Bill Gates Might Return to Save Microsoft – Report

The International Business Times writes that Microsoft might come down to a pretty unexpected solution when it comes to rescuing the company.
Bill Gates might actually return to the software giant in an attempt to save it on the long term, the source writes, even though no official statements have been provided.
As far as Steve Ballmer is concerned, the CEO explained in a recent interview with The Seattle Times that a CEO succession is already planned, but he refused to provide more details on the person who’s soon going to control Microsoft.
Bill Gates Might Return to Save Microsoft
 
Could be the best thing that happened...... to me......(2,3,4...)
 

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Well, it worked for Apple. When Steve Jobs returned to Apple in 1996, he brought the company from near bankruptcy to profitability in 2 years.
 

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Not clear to me where that rumour came from.

Maybe the result of Jeff Ubben's activities.
 

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Looks like there might be some changes to the M$ board.


Big change may not be change enough for Microsoft

As it is, both pieces of news have left Microsoft's future looking more uncertain than ever. Among the few voices arguing for the stock were analysts at UBS and Nomura, who predicted shareholder activists would start agitating for moves that benefit investors. Sure enough, late Friday Reuters reported that Microsoft is talking with one such investor about a board seat. Big changes are only beginning at Microsoft, only now they may start coming from outside the company
Big change may not be change enough for Microsoft - Fortune Tech
 

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Frankly, it couldn't happen to a more arrogant bunch.
 

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Truly wanted to say something very nasty, but will hold by tongue. . .which at this point is surely very hard for me to do. . .:p
 

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Gates SHOULD come back to MS. He left his company in the hands of dolts who refuse to listen to what users want, Gates used to accommodate PEOPLE, not TECH - The Tech would be set up to accommodate what people wanted and expected out of it. Now it just seems that MS wants to both fight with and copy Apple all the way down to it's grave.
 

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Many of us have been there. No boss is the ultimate authority in business today. There is , according to the size of the organisation, a committee of the top dogs, who regularly consult on policies and procedure. Even this is influenced by how much it will affect the shareholders pockets. They also have there own committees, which have a lot of influence in the overall company procedures. I doubt if Bill had much power to override any of those those decisions, in his final days with MS. Nor will he should he return.
But the psychological impact will be there. His return as a figurehead could spark more confidence in the company.
 

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Well, it worked for Apple. When Steve Jobs returned to Apple in 1996, he brought the company from near bankruptcy to profitability in 2 years.

Gates != Jobs. His greatest accomplishment was buying DOS and then licensing it instead of selling it to IBM. Gates was still in charge during the introduction of the HTPC, Pocket PC, and Tablet PC, and those things went nowhere under his watch. Of course, they didn't go anywhere after he stepped down, but I don't really perceive him as any kind of big-time impresario like Jobs was. Microsoft under Gates was famous for basically missing things like, oh, the Internet, finally recognizing a few years late that this thing is important.
 

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No rudeness intended, but your post presents a rather shallow view of Bill Gates.
He did not, for one example, " and then licensing it instead of selling it to IBM", he developed the Dos for IBM, for a large fee - good for him! I believe Apple are still paying a licence for its use on their machines.
same "stardom". But Gates proved to be more imaginative and daring than others - leading to his success story. Not alone. of course, in the beginning.
 

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No rudeness intended, but your post presents a rather shallow view of Bill Gates.
He did not, for one example, " and then licensing it instead of selling it to IBM", he developed the Dos for IBM, for a large fee - good for him!

You really need to brush up on your history of DOS, because what I said, though abbreviated, was accurate. You might start here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MS-DOS

I believe Apple are still paying a licence for its use on their machines.

Apple is paying a DOS license to Microsoft? Put the pipe down, now.

same "stardom". But Gates proved to be more imaginative and daring than others - leading to his success story. Not alone. of course, in the beginning.

Microsoft's success story was predicated on licensing DOS to all the clone makers and later requiring Windows be sold with every PC that was shipped, regardless of whether the customer wanted it or not. The Microsoft tax was Bill Gates' crowning achievement, and the consistent cash flow it generated enabled a lot of other things. Jobs built Apple, Next, Pixar, and reinvented Apple from the iMac to iPod to iPhone and iPad. That's what I meant by "impresario". What is Gates associated with inventing? BASIC? I can see Gates' return to Microsoft generating some misguided excitement, but I fail to see how he is some kind of big idea man, and thus the comparison to Jobs doesn't make much sense to me. Further, Gates has been solely concerned with his philanthropic pursuits since his retirement from Microsoft, which is the opposite of what Jobs did after being ousted from Apple.
 

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Well, when I started computing, MS dos was just one of the many DOSes. I agree with a lot of what you say, Gates was more a businessman and less of e developer. But he took just ONE Disk Operating System and turned it into something we all here depend on. I used Dos 6.22 more than I used Windows 3.1!

I see Windows as a struggle. Windows 95 was a FAIL, 98 was a success, ME was another fail, 2000 kicked arses. XP was rock solid, Vista was another ME. Windows 7 was another 98 and 2000 and XP, and all of those systems has excellent programs available for them, and I still use a few programs that wan under 98.

Gates Big Deal was creating an OS with a built in web browser, something that apple had not done, As a matter of fact, IE was part of Apple's OS for a LONG time. It all started with Windows 95 with IE, and when Windows 98 came out, IE was a viable part of the OS. Before IE I used Netscape for banking, because my bank gave me the disk.


See, gates knew how to package things together and we've all benefited from Windows. Hell, we're using it NOW.
 

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Well, as I said, no rudeness was intended. But it seems you had the urge to go in the other direction - unfortunately too common on the site.

How does your Wikipedia link vary, in essence, from what I said?

"Apple is paying a DOS license to Microsoft? Put the pipe down, now."

By the pipe I guess you are referring to age? Well, that could be an asset. I have worked, almost my whole adult life, in developing countries, but am now retired. believe me, some very old systems are still being used in those places.

"thus the comparison to Jobs doesn't make much sense to me"

Did I say that?
 

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Many of us have been there. No boss is the ultimate authority in business today. There is , according to the size of the organisation, a committee of the top dogs, who regularly consult on policies and procedure. Even this is influenced by how much it will affect the shareholders pockets. They also have there own committees, which have a lot of influence in the overall company procedures. I doubt if Bill had much power to override any of those those decisions, in his final days with MS. Nor will he should he return.
But the psychological impact will be there. His return as a figurehead could spark more confidence in the company.

You are kidding... right? Sure there is a committee at the top.. but like any decent season of Survivor, it'll be driven by at most one or two competing alliances, and right now Ballmer is the top dog. What he wants, he gets.. because its his lackeys that make up a majority of the board and he sits in the first position. Don't be so naïve to think that any corporate board is made up of a dozen or so independent thinkers. Nothing would ever get done.

All of this mess lies directly at Ballmer's feet. Everything that has happened has his fingerprints all over it.
 

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Well, it worked for Apple. When Steve Jobs returned to Apple in 1996, he brought the company from near bankruptcy to profitability in 2 years.

Gates != Jobs. His greatest accomplishment was buying DOS and then licensing it instead of selling it to IBM. Gates was still in charge during the introduction of the HTPC, Pocket PC, and Tablet PC, and those things went nowhere under his watch. Of course, they didn't go anywhere after he stepped down, but I don't really perceive him as any kind of big-time impresario like Jobs was. Microsoft under Gates was famous for basically missing things like, oh, the Internet, finally recognizing a few years late that this thing is important.

You don't build a multi-billion dollar international corporation by accident. Try it some time.
 

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[h=1]One more time: Bill Gates is not coming back to run Microsoft[/h]
Once more. With feeling. Everyone repeat after me: Bill Gates is not going to sweep in like a white knight and take over as Microsoft's CEO.
theanswerisno-200x236.png
There's an unsourced report from the Australian International Business Times claiming this might happen, which is being picked up by various sites and blogs. Maybe... just maybe... what if...
I don't have Gates' ear. I can't get an interview with CEO Ballmer and haven't been able for nearly two decades. (No idea why. I keep asking -- sometimes even nicely.)
But even without this level of access, I can say Gates is not coming back. He is not going to take back the CEO reins he gave to Ballmer in 2000. He is not going to become Chief Technology Officer. He's just not. He's said it before, and maybe he will have to say it again. Gates is done running Microsoft. Period.
One more time: Bill Gates is not coming back to run Microsoft | ZDNet
 

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Guess what! George Lucas told me there would never be a Star Wars 7, 8, or 9 either. It will always be an 'impossibility' until it happens.

Personally... I would be highly surprised if Bill Gates didn't come back to have more of an active role in the company, regardless of anything he has previously said. He's in a no-lose scenario tbh. If he comes back and the company still ends up swan diving into oblivion, it will always be Ballmer's fault. If the company turns around, he'll be back to being the visionary ala Jobs and the reason it happened, regardless of how much control he exerted in doing it. Simply headlining it was enough. Either way, thats his legacy and I don't see him sitting on the sidelines for it while it goes sailing into the night. That doesn't seem to me to be the type of thing Gates would ultimately do.
 

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He won't have to. Jeff Ubben is there.
 

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