Bill Gates' long goodbye

The two-year transition will see the ascension of Ray Ozzie, one of three chief technical officers at Microsoft, who will slide into Gates's job as chief software architect. Ozzie, who created Lotus Notes, joined Microsoft in April, 2005, when Microsoft acquired a small collaborative software startup he launched called Groove. He immediately takes Gates's title of chief software architect and will become the lead technology visionary for the world's largest software company.

The top execs who've heard of Gates's pending departure are eager to step into their expanded roles, Ballmer says. “It's not like anybody is saying, 'Oh, isn't this a great day,'” Ballmer says. “On the other hand, it's not a bad day. You have a lot guys who say, 'Hey, this is a chance for me to do even more, for me to step up.'”

None more than Ballmer himself. For the first time in his 26 years with Microsoft he will no longer have Gates at his side. “I feel a lot of emotion today, given the incredibly close working relationship Bill and I have,” Ballmer said during the press conference. Gates too seemed to be touched as he reflected back on his decades at the helm of Microsoft. “I don't know what it will feel like not to come in and work my 10 to 11 hours,” he said.

From duo to soloists
Gates first brought up the idea of the shift to Ballmer in 2004. “When Bill first talked to me about the possibility, I was mostly quiet, I think,” says the usually gregarious Ballmer. It was just before he went off on vacation, and it took him some time to ponder the implications. “I wound up saying, 'Yeah, I see how we can make this work',” Ballmer says. "It wouldn't have been my preferred path to being thinking about this on this vacation.”

It wasn't until March, though, that Gates began to get serious about making the move. He told the board in a meeting then that he'd have a decision by mid-June. He made that decision on June 13, just before a conference call with directors.

The duo, possibly the most successful business combination in history, set about deciding how to divvy up Gates's tasks if he followed through with his plans. And Ballmer began to think about how his role as the sole leader of the software giant would change.

On a white board, they scrolled out a list of Gates roles. Ballmer dubbed one of them “expansionistic thinking.” It's the idea of getting Microsoft employees to innovate and create new opportunities for the company. “It might not be obvious who should pick up that opportunity,” Gates says. “He put his name next to that, which I thought was brilliant.”

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