Editing Bill Gates (section)

=== Management style ===
[[File:Bill Gates - World Economic Forum Annual Meeting Davos 2008.jpg|thumb|right|Gates delivers a speech at the [[World Economic Forum]] in Switzerland, January 2008.|280x280px]]

During Microsoft's early years, Gates was an active software developer, particularly in the company's programming language products, but his primary role in most of the company's history was as a manager and executive. He has not officially been on a development team since working on the [[TRS-80 Model 100]],<ref name="allison1993">{{cite interview | last=Gates | first=Bill | subject-link=Bill Gates | interviewer=David Allison | url=http://americanhistory.si.edu/comphist/gates.htm | title=Bill Gates Interview | work=Transcript of a Video History Interview / Computer History Collection | publisher=National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution | access-date=April 10, 2013 | url-status=live | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130402195548/http://americanhistory.si.edu/comphist/gates.htm | archive-date=April 2, 2013 }}</ref> but he wrote code that shipped with the company's products as late as 1989.<ref name="pdc97">{{cite speech |url=http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/exec/billg/speeches/1997/pdc.aspx |first=Bill |last=Gates |title=Remarks by Bill Gates |location=San Diego |date=September 26, 1997 |access-date=March 31, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080420152409/http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/exec/billg/speeches/1997/pdc.aspx |archive-date=April 20, 2008 |url-status=dead}}</ref> [[Jerry Pournelle]] wrote in 1985 when Gates announced [[Microsoft Excel]]: "Bill Gates likes the program, not because it's going to make him a lot of money (although I'm sure it will do that), but because it's a [[hack (programmer subculture)|neat hack]]."<ref name="pournelle198509">{{cite news | url=https://archive.org/stream/byte-magazine-1985-09/1985_09_BYTE_10-09_Homebrewing#page/n329/mode/2up | title=PCs, Peripherals, Programs, and People | work=[[Byte (magazine)|Byte]] | date=September 1985 | access-date=March 20, 2016 | author=Pournelle, Jerry | page=347}}</ref> During the late 1990s, he was [[Criticism of Microsoft|criticized for his business tactics]], which were considered [[anti-competitive]]. This opinion has been upheld by numerous court rulings.{{Sfnm|1a1=Lesinski|1y=2006|1p=96|2a1=Manes|2y=1994|2p=459}}

In June 2006, Gates announced that he would transition out of his role at Microsoft to dedicate more time to philanthropy. He gradually divided his responsibilities between two successors when he placed [[Ray Ozzie]] in charge of management and [[Craig Mundie]] in charge of long-term product strategy.<ref name="mscorpnews">{{cite news|url=http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2006/jun06/06-15CorpNewsPR.mspx |title=Microsoft Announces Plans for July 2008 Transition for Bill Gates |publisher=Microsoft |date=June 15, 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060619230935/http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2006/jun06/06-15CorpNewsPR.mspx |archive-date=June 19, 2006 |url-status=dead }}</ref> The process took two years to fully transfer his duties to Ozzie and Mundie, and was completed on June 27, 2008.<ref>{{cite web|title=Bill Gates {{!}} Development of Information and Knowledge Management|url=https://www.tlu.ee/~sirvir/IKM/Development_of_IKM/bill_gates.html|website=tlu.ee|access-date=January 21, 2016|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160126074023/http://www.tlu.ee/~sirvir/IKM/Development_of_IKM/bill_gates.html|archive-date=January 26, 2016}}</ref>