Bill Gates, will retire from Microsoft on June 27th. A dropout from Harvard University, he is the lead figure of the computer age and made billions of dollars. He will remain as the chairman of board of directors of Microsoft and largest shareholder of the company.

Three people will replace Bill Gates. Bill Gates and his friend Paul Allen were the founders of Microsoft, which was set up in 1975. Ray Ozzie was handling Bill Gates’ role as chief architect of software, as the latter was busy with his charity work, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Craig Mundie took over as the chief research and strategy officer. Bill Gates former Harvard classmate Steve Ballmer took over as chief executive officer at the software giant located in Seattle.

Analysts have admitted that Microsoft has been facing problems since Bill gates stepped aside from managing its operations some years back. The company has missed several opportunities. The Windows and Office software on which the fortune of Microsoft is built had a set back. The Windows Vista operating system of the company flopped. Many are hanging on to Windows XP.

Apple Macintosh has been gaining popularity. Although Microsoft is still using 90 per cent of the computers in the world, the operating system of Apple has increased to about 5 % of the market.

Source: TOI June 23rd. 2008