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Bill Gates to return as Microsoft's white knight?

By | December 8, 2011, 12:45pm PST

Summary: Could and should Bill Gates return to day-to-day responsibilities at Microsoft? Fortune is reporting there’s a rumor to that effect.

Fortune reported on December 8 that there’s talk Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates might be mulling a comeback, largely to help boost Microsoft’s stagnant stock price and employee morale.

I have to say I am very, very, very skeptical on this one.

First, it seems this is a single-sourced report. Fortune says: “One prominent chief executive told Fortune he’d heard from someone close to Gates that he might be considering such a move.” There are no other sources cited in their story.

Gates has his hands full running the Gates Foundation right now. It’s obvious he is thoroughly engaged in what he’s doing. Gates denied, as recently as July 2011, that he planned to make a return to the company he started and from which he resigned his day-to-day duties back in 2008.

Sure, some current and former Softies long for the days when projects and technologies were allowed to percolate seemingly endlessly without having to become money makers. They preferred the Gates culture where geeks had more power than suits.

Gates supposedly still plays an active role as a part-timer at Microsoft. But returning as CEO and/or Chief Software Architect (a role vacated by Ray Ozzie earlier this year and subsequently abolished)? I just don’t see it — though I still do think Microsoft could use someone equipped to strategize across all of its business divisions and silos.

A couple of my Twitter chums chimed in with their opinions that Microsoft is more in need of new blood and fresh eyes than the return of its largest shareholder and chairman as CEO. I have to say I agree.

What’s your take? Could and should Gates return as Microsoft’s white knight?

(Thanks to News.com’s Jay Greene for the pointer to the Fortune piece on Gates.)

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Topics

Bill Gates, Microsoft Corp., Investment, Financial Accounting, Finance, Mary Jo Foley

Mary Jo has covered the tech industry for more than 25 years for a variety of publications and Web sites, and is a frequent guest on radio, TV and podcasts, speaking about all things Microsoft-related. She is the author of Microsoft 2.0: How Microsoft plans to stay relevant in the post-Gates era (John Wiley & Sons, 2008).

Disclosure

Mary-Jo Foley

Freelance journalist/blogger Mary Jo Foley has nothing to disclose. WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get). I do not own Microsoft stock or stock in any of its partners or competitors. I have no business ventures that are sponsored by/funded by Microsoft or any of its partners or competitors.

Biography

Mary-Jo Foley

Mary Jo Foley has covered the tech industry for 25 years for a variety of publications, including ZDNet, eWeek and Baseline. She has kept close tabs on Microsoft strategy, products and technologies for the past 10 years. In the late 1990s, she penned the award-winning "At The Evil Empire" column for ZDNet, and more recently the Microsoft Watch blog for Ziff Davis.

Got a tip? Send her an email with your rants, rumors, tips and tattles. Confidentiality guaranteed.

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RE: Bill Gates to return as Microsoft's white knight?
DocuMentor (Doc) 16th Dec
Doc shares your skepticism, Mary Jo. Even though Microsoft could use some new leadership, I'm not sure Bill Gates' return would be the way to go. Seems like a good time for some fresh blood. Surely there are some up-and-coming super stars at Microsoft that could do well in the executive suite. But as long as Steve Ballmer is around, there won't be much in the way of effective change. Thanks for the reporting.
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/doc
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RE: Bill Gates to return as Microsoft's white knight?
kharvey916 8th Dec
Microsoft clearly has a lack of leadership, and for folks who truly care about the company, the romanticized idea of Bill Gates returning to fix things would bring some measure of hope. But it is wishful thinking at best.

However, as a fantasy I could see this: Bill Gates returns in an interim role while he puts into place new leadership and reforms - that way his Microsoft shares can continue to help fund his foundation into the future instead of being destroyed by Ballmer.
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The only issue facing MS ...
P. Douglas Updated - 10th Dec
@kharvey916,

... is its stagnant stock price. But that is something that affects the entire PC industry. Also I don't see how people can say MS has no vision, when elements of the company's three screens (the PC, TV, and smartphone) and a cloud vision, keep rolling out. By the way, does anyone know Apple's vision? Does the fact that Apple doesn't spell it out means that it has none? MS is dominating gaming in the console market, and taking over the living room, and this means nothing? Nokia Lumia Windows Phones are flying off the shelves in Europe, and this means nothing? MS' profits keep going up, and this means nothing? MS dominates the business market, in a way no company dominates the consumer market, and this means nothing?

The only issue I have with Ballmer, is that he doesn't seem to be doing anything to address the company's ongoing image problem, which I believe, is the reason for the company's poor stock performance over the past decade. Also I don't see how it is reasonable to replace a CEO with such a great track record, over this single issue. You must also remember, Ballmer took MS through some very dark times, during and after the antitrust saga, when all the world was against MS; and Ballmer kept the profit engines turning. People need to be patient with MS. All indications are that it is on the right track. Still, I really wish Ballmer would address the company's image problem: just acquire / create a group of media outlets to put out the word about MS.

Update: changed "MS is dominating gaming in the PC market" to "MS is dominating gaming in the console market".
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RE: Bill Gates to return as Microsoft's white knight?
AsifHussain1 8th Dec
@P. Douglas

Couldn't have said it any better.
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RE: Bill Gates to return as Microsoft's white knight?
anono 8th Dec
@P. Douglas
When you have 10x the amount of R&D to spend than your competitors over the last decade then sure you're going to come up with some products, but their competitors have come out with so much more with much less. For PCs they have had a monopoly for two decades, not something you can credit Ballmer with. For the TV, they are competing successfully with Sony (who themselves haven't done much innovation in a decade) for the video game market. I know they've added some other capabilities to their console, but as long as it's part of a game console it's going to be a very niche market. As for phones, they had more share a decade ago. Unless, you're going to give him credit for losing market share, I don't see how you give him credit for that.

The stock price is a very good indicator of a company's performance because investors don't care about your image; they care about how competitive you are and your performance.
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Lack of vision
RationalGuy Updated - 8th Dec
@P. Douglas

I don't see how people can say MS has no vision, when elements of the company's three screens (the PC, TV, and smartphone) and a cloud vision, keep rolling out

It's because none of their activities are cleanly executed and they don't seem to add up to a cohesive whole. It's impossible to see what the vision is. Instead, it seems like a disorganized jumble that resonates as, "We don't know what the hell is going on in the industry!!! JUST TRY STUFF! Try everything and see what happens!"

Microsoft has some really interesting products. Windows Phone 7 is innovative (and that's coming from a certified iOS freak). The Metro UI could change how we look at desktop computing. But, MS is half-committed to everything. That you can pop out to "classic" Windows in Win8 is a punk move. MS never believes their own story.
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RE: Bill Gates to return as Microsoft's white knight?
PensivePeter Updated - 8th Dec
@P. Douglas

I agree. Steve Ballmer does have a couple of blind spots howver:
- he should crack more heads together when there are inter-division rivalries, such as between XBox and Windows: they both come up with great stuff but unresolved conflicts lead to issues as was seen in the initial stages of the Windows 7 Phone roll-out and the close-down of the Courier project, which could have been an iPad killer;
- he seems to be a great leader internally but I still cringe when I hear him publicly - he needs a script (and style) to appeal to business and givernment leaders, opinion leaders in the media, etc. and he just doesn't cut that. Whether that has to be him, is another question, but in lieu of such a personality, it falls to the CEO...
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Actually...
John L. Ries 8th Dec
@P. Douglas
...I think Mr. Ballmer has exacerbated MS' image problems by treating it as a public relations issue instead of as a substantive policy issue. Too many of us see MS as continuing its efforts to retain and exploit its dominance of the system software market (more carefully than 10 years ago, but the efforts continue). As long as that remains the case, MS won't be turning any enemies into friends no matter how good the software is.
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RE: Bill Gates to return as Microsoft's white knight?
JeveSobs 8th Dec
@P. Douglas So let me inject a bit realism into your cloud.

The Xbox will be passed in World Wide sales in 2012 by the PS3, even though it had a full year start on the PS3/Wii. PC gaming market?? WTF is that anymore. Sure there are PC gamers but PC game sales are a joke, especially among the top money making games, like MW3, BF3 etc.

Nokia Lumina might be selling well, but NOTHING compared to the iPhone or major Android phones. Did you know you can't plug a Windows Phone into a Xbox 360 via the USB port and stream media to the Xbox? Guess what you can plug a iPod, iPhone or even iPad into a Xbox 360 and stream media off of that. Is Microsofts 3 screen's vision, the PC, TV and iOS products????

When will Microsoft have ARM based Windows tablets? Fall of 2012?? For consumers it will be DOA. Probably do "OK" to pretty good in the Enterprise sector...which is a smaller market share.

While Microsoft does do well in the Enterprise sector, that sector is smaller than the consumer sector. Apple and IBM both have a larger market cap than Microsoft.....sad turn of events. Microsoft profits keep going up, but less than both Apple and IBM.

Balmer has done well...but his time has come.
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anono, you are incorrect
Mister Spock 8th Dec
@anono
You act as though you could run a company the size of Microsoft easilly.
Please enlighten us to their competitors that have come out with so much more with much less.
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RE: Bill Gates to return as Microsoft's white knight?
Rama.NET 8th Dec
@P. Douglas
+1.
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RE: Bill Gates to return as Microsoft's white knight?
itguy10 Updated - 8th Dec
@P. Douglas

Are you kidding? IF Win Phone 7 is doing so well why is it's marketshare DECLINING?

Windows Marketshare is also declining, albeit slowly.

The business market is also loosing faith in MS. It's because they are seeing that MS platforms lock and tie you into them only. With the growth of iOS, OS X, Android, and Linux companies are seeing that being an all MS shop is strangling their bottom line. And they cannot innovate and become better with expensive and hard to manage Microsoft solutions.

Not going to happen overnight as there is a lot of inertia in corporate IT but it will happen. IBM was at the top too and they are not. MS will fall just like all those at the top. It takes time and better competitors.

There are better competitors and a much better way than the MS way.
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RE: Bill Gates to return as Microsoft's white knight?
kc63092@... 8th Dec
@RationalGuy
"We don't know what the hell is going on in the industry!!! JUST TRY STUFF! Try everything and see what happens!"

this is a short story i read a long time ago (but couldn't recall
the original story nor the author to credit). the story goes like this...
a young journalist on his first assignment were given the task of
interviewing a successfull businessman to find out his recipe for success.
the young chap ask the question to this effect "sir, what is the secret
of your success?" the businessman replied "i jump at opportunities."
the young journalist further ask "how do you know when to jump at these opportunities?" the businessman replied "that is why i keep on jumping."

r&d is just a waste of tons of money with no end in sight. yet all
successful companies spend 6 to 10% of their gross income because they know that nobody is going to hand them the next big thing. they have to search it themselves. m$, ibm, (but not hp at the moment, i guess) are shooting all over the place and hope that they might hit something or something sticks. microsoft may be misguided as seen outside, but who knows what is going on inside. they have xbox and kinect to show some of their success, they might have some aces under their sleeves!!!
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IMAGINE.
Cayble 8th Dec
@P. Douglas

Simply imagine, for the very first time in the life of Microsoft they bragged in an ad on television commercials, at some reasonable length, and only truthfully about everything they have really done to put the world where they are today in the world of computing and high tech.

Imagine if Microsoft ran a seres of absolutely factual commercials displaying EVERYTHING they have done in a positive way for the world, perhaps even some minor mention about the fact that Bill Gates has given away almost as much money as Steve Jobs was ever personally worth.

Imagine if for one bloody time Microsoft stopped just trying to promote the next version of Windows as an ad campaign and actually let the entire world know in a series of well done entertaining ads exactly everything Microsoft has done for the world, how they have actually dwarfed anything in any way Apple has ever done for the world, unless you value how many songs you can put on an mp3 player more then creating employment and efficiency for hundreds of millions around the world.

It doesn't matter a tiny whit whatever any number of ABM'ers say about Microsoft, if Microsoft would just make efforts to honestly and seriously toot their own horn in a very outspoken and serious way for a change it might wake a tired part of the world that iPads and iPods are nothing but dust compared to what Bill Gates and Microsoft have done for the world.

Its a real shame that Jobs knew how to stand in front of a crowd with an iPhone in his hand and make himself and the product sound like the second coming while Gates, Balmer and MS in general never could seem to do it near as well or at all, and the fact of the matter is that compared to what Microsoft has done for the world Steve Jobs and all his iMachines are more like second place then the second coming when compared to what Microsoft and Bill Gates have done for the world. Its already available as fact, unfortunately it now seems the truth will either only come out or be accepted broadly in years yet to come when historians decide to look at who did what from a factual point of view.
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RE: Bill Gates to return as Microsoft's white knight?
bmonsterman 9th Dec
@itguy10,
"The business market is also loosing faith in MS. It's because they are seeing that MS platforms lock and tie you into them only. With the growth of iOS, OS X, Android, and Linux companies are seeing that being an all MS shop is strangling their bottom line. And they cannot innovate and become better with expensive and hard to manage Microsoft solutions."

The business market isn't losing faith in MS. iOS and Android aren't very relevant in the business product market. Most business users are still using laptops, and MS still dominates the desktop OS market. As LOB application development platforms go, there are two players: Oracle and MS. There just aren't that many shops using PHP for LOB or enterprise applications. As far as DBMS's go there is Oracle, IBM and Microsoft. As far as Server OS's go, there is Linux and Windows Server 200x. Microsoft dominates the productivity software market and the Email server market. When it comes down to cost Oracle and Microsoft solutions are neck-in-neck, although I do think MS is a little cheaper.
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RE: Bill Gates to return as Microsoft's white knight?
Skippy99 9th Dec
@P. Douglas +1.

Thank you for saying so eloquently what many are thinking.
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RE: Bill Gates to return as Microsoft's white knight?
itguy10 9th Dec
@bmonsterman

"The business market isn't losing faith in MS. iOS and Android aren't very relevant in the business product market. "

Funny, everyone is tripping over themselves to get an iOS or Android app for their Business apps. And getting their web apps to work on these devices. Companies are piloting and using them for business. They are very relevant.

"Most business users are still using laptops, and MS still dominates the desktop OS market. "

And that marketshare is declining.... Slowly but declining.

"As far as Server OS's go, there is Linux and Windows Server 200x."

Except that IBM and HP still sell plenty of AIX, zOS, AS/400, HP/UX boxes. Even Oracle still sells a fair amount of Sun boxes.

"Microsoft dominates the productivity software market and the Email server market."

Except that Email/Groupware is split about 50/50 Exchange and Notes in the corporate market. Exchange is a POS and really doesn't scale well beyond SMB. Without lots of servers and costs.

" When it comes down to cost Oracle and Microsoft solutions are neck-in-neck, although I do think MS is a little cheaper."

Not when you factor the care and feeding Windows requires. And the lower reliability when compared to Linux or big iron.
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RE: Bill Gates to return as Microsoft's white knight?
Third of Five 9th Dec
@P. Douglas One of the biggest issues with Microsoft and marketing is that they've seldom ever really had to market their products, since they essentially got in on the ground floor in the IBM-compatible era.

I think another reason for the stagnant stock price is that The Market (tm) rewards growth, and Microsoft probably can't get much bigger than they are now without running a risk of losing focus on their core stuff. Incidentally, this also renders pointless most discussions of Ballmer's overall acumen as a CEO; Microsoft's situation on the desktop and in the office seems virtually unassailable, so even a chimp could run the company fairly well (no offense to Ballmer or chimps intended). I would argue that they haven't really had any calamitous blunders (arguably, ME and Vista could be considered by some to be mis-steps to various extents*), but even if they were to suffer such a blunder, it would probably take at least a decade to experience any significant decline in market share.

With that in mind, I do agree that a big problem with Microsoft is that they can't seem to make it clear to people what they're capable of (look at stuff like the ribbon, which was supposedly a means of bringing certain features front-and-center**, and the recent statement by Craig Mundie about Siri vs. TellMe). However, image isn't something you can buy. Marketing Microsoft at this point is almost like marketing air; it's virtually ubiquitous.

*I actually didn't mind Vista too much, and it could be argued that the foul-ups with some software were largely companies sticking to old practices, but perception of the situation can alter the situation itself at times.

**To clarify, the arguable purpose of the ribbon was that people were asking for this and that feature, but the features were already there; they were just buried beneath menus and dialog boxes. The ribbon seems to serve the purpose of bringing things closer to the forefront.
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RE: Bill Gates to return as Microsoft's white knight?
Rapid Rec 9th Dec
@P. Douglas I guess I live in the dark ages, because I don't understand your claim of MS taking over the living room. Don't get me wrong, as I've said many times before, I'm MS primary, and love MS office for home and student. But as I've found there is also room for Apple in our lives (my family) in the way of our Ipad, and Ipods.

But MS in the living room? Not sure about that, my son recently purchased a Kinect, but until he buy's more interesting games, I prefer the Wii for now.....

Thanks,
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RE: Bill Gates to return as Microsoft's white knight?
bmonsterman 9th Dec
@itguy,

"Funny, everyone is tripping over themselves to get an iOS or Android app for their Business apps. And getting their web apps to work on these devices. Companies are piloting and using them for business. They are very relevant."

Consumer apps sure. Business apps, not so much. Maybe there are some fringe projects for these kind of things, most people are sitting in their cube looking at a monitor.

"And that marketshare is declining.... Slowly but declining."

MS's business desktop marketshare is flat. It's a mature market. No one else is gobbling up MS marketshare on the desktop in the enterprise.

"Except that IBM and HP still sell plenty of AIX, zOS, AS/400, HP/UX boxes. Even Oracle still sells a fair amount of Sun boxes."

So what? Oracle pushes exadata running on Oracle Linux. Nobody is developing new Cobol/RPG apps. Everything but Windows and Linux is in support mode.

Exchange is a POS? What and Notes isn't?!?! Gimme a break.

"Not when you factor the care and feeding Windows requires. And the lower reliability when compared to Linux or big iron. "

Pure FUD. Windows Server 2008 properly configured doesn't require any more maintenance than Linux. I'm relatively agnostic about using either, but I can tell from previous posts you have what seems to me to be a neurotic dislike for MS. Grain of salt, I always say...
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RE: Bill Gates to return as Microsoft's white knight?
public@... 9th Dec
@bmonsterman Exchange is a POS! Try administering it sometime. Somebody sends an email with an attachment to everyone in the company. What does Exchange do? Store a copy of the attachment in a file server, and send out the email with a pointer to the file? Hell no! It creates X number of copies of the file and stores them all in its database. Moronic! Should I go on? Is there anything better? No. That is the sad truth. American business is now so hamstrung by fascist corruption, e.g. our patent system, that it is impossible to compete with the big boys, no matter how crappy their products are.
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RE: Bill Gates to return as Microsoft's white knight?
bmonsterman 12th Dec
public@...

Yea...but it's better than Lotus Notes.
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RE: Bill Gates to return as Microsoft's white knight?
The Danger is Microsoft Updated - 14th Dec
@bmonsterman - Nothing neurotic about disliking Microsoft. They don't deserve respect from any respectable human being. Microsoft only gets adoration from MS hoars and shills.
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RE: Bill Gates to return as Microsoft's white knight?
Rob.sharp@... 9th Dec
@kharvey916

Wishful thinking? This sounds a lot like what was said about Jobs returning to Apple and look how that turned out. It would be nice to see Gates come back...he clearly has a better grasp on Technology than Balmer and if it gave the Dev teams a kick in the butt i'd like to see it!
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When Jobs and Gates went head to head, Gates won
toddybottom 8th Dec
There can be no doubt that Gates is the better leader.
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RE: Bill Gates to return as Microsoft's white knight?
anono 8th Dec
@toddybottom
A) If Bill Gates ever created a competitor to Pixar, he certainly didn't win (I understand MS fanboys would disagree).

B) He also got hit by the DoJ for anti-competitive behaviour; I don't know if you can call someone a winner if he doesn't play by the same rules as everyone else.
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RE: Bill Gates to return as Microsoft's white knight?
The Danger is Microsoft 14th Dec
@anono - exactly.
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When Gates and Jobs went head to head, Gates was devastated.
Bruizer 8th Dec
@toddybottom

I have no idea what world history you live on. I know you strongly dislike Jobs and feel he has offered nothing to technology and the success of Apple but thinking MS's share price from 1998 to 2008 did better than Apple's share price in the same time period is simply lunacy.
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Stock comparison.
Gisabun 8th Dec
@Bruizer : Yahoo's finance site reports that Apple has been bouncing around between $100 and $200 from 2007 to 2009. Microsoft has been hovering around $25 to $30 in the same timframe. But MS has way more shares than Apple out there. But Apple only passed MS in the past few months in terms of worth. That was when MS was around $30 and Apple was close to $400. Therefore MS has maybe 12-13 times more shares than Apple. If so, then MS roughly doubled Apple's worth in 2009 [and back as far as 2007 at least]. Since Apple's stock wasn't "hot" because of the gadgets they sell now prior to 2007, I could only assume that Apple's stock was even lowerfrom 1998 to 2007.
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RE: Bill Gates to return as Microsoft's white knight?
Pete "athynz" Athens 8th Dec
@toddybottom Sigh. Gates won, Jobs is dead. It's a sick market. We all lose.
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RE: Bill Gates to return as Microsoft's white knight?
Rapid Rec 9th Dec
@Pete "athynz" Athens LOL! +1000!!
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Misplaced blame
Robert Hahn 8th Dec
@toddybottom
Never attribute to Gates that which was accomplished by IBM. All Gates had to do was climb on the elephant and ride. It's the same thing Intel did.
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Yes, it is easy to dismiss that which one can not do themselves.
Mister Spock 8th Dec
@Robert Hahn

Gates tamed the elephant that IBM was incapple of controlling.
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RE: Bill Gates to return as Microsoft's white knight?
Rama.NET 8th Dec
@Mister Spock
+1.
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RE: Bill Gates to return as Microsoft's white knight?
paulfx1 9th Dec
@Robert Hahn What elephant did Intel climb on when it invented the microprocessor?
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RE: Bill Gates to return as Microsoft's white knight?
itguy10 8th Dec
@toddybottom I guess presiding over the most valuable company in the world (Apple) makes you a poor leader.

I'd love to fail like that....
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RE: Bill Gates to return as Microsoft's white knight?
kc63092@... 8th Dec
@itguy10
it is just a fancy... RCA was once the darling of wall street, as well as AOL!!!
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RE: Bill Gates to return as Microsoft's white knight?
Peter Perry 8th Dec
Balmer isn't as bad as some say but he isn't really inspiring awe either... Gates Return would launch MS back to the center of the heap.
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RE: Bill Gates to return as Microsoft's white knight?
Dodgson1832 8th Dec
While of course it would be better for the company if he came back (one of the few visionary programers with complete business savvy and a talent for management), he would never do so. If you listen to him speak he is wholeheartedly dedicated to his family and to his foundation work. While he is undoubtedly passionate about Microsoft, I think he has other passions as well unlike someone like Steve Jobs who viewed Apple as the culmination of his life's work.
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RE: Bill Gates to return as Microsoft's white knight?
xvision 8th Dec
Nah, I don't see BillG returning.

Steven Sinofsky or someone new must take over.
There seems to be a new 'Windows everywhere' vision at MS right now.
Not sure if Sinofsky is behind this vision but whoever he is, he (she?) should have a more prominent role at the company.

With Steve Ballmer at the helm, MS is becoming the GE of the software/tech industry.
MS would be better off with someone with a sharper visioin at the helm.
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I'm in for Steven S
LiquidLearner 8th Dec
@xvision

He turned around the Office division, he turned around the Windows division. Who better for the job of leading the entire company toward a single vision? I think Ballmer has done okay, but Steven is awesome.
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RE: Bill Gates to return as Microsoft's white knight?
oldsysprog 8th Dec
@xvision

If there is a person who is driving customers away from Microsoft it is Sinofsky. It is one thing to be closed mouth to the press about where things are going, but to ignore the input of the partners and major customers the way Sinofsky does is suicide.
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RE: Bill Gates to return as Microsoft's white knight?
jackbond 8th Dec
@xvision

Steven Sinofsky??? Sinofsky is a clueless sack of ****. That would absolutely kill the company. If you're looking for someone to turn Microsoft around, the man you're looking for is Scott Guthrie.
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RE: Bill Gates to return as Microsoft's white knight?
Harry S. 8th Dec
@xvision

Agreed. Someone with a more technical focus who still has some business savvy would be ideal. That makes Sinofsky an excellent choice. Too bad I don't see that happening any time soon, if ever.
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RE: Bill Gates to return as Microsoft's white knight?
TheAnonPro Updated - 8th Dec
Having evolved in this industry for 20+ years, of which the last 18+ have been with Microsoft - it was sad to witness MS after Bill ... shift away from that which made Microsoft {its developer eco-system} to Apple's direct-to-consumer approach. This was further ratified by the Win8's total disregard to the exisiting Market/Enterprises Non-Touch investments and the premature announcement of everything going HTML5 coupled with utter silence on SL and .NET futures ... basically with a total disregard of the exisiting dev/isv/it eco-system and existing market/investments ...

crux: whoever is that single source you refering to, i sincerely hope they are right ... for without Bill or someone of his Caliber bringing "Tech" back into MS ... there is bound to be a continued brain-drain, be it within or its eco-system a.k.a their FREE sales-force.

Personally, am pro-MS and thus it is even more excruciating ... i sincerely wish they wake up before it is too late!
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RE: Bill Gates to return as Microsoft's white knight?
dheady@... 8th Dec
@TheAnonPro Too late.
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MS has alway had the developer tool of the day.
Bruizer 8th Dec
@TheAnonPro

And happily stranded tech along the way. Half supported. Things compile bug bugs are never fixed and tools start acting flaky on old tech. From MFC to COM to ATL it was time for MS to move forward again.
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RE: Bill Gates to return as Microsoft's white knight?
bmonsterman 9th Dec
@Bruizer,

How long has it been since you've done any real MS development? MFC, COM and ATL is like circa 1998. This has nothing to do with SL or .NET.
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RE: Bill Gates to return as Microsoft's white knight?
jk_10 8th Dec
I trust winrumors.com more than those ones from Forbes, or WSJ. Those people generate garbage news.
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RE: Bill Gates to return as Microsoft's white knight?
dheady@... 8th Dec
I doubt Mr. Gates' return would help MS. He doesn't have Mr. Jobs around from whom he can steal.
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RE: Bill Gates to return as Microsoft's white knight?
DocuMentor (Doc) 16th Dec
Doc shares your skepticism, Mary Jo. Even though Microsoft could use some new leadership, I'm not sure Bill Gates' return would be the way to go. Seems like a good time for some fresh blood. Surely there are some up-and-coming super stars at Microsoft that could do well in the executive suite. But as long as Steve Ballmer is around, there won't be much in the way of effective change. Thanks for the reporting.
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/doc

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