Richest man steps down at Microsoft to concentrate on vast charity efforts

The world's richest man is quitting his day job.

Bill Gates announced yesterday he will soon step down from day-to-day work at tech giant Microsoft to concentrate on his charity, which funds the battle against diseases like malaria and AIDS.

"This was a hard decision for me," said Gates, 50, who is worth more than $50 billion. "I'm very lucky to have two passions that I feel are so important and so challenging."

Gates, who founded the world's largest software company with childhood friend Paul Allen three decades ago, had already lightened his corporate workload a bit.

He'll stop working every day by 2008, but will remain as chairman. Steve Ballmer, a college buddy of Gates, is already serving as Microsoft's CEO.

"Today is not a retirement," Gates said. "It's a reordering of my priorities."

He insisted he was leaving the company in tip-top shape and said a tag team of execs, including software guru Ray Ozzie, would gradually fill his shoes.

Still, observers said the company, whose stock price has stagnated in recent years, wouldn't be the same without Gates.

"Microsoft and Bill Gates are synonymous," said Tim Boyd, an analyst at Caris & Co.

One thing won't change. Gates will still be Microsoft's No. 1 shareholder.

"I'm proud of that," he said.

Since its launch in 1975, Microsoft grabbed the top spot in the tech economy and now controls software used by 95% of personal computers worldwide.

He took the company public in 1986, earning a multibillion dollar windfall.

For 12 consecutive years, Forbes has named Gates the world's richest person. In 1999, toward the end of the dot-com boom, Gates' holdings briefly topped a staggering $100 billion.

The mindboggling wealth brought new burdens to Gates, who became perhaps the most recognized symbol of American success in a new era of technology.

Hoping to leave a legacy beyond Windows and a mountain of cash, he and his wife founded the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in 2000.

Since then, Gates has criss-crossed the globe promoting programs to bring vaccinations in poor countries, research cures for the AIDS virus and install computers in libraries and schools.

"Just as Microsoft has taken off in ways I never expected, so has the work of the foundation," he said.

The foundation now has $26billion in assets, and Gates has repeatedly said he hopes to leave the bulk of his fortune to charity.

The foundation also funded the creation of 60 small new public schools in New York, part of an initiative to move urban education away from large and unwieldy schools.

10 things you didn't know about Bill Gates

Bill Gates is the richest man in the world, but how much do you really know about the billionaire with the bad hairdo?

1 Gates was just 17 when he sold his first piece of software • for $4,000.

2 He went to Harvard, but dropped out during his junior year.

3 He once liked all-night poker games and now plays bridge online under the handle "Chalengr."

4 At 31, Gates became the youngest self-made billionaire in history.

5 Despite his laidback image, Gates often berated underlings at Microsoft with his trademark put-down, "That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard!"

6 Gates paid $30 million for a collection of writings by Leonardo da Vinci.

7 His massive home on a hill overlooking Lake Washington is the world's most expensive house, valued at a cool $125 million.

8 Gates' mom chided him at his wedding to be a philanthropist. "From those who are given great resources, great things are expected," Mary Gates said.

9 His foundation has given away more money than Andrew Carnegie and John Rockefeller put together, even when adjusted for inflation.

10 Not that he's hurting now, but he was worth more than $100 billion in 1999 • before the dot-com crash erased more than half his fortune.

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BY DAVE GOLDINER
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

All contents © 2006 Daily News, L.P.