End of an era as Microsoft’s new boss takes over
Bill Gates, the world’s richest man, steps down as chair of Microsoft, the firm he founded from his garage in 1975
MICROSOFT founder Bill Gates will step aside as chairman from the technology giant that he established in 1975 as part of the most dramatic management reshuffle in the firm’s history, which will see Satya Nadella take over as chief executive.
Gates, the world’s richest man with a personal wealth of £45.6bn, will step into a new role on Microsoft’s board as a technology adviser.
Nadella, former vice president of Microsoft’s cloud and enterprise group, yesterday took over from Steve Ballmer as only the third chief executive in the company’s 39-year history.
Hyderabad-born Nadella, aged 46, takes over leadership of a company that has reported record quarterly revenues in recent years, but is widely seen as having ceded its position as a leader of innovation in mobile and cloud services to rivals Apple and Google.
In an interview last night Nadella offered the first insight into his strategy for Microsoft, saying the firm would adopt a “mobile-first, cloud-first” strategy for new products, reigning in Microsoft’s traditional focus on software – Gates’ area of expertise.
“Our job is to ensure that Microsoft thrives in a mobile and cloud-first world,” said Nadella, who will first face the challenge of integrating Nokia’s handset division, which Microsoft paid €5.44bn for last year.
“Satya’s got the right background to lead the company during this era,” Gates said yesterday.
Microsoft said Gates’ new role will support Nadella “in shaping technology and product direction” at Microsoft.
Gates left day-to-day work at Microsoft in 2008 to focus on philanthropy at his Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which he says is still his main job.
Programming prodigy Gates co-founded Microsoft at the age of 20 with childhood friend Paul Allen, abandoning his degree at Harvard University to focus on the infant software company.
Ballmer, who he met at Harvard, was the company’s 30th employee.
In an email to staff yesterday, Nadella said: “The opportunity ahead will require us to reimagine a lot of what we have done in the past for a mobile and cloud-first world, and do new things.
“A big part of my job is to accelerate our ability to bring innovative products to our customers more quickly.”
After joining Microsoft in 1992 Nadella led the development of Microsoft’s cloud infrastructure division which is behind the online components of Xbox, Office and Bing.
Nadella grew up in Hyderabad in India and his appointment as chief executive makes him one of the most powerful Indian-born tech executives in the world.
Gates will be replaced as chairman by John Thompson who joined the company in 2012 and has extensive experience in cloud services, having previously served as chief executive of Symantec and as a vice president at IBM.
Microsoft’s share price remained stable yesterday as investors and analysts showed their relief that the period of uncertainty has ended now that the company has chosen a candidate widely viewed as the safe pick.
“Nadella is a born-and-bred Redmond [Microsoft’s campus] insider. But the uphill battle continues for Microsoft on its path to growth,” said FBR Capital Markets analyst Daniel Ives.