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by Andy Borowitz February 5, 2014 REDMOND, WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—Bill Gates’s first day at work in the newly created role of technology adviser got off to a rocky start yesterday as the Microsoft founder struggled for hours to install the Windows 8.1 upgrade. The installation hit a snag early on, sources said, when Mr. Gates repeatedly received an error message informing him that his PC ran into a problem that it could not handle and needed to restart. After failing to install the upgrade by lunchtime, Mr. Gates summoned the new Microsoft C.E.O. Satya Nadella, who attempted to help him with the installation, but with no success. While the two men worked behind closed doors, one source described the situation as “tense.” “Bill is usually a pretty calm guy, so it was weird to hear some of that language coming out of his mouth,” the source said. A Microsoft spokesman said only that Mr. Gates’s first day in his new job had been “a learning experience” and that, for the immediate future, he would go back to running Windows 7. http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/borowitzreport/2014/02/gates-spends-entire-first-day-back-in-office-trying-to-install-windows-81.html?mbid=social_retweet

For the past few years, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates has attended, but has not spoken, during the company's annual shareholder meeting. That changed today when Gates made a brief address during today's 2013 shareholder event, held in Bellevue, Wash. Gates talked about several subjects during his address to Microsoft shareholders, which was also livestreamed on the Internet. One of the bullet points was the search for a new chief executive to replace the retiring Steve Ballmer. Gates said that the search committee, which he is a member of, has been meeting regularly, including a gathering held Monday night. Gates said that several people are under consideration by the CEO search committee but did not offer any specific names, saying only they were looking at both external and internal candidates. Rumors claim Ford CEO Alan Mulally, former Nokia CEO Stephen Elop and current Microsoft COO Kevin Turner are among the top candidates that are being considered. Gates said he and the committee were pleased with the progress that had been made in selecting Ballmer's replacement but would not give a timetable for when that process will be completed. Gates did state the following about what the new CEO will have to deal with when he or she takes over "It's a complex global business that the new CEO will have to lead and they'll have to drive across fundamental transitions to create new growth and attract and manage top talent. He'll have to build on our strengths while addressing areas that we have weaknesses or challenges. The person has to have a lot of comfort in leading a highly technical organization and have an ability to work with our top technical talent to seize the opportunities." - Gates Gates also thanked Ballmer for his time as CEO, saying, "In our entire 38-year history, we've had only two CEOs. And that alone makes us quite unusual." Gates also humorously mentioned the upcoming launch of the Xbox One on Friday, stating, "I've told my kids, though, that it's a school night, so even though in the past we used to sneak out after midnight and use computers, I don't want to see that happening, so my kids will be asleep that night." Source

It's no secret that Bill Gates isn’t short of a dollar or two. Truth be told, he really isn’t too badly off at all. Oh, OK... he's completely rolling in money! Earlier in the year he managed to regain his title of being the world's richest person, and throughout 2013 the Microsoft founder's fortunes have continued to grow. Over the last twelve months, Gates' coffers have swelled by $15.8 billion, increasing his fortune to a staggering $78.5 billion. While usually associated with Microsoft, Gates has also invested in a number of other companies that have helped to increase his worth. In fact less than a quarter of his fortune is invested in Microsoft. But a 40 percent increase in Microsoft's share prices certainly helped contribute to his fortune, and shares in Ecolab Inc. and Canadian National Railway Co. also added to the cash pile. But of course, Bill Gates does not just sit back and watch the cash roll in -- he is well known for his philanthropic ventures. In fact he has donated a mind-blowing $28 billion to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Source

Reuters report claims three of the firm's top 20 investors fear Gates will block hiring the kind of CEO they think Microsoft needs A trio of the top 20 investors in Microsoft, anxious about the selection of the company's next CEO, have asked the board to push Bill Gates out of his chairman's spot, according to a report by Reuters. The likelihood of the board bending to the investors' wishes is slim -- very slim, said one analyst. "The chance that Gates is pushed out is about the same as Congress reopening the government today," said Jack Gold of J. Gold Associates, in an interview Wednesday. Reuters' story has received significant play in the media, a sign of the interest not only in Microsoft, but also in its attempt to recast itself as a "devices-and-services" company, a strategy inaugurated by current CEO Steve Ballmer, who in August announced he would step down during the coming year. According to the news service, the three investors -- who have not been identified -- collectively own more than 5% of Microsoft's outstanding shares. Gates, who along with Paul Allen founded Microsoft in 1975, owns approximately 4.5% of the $280 billion firm and remains the largest individual shareholder. Ballmer owns about 4% of Microsoft, and is the second-largest shareholder. By Reuters' account, the three investors are worried that as chairman, Gates will prevent the board from making the drastic changes they believe are necessary, and handcuff the new CEO to the in-place strategy. Gates is on the special search committee tasked by the board recommend Ballmer's replacement. John Thompson, a veteran of IBM, and from 1999 to 2009 the CEO of antivirus vendor Symantec, is the leading independent director on Microsoft's board and the head of the search committee. Coincidentally or not, Thompson recently granted an interview with the Wall Street Journal (subscription required) during which he rejected the idea that Gates was the one calling the shots in the CEO search. "I have enormous respect for Bill," Thompson said last week. "But I didn't accept the role on the board or the role as the lead independent director to be Bill's pawn." Industry and financial analysts have questioned the devices-and-services strategy, which Ballmer said was necessary to compete in the hottest segments of technology -- smartphones and tablets -- and to transform its existing software businesses into Internet-delivered services to both consumers and corporations. Since Ballmer's late-August announcement that he would step aside, Microsoft has several times said it will stick to the new strategy, and to the massive company restructuring that began in July, no matter who is appointed CEO. That may be bluster. "Any new CEO will come in and decide whether the strategy makes sense," said Gold. "Unless the new CEO is a clone of Ballmer, there will be a difference." In August, several other analysts agreed that Microsoft must find its next CEO outside its current and former ranks to really change. Who the board selects will be the first and best indicator of whether the strategic shift and reorganization can remake the once-dominant technology company, they also said. Gates, many believe, dominates the board, which is largely composed of executives from non-tech industries. His status as co-founder also carries serious weight on the board. That dominance has been criticized recently, too; analysts and pundits have argued that Gates, who drove the development of Microsoft's biggest OS flog so far, 2007's Vista, made plenty of other mistakes in his 30 years. But the investors' demands have little chance. "In truth, the only way that this happens is if the downsides for Gates and Ballmer are higher than the upsides," Gold added. "And how that happens is only if there's a stockholders' revolt, led by these investors." Gold thought that unlikely in the short term. But stranger things have happened. "If you eliminate the existing chair and limit the influence of Ballmer on the selection process, you're more likely to get someone that can take Microsoft in a needed new direction, which would be the best outcome," said Gold. Original Article: http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9242911/Big_hitter_investors_want_Gates_out_as_Microsoft_chairman

Microsoft co-founder and Chairman Bill Gates may want to focus most of his efforts on the charity work with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, but in a new interview with the Financial Times Gates admitted that he's working a lot more at Microsoft than he first agreed to do. When Gates decided to stop working full time at Microsoft, he did pledge to spend one day a week at the company he helped to build. However, the FT interview, which is mostly about his philanthropic work, does say that matters at Microsoft take up a "bigger slice of his time", which include regular meetings with some of the company's product groups. Gates' time at Microsoft likely increased even more when current CEO Steve Ballmer announced he was retiring in August. Gates repeated his stance in the FT interview that he will not be taking Ballmer's place as CEO but did say that he will be spending "considerable time" with whomever is picked to be the new leader of Microsoft. That decision is expected before the end of 2013. Again, most of the interview deals with Gates' efforts to help eradicate certain diseases such as polio in third world countries. He doesn't feel that giving Internet access to the people who don't currently have it is nearly as important as trying to help children in those countries have access to better health care. He states, "If you think connectivity is the key thing, that’s great. I don’t." source: neowin