Bill Gates Says Goodbye to Microsoft

By Pamela Mortimer

Bill Gates appeared before his staff at Microsoft Corporation headquarters in Redmond, Washington on Friday to give a farewell speech. Gates has decided to step down from his position as the full time CEO of the company he built with childhood friend Paul Allen. Gates will work part-time as a non-executive chairman, giving himself time to focus on the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the world's largest philanthropic organization. Gates plans leave the company he has lived for since 1975 so that he may devote his time to microfinance projects and to discover new vaccines for the developing world.

During the event at Microsoft headquarters, Gates joined former Harvard University classmate Steve Ballmer on stage to deliver a short speech and answer questions from staff members. Ballmer, who joined Microsoft at the urging of Gates, has taken over the position of Chief Executive.

"There won't be a day in my life that I'm not thinking about Microsoft and the great things that it's doing and wanting to help," said Gates, who wiped away tears as he received a well deserved standing ovation from 830 employees.

Gates also reiterated his retreat from the company's day-to-day business.

"I do think with my not being here full time there is some opportunity that people will really step up. There's somewhat of a vacuum created there," he said. "I have got to get out of the way, and let that new thing step in there."

Ballmer got choked up when it came time for his public farewell to Gates. Ballmer joked about the "inevitable inadequacy of a thank you gift" before presenting his friend and employer with a large scrapbook embossed with Gates' signature.

"There's no way to say thanks to Bill. Bill's the founder. Bill's the leader," said Ballmer. "We've been given an enormous, enormous opportunity and it was Bill that gave us this opportunity."

Ballmer and Gates took a few minutes to walk down Microsoft’s memory lane. Along the way they took the opportunity to get in "a few good digs" at IBM Corp., whose first personal computers were equipped with Microsoft's DOS operating system. Eventually, IBM adopted its own operating software and the relationship between the two companies faltered.

"They went off with OS 2, we were left with good old Windows, and sure enough the David versus Goliath story came out with the right ending," said Gates, drawing laughter from the crowd.

Gates admitted that Microsoft Corp. has made mistakes along the way and certainly cannot call itself perfect today.

"When we miss a big change, when we don't get great people on it, that is the most dangerous thing for us," Gates said. "It has happened many times. It's OK, but the less the better."

Some of the best moments happened when Gates slipped out of "technology prognostication mode" and shared some candid and self-effacing antics about his early days with Ballmer.

Gates and Ballmer were introduced by a mutual friend during their freshman year at Harvard. On their "first date", the future entrepreneurs went to see a rare back-to-back showing of two classic movies, Singing in the Rain and A Clockwork Orange.

Ballmer, who is known for dancing around the stage at conferences, described the evening he’d spent with his new silly and uninhibited friend.

"So we come back from the movie, we're kind of dancing, we're both kind of playing Gene Kelly, and some guy wrestles me to the ground in our dorm," Ballmer said. It was up to Gates, who could hardly be called burly, to remove the fellow student.

Ballmer also ribbed Gates about leaving for vacation in the middle of his job interview, and forgetting to pack a tie for their first big meeting with executives at IBM.