Tell me it ain't so Bill (Gates)

[Methious]

Bill Gates head nerd is stepping down from day to day operation of Microsoft calling it a reprioritization, he wants to focus on his philanthropic foundation. If I were Bill I'd be focusing on spending some of that money (at least on a new hair cut). Good news is that since he's still chairman we can still blame him for our software woes.



Updated: Founder Bill Gates will continue as chairman for the company, while two chief technology officers will step in to take his other roles.
Microsoft Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates is planning to leave in 2008 the company he founded 31 years ago, in order to focus on his philanthropy work.

Gates said June 15 he will remain as chairman and doesn't "see a time when I'm not chairman of the company."
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"It's not a retirement. It's a reprioritization," said Gates, who said he plans to focus his time on the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Gates, 50, started Microsoft in 1975 with childhood friend Paul Allen. He took Microsoft public in 1986 and was the company's chairman and CEO until 2000, when Steve Ballmer took over as CEO. In 2000, Gates and his wife formed the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which now has assets of $29.1 billion.

With Gates out of the day-to-day role, Ray Ozzie and Craig Mundie, two chief technology officers at the company, will step up. Ozzie will take on the title of chief software architect and Mundie will become chief research and strategy officer.

During the transitional period, Gates said he will increasingly take a back seat to Ozzie, who joined the company in April 2005 when Microsoft acquired Groove Networks. Prior to founding Groove, Ozzie was the founder and president of Iris Associates, where he created and led the initial development of Lotus Notes. Gates said Ozzie will work with him on all "architecture and product oversight responsibilities."

[maj0r_pawnage]

didnt he announce he was going to do this like a year ago

[Darkstar]

yep, about 1 1/2 years ago they announced the plans for the "transition"

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/pres ... ewsPR.mspx