Bill Gates Says Goodbye To Microsoft
Jun 27th, 2008 by Shaun Carter
Today is Bill Gates’ last day working at Microsoft, the company he founded in 1975 as a Harvard drop out that now dominates the computer operating system market worldwide. Gates has been at or near the top of the list of world’s richest people for over a decade and will be leaving the day-to-day tasks of overseeing the Windows empire to devote his full attention to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation which is focused on global health issues.
Since Microsoft’s founding, over 10,000 employees have been turned into millionaires because of their stock options. Microsoft went public in 1986 at a split adjusted 8 cents per share, and now trades at around $28 per share - 35,000% return on investment!
Bill will be retaining the title of non-executive chairman and will presumably have a part in all major Microsoft projects in the future, but will now begin the task of spreading his wealth around the world.
It will be interesting to see what effect this change will have on Microsoft’s stock price, which has been depressed since the failed acquisition of Yahoo was permanently scuttled recently.
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