Bill Gates to transition away from Microsoft

Ballmer said Thursday he is firmly in control of Microsoft and plans to remain in charge for a “very long time.”

“The company’s got a big and very broad mission. I am excited about that mission. I think we’ll surprise people with how successful we are going to be,” Ballmer told Reuters. “There was a time when we did surprise people."

Ballmer emphasized there will be no power struggle after Gates takes a reduced role at Microsoft. “I’ve really been running the company for six and a half years, so I don’t really anticipate any change internally,” Ballmer said. “People understand that the kinds of things that I am deep in are different from the kinds of things Bill is deep in.”

Gates interjected: “The authority is still the same.”

Thinking back to the company’s modest beginnings, Gates said he never imagined that Microsoft would grow to be a software company employing 63,000 people in more than 100 countries with sales of more than $40 billion.

“It’s interesting that we had such a good vision of the importance of software ... and yet we thought we’d have this modest-sized company,” said Gates. “When we had 100 people, we thought when we have 200 people we can write all the software the world will need.”

Gates, ranked as the world's richest individual with Microsoft stock and other assets valued at $50 billion, reiterated Thursday that he intends to give away the vast bulk of his wealth before he dies. The Gates Foundation, with assets of some $30 billion, already ranks as the world's biggest and handed out about $1.5 billion in grants in 2004, the most recent year for which figures were available.

“Just as Microsoft has taken off in ways I never expected, so has the work of the foundation,” Gates said.

The world “has had a tendency to focus a disproportionate amount of attention on me,” Gates said, adding that Microsoft has a deep and wide talent pool.

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