Bill Gates: WTF, man?

Posted by Greg Laden on June 27, 2008
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Is this some kind of sick joke?

Do you remember when Bill Gates retired from Microsoft? There was even a YouTube video about it:

That was, like, six months ago.

So why do we see this reported on the BBC web site:

The chairman of Microsoft and one of the world’s richest men, Bill Gates, is stepping down from his job running the world’s largest software company.

Mr Gates, who made his fortune through developing software for the personal computer, plans to devote his time to charity work.

source

And then, at the end of that very same BBC piece, we have this:

He will remain as Microsoft’s chairman …

I’ll say it again: WTF?????

It’s like freakin’ groundhog day or something.

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Comments

  1. #1 MRW
    June 27, 2008

    Several months ago (January-ish, I think) Gates announced that he would be retiring from day-to-day involvement in July. It’s now, almost, July. I’m not seeing what’s so confusing about this.

  2. #2 MRW
    June 27, 2008

    Actually, he announced at least the general timeframe a year or two before that, I think. Still, in January, the story was that he was retiring in July, so I don’t get the current confusion.

  3. #3 Greg Laden
    June 27, 2008

    MRW. I personally saw Bill Gates pack his shit and leave in January. Pay attention.

  4. #4 jj
    June 27, 2008

    You’d have a hard time leaving too if you were raking that kind of dough! Well it’s good to see him putting his money to good noble use now

  5. #5 Rich Blinne
    June 27, 2008

    Here’s from today’s NYT:

    Bill Gates is retiring, sort of. He is still only 52, and he is going off to spend more time guiding the world’s richest philanthropy, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. He will still be Microsoft’s chairman and largest shareholder, but Friday is his last day as a full-time worker at the software giant, marking the unofficial end of his career as a business leader.

  6. #6 cfeagans
    June 27, 2008

    In most companies when the CEO retires he/she stays on as a chairman of the board. He’s just no longer CEO.

  7. #7 Ian
    June 27, 2008

    Whilst his charitable work is commendable, I’m not sure that any amount of it can undo the evil he’s wrought in people’s lives.

  8. #8 crf
    June 27, 2008

    Warning. He has stopped jobs.

  9. #9 daenku32
    June 27, 2008

    I don’t think he is that evil. But Ballmer is to Gates as Cheney is to Bush.

    Idiot puppets controlled by a truly evil puppet masters.

  10. #10 JM
    June 28, 2008

    “Ballmer is to Gates as Cheney is to Bush.”

    Sorry wrong analogy. Gates was quite capable of evil all on his own, long before Ballmer turned up.

    Ballmer is just the incompetent apprentice, or if you like the mafiaosi hanging with the nerds (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8To-6VIJZRE)

  11. #11 Andrew
    June 28, 2008

    Ballmer is like draft two of the evil side of gates. A more pure, stronger, evil clone.

  12. #12 Deon
    March 24, 2011

    Sounds like a case for toppling the regime of Saddam Hussein.