Gates to leave day-to-day role at Microsoft

[AllCeline]

Gates to leave day-to-day role at Microsoft

Chairman to devote more time to charitable works.

 

By Amanda Cantrell, CNNMoney.com

June 15, 2006: 5:28 PM EDT

 

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - Microsoft announced Thursday that chairman and co-founder Bill Gates will transition out of a day-to-day role at the company, effective July 2008, to spend more time working on his charitable foundation.

 

Gates will then work part-time at Microsoft (up $0.19 to $22.07, Charts) as chairman and technical adviser and will work full time for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the organization he founded with his wife, which focuses on global health and education.

 

"I've decided that two years from today, I will reorganize my personal priorities," Gates said during a news conference, adding,"I have one of the best jobs in the world."

 

"I believe with great wealth comes great responsibility - the responsibility to give back to society and make sure those resources are given back in the best possible way, to those in need," he said. Gates added, "It's not a retirement, it's a reordering of my priorities."

 

The company's chief technical officer, Ray Ozzie, will immediately assume the title of chief software architect and begin working side by side with Gates on all technical architecture and product oversight responsibilities. Ozzie became chief technical officer of Microsoft in April 2005, when Microsoft bought Groove Networks, the company Ozzie founded.

 

Craig Mundie, the current chief technical officer, will take the new role of chief research and strategy officer, also effective immediately. Mundie will work closely with Gates to assume his responsibility for the company's research and incubation efforts, Microsoft said. Mundie also will partner with the company's general counsel Brad Smith to guide Microsoft's intellectual property and technology policy efforts. Mundie, 56, joined Microsoft in 1992.

 

Ozzie and Mundie will continue to report to Gates until the transition is complete, when they will begin reporting to Ballmer.

 

Shares of Microsoft fell slightly, by about 0.4 percent, in after-hours trading.

 

"It's been my privilege to work shoulder to shoulder with a true visionary... who has now headed, in my opinion, one of the greatest philanthropies of all time," said Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer during the conference.

 

Gates co-founded Microsoft, which makes the ubiquitous Windows operating system, with Paul Allen in 1975, and took the company public in 1986. He remained CEO of the company until 2000, when Ballmer took the reins.

 

That year, Gates formed his charitable foundation, which now has $29.1 billion in assets. For their work with the foundation, Gates and his wife were chosen, along with rock singer Bono, as one of Time Magazine's Persons of the Year in 2005.

 

http://img112.imageshack.us/img112/821/microsoftsidebar8fp.gif

 

Source: http://money.cnn.com/2006/06/15/technology...dex.htm?cnn=yes

 

Now that' pretty shocking. Gates is actually stepping down from Microsoft! I really didn't expect this for a long time!

[catwomanrrr]

To me it's not that shocking.

 

If I'm reading it correctly... he's still Chairman, and that means, he's still the main decision maker of his corporation.

 

And there's 29.1 BILLION DOLLARS in his foundation's assets? That's more than half of his assets of 50 billion, and that's a lot of money for a foundation. But I think Gates is smart for putting most of his assets into a non-profit corporation, because for sure, the 29.1 billion dollar money tree will grow greener and larger, and have a lot of tax breaks.

Edited June 15, 2006 at 10:40 PM by Joy

[Krys]

that guy has enough money to last him for a very long time, so why not?

[angel_christ]

Oooohhh I love him!!!! He's a good man indeed!!! He's one of my heroes apart from Celine!!

[Koolan]

it was a wise move on his part. he could pay someone to breathe for him with his $$

[AllCeline]

it was a wise move on his part. he could pay someone to breathe for him with his $$

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Oh, that's cold.