The Hindu Business Line : Gates logs out of day-to-day role at Microsoft

New Delhi, June 27 With software icon and co-founder of Microsoft Mr Bill Gates stepping out of a hands-on role in the company on Friday, curtains come down on an eventful era in computing that began with his dropping out of college in the Seventies to establish what is now over a $51-billion software behemoth.

After over three decades at the helm, Mr Gates would now devote more time to the philanthropic Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. He is scheduled to visit India later this year.

Mr Gates, 52, would remain the chairman of Redmond-headquartered Microsoft which employs over 78,000 professionals across 105 nations (as on June 2007). The company would continue to be led by its CEO, Mr Steve Ballmer, the Chief Research and Strategy Officer, Mr Craig Mundie, and the Chief Software Architect, Mr Ray Ozzie.

However, Mr Gates’ retirement-of-sorts comes at a time when the software giant is busy thwarting attempts by arch industry rivals. The shares of Microsoft have plunged almost 21 per cent since the beginning of this year, and the company is still playing a catch-up game with Google in the Web search space.

‘not unprecedented’

“Microsoft has repeatedly faced challenges and competition and so these times are not entirely unprecedented. The company is holding out on its own and gaining globally in areas like core enterprise space. Microsoft’s long cycle bets, including IPTV and gaming, have also paid off. In the advertising space, thanks to acquisition of aQuantive, Inc, we are in a strong shape,” Mr Ravi Venkatesan, Chairman of Microsoft Corporation (India), said.

Earlier this year, Microsoft offered to buy Yahoo for $33 a share, or $47.5 billion, in a bid aimed at combining forces to take on Google in the growing Internet search and advertising business. Yahoo, however, spurned the offer in favour of a search advertising alliance with Web search giant Google.

Meanwhile, Microsoft’s Windows Vista operating system released in early 2007 has not taken-off as desired, even as free Linux open-source software is making massive inroads into markets such as India. “The single most important legacy of Gates is the ability to make Microsoft’s products global, de facto standards for business and consumers,” Forrester Research Chairman & CEO, Mr George Colony, said.

And why hasn’t Microsoft caught Google? “It’s because Gates, over the last five years, has moved on to philanthropy — and taken his formidable legacy with him,” he points out.

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