Friday June 27, 03:54 PM
Gates To Log Off At Microsoft
By Sky News
Bill Gates is stepping down from his full-time role with software giants Microsoft. While he remains as chairman on a part-time basis, his decision allows him to concentrate on his charity work through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Mr
Gates set up Microsoft in 1975 and signed an agreement with IBM in 1980 to provide MS-DOS to its computers.The company went public in 1986. Since then the software group has grown to dominate the landscape, with Microsoft systems running 90% of the computers in the world today. However, the company has not been without its problems in recent years, with the Vista operating system proving unpopular with many. Its attempts to take on the iPod with its own Zune music player have not yet seen significant success, while it also failed in a takeover attempt for Yahoo. But there is still plenty of innovation expected in the future from Microsoft, with the upcoming version of Windows expected to feature touchscreen technology and new services such as Live Mesh set to be introduced. Mr Gates will be replaced by three people, with Ray Ozzie taking over as chief software architect, Craig Mundie taking over his chief research and strategy officer duties and Steve Ballmer working as chief executive officer. With the landscape for software changing, and increased competition from Apple and Linux-based systems, there are challenging times ahead for Microsoft to maintain its dominance in the post-Gates era.
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