Filed under: Management, Google (GOOG), Dell (DELL), Starbucks (SBUX), International Business Machines (IBM)

Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) co-founder Bill Gates is riding off into the sunset today, at least he sort of is. The man who made nerds and geeks “cool” is shifting his focus away from the world’s largest software company to his philanthropic work.

Gates contributions to modern society cannot be understated. When he gets older, my 20-month-old son will no doubt be surprised to learn that there was a time when computers were expensive, impersonal devices the size of several refrigerators. Gates helped make the computer personal. Of that there is no doubt. How he did it remains open to debate. The elite geeks despise Microsoft for developing expensive, inferior operating systems that are prone to crashes and computer viruses.

The shift by Gates, which has been expected for some time, comes as the Redmond, Washington-based company is at a crossroads. Back in the 1970s and 1980s, Microsoft was the underdog that upended the tech establishment lead by International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE: IBM).

This time, Microsoft finds itself in the role of Big Blue and Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) has taken on the Microsoft role. Google is trying to pry open Microsoft’s lock on the desktop by offering services that the software company sells for big profits such as e-mail and spreadsheets for free. Microsoft also has tried and failed to make a dent in Google’s share of the search market.

Will Gates stay retired? I am sure that the good works of The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will keep him busy. But other CEOs such as Michael Dell from Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) and Starbucks Corp (NASDAQ: SBUX)’s Howard Schultz have tried to walk away from the companies they have founded only to wind up running them again. Shares of Microsoft are down more than 20% this year. Some on Wall Street think the company’s best days are behind it.

Gates, of course, is well aware of all of this.

He may be non-executive chairman but he also remains a huge Microsoft shareholder. If things don’t improve over the next few years, Gates may wind up taking his old job back and putting his charity work on hold.

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This entry was posted on Saturday, June 28th, 2008 at 9:46 pm and is filed under Employment opportunities. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.