Gates rules out returning to Microsoft

Today's Wall Street Journal is running an article on how Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and CEO Steve Ballmer spent the past eight years learning how to pass the leadership baton from Gates to Ballmer.

The most interesting part of the article -- and perhaps the main reason Microsoft provided the Journal with access to top-level company officials on the topic of Gates' and Ballmers' interpersonal relationship -- is at the very end.

"The question remains if Mr. Gates can resist the temptation to dive back in if Microsoft hits a crisis point. Over the past decade, several high-profile founders jumped back in when their companies were under siege, including Steve Jobs, who remade Apple Inc., and Michael Dell of Dell Inc. and Howard Schultz of Starbucks Corp. 'There is a savior complex that says, 'I'm the only one who can restore it to its glory,'' says David A. Nadler, senior partner at consulting firm Oliver Wyman Group.

"Mr. Gates says he's happy to help on some long-term projects, but won't return full-time. 'I am done with that,' he said.

There's been much speculation, both public and private, regarding whether Gates might "un-retire" if he saw Microsoft going downhill. Some readers of this blog have even gone so far as to bet that Gates might not actually leave Microsoft at all, given the ongoing image problems plaguing Vista, the unfinished status of Microsoft's deal with Yahoo and the fact that the company is at a cross-roads, in terms of its implementation of new business models.

But via the Journal, Microsoft is attempting to squash any such theories. June 30 will be Gates' "last day" at Microsoft; he will remain as Chairman but no longer be involved in day-to-day decisions as of that date. And he won't be back, Gates himself is on record now as saying.

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