wind up taking his old job back and putting his charity work on hold.

Tags: Bill GATes, BillGates, DELL, featured, GOOG, howard schultz, HowardSchultz, Michael Dell, MichaelDell, MSFT, SBUX

Print this

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

5-23-2009 @ 8:30AM

p. Milan khangamcha said...

May be at such a young age Bill Gates have acheived so much. The kind of global changes of which he has been one of the iconic agents is not merely economical. It has wider social, cultural and political implications. It might have caused fatigue because of stiff competitions he faces from other software companies. His decision to retire may have its unwitting consequence of engendering a business environment where no single enterprise becomes a cartal or leads a fast cartelizing industry and monoploze teh whole affair. In this world of increasing selfishness, greed and tendency to amass more and more wealth while majority of the world population continue to suffer by being belonging to the other side of an unequal world, the philantrophic works of his family's foundation is an eye opening phenomenon. But Mr Gate should not completely absolve of his responsibilities. At the hours of crises and unpredictable problems which may crop up in running the industry he founded,he should be there to inspire and offer guidance. Otherwise, he and his wife deserve some rest.

6-29-2008 @ 5:32PM

Mike said...

Honestly, I don't give a dam whether he retires or not. the company never improves. And as a result stock holders, specially we the little ones lost money in this bulldog stock of msft. I resent that I have that stock in my portfolio. What a waste. It is ironic to hear that he is leaving to focus on his philanthrophic management, when we poor people loose money on the very company he found.