Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Bill Gates has stepped down from Microsoft's board

prnewswire.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

121–130 of 152 posts

Re: Bill Gates has stepped down from Microsoft's board

#121

Post by blahsterr »

scarejunba wrote: post #89
_jal wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really despise the US habit of worshipping of the wealthy.

I'm pretty sure Bill Gates is worshipped for more than his wealth. Growing up, he was the stereotypical wunderkind and people would say about smart kids "going to be the next Bill Gates". Come on, I was there to type in Microserf and M$ when Microsoft was fucking everyone with the SCO bullshit. That was infuriating, as was all the crap around FAT and NTFS. But you rarely find the combo of technologist and smart busin…

honestly how the fuck is he a technologist?

he dropped out of pre-law.....to buy and rebrand somebody else’s qdos then sell it to his buddies at ib-fucking-m. then followed a couple decades of patent lawsuits, ripping off mac os, ripping off netscape, and making illegal deals to push his operating system on everybody, thereby setting back the computer industry by at least a decade.

am i missing something?

Re: Bill Gates has stepped down from Microsoft's board

#122

Post by maest »

njarboe wrote: post #95
lacker wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At a huge company like Microsoft the board isn't really a great place for visionaries. It's much better at things like helping the CEO understand the thoughts of large institutional investors that provide Microsoft with capital. A visionary is better suited as a "special advisor" to someone... like the role that Bill Gates is keeping.

With cash on hand of around $140 billion, I'm not sure Microsoft really needs to worry about outside capital. I would think the board could help with how to keep those big companies paying for everyone to have the full Microsoft Office suite and how to custom price it.

They still care about share price, which depends on outside investors willing to buy the shares, which depends on MS having good IR, which some of the board members help with.

Re: Bill Gates has stepped down from Microsoft's board

#124

Post by badsectoracula »

lowdose wrote: post #86
chollida1 wrote: post #3

Also stepped down from the Berkshire board as well. Given that he stepped away from a day to day role in 2008 and then stepped down as the chairman in 2014, I'm guessing he's focusing on his foundation. He's still the 8th largest shareholder according to Bloomberg's records(103,000,000 share), which is pretty impressive given that the 7 entities above him are all funds. Incase you wanted to know who the remaining 12…

You have to wonder what a suit from Pepsi has to offer to a technology company. Pepsi sells sugar water that is causing obesity at scale. Pepsis most recent investment is a $4 billion energy brand called Rockstar. That romance between Jobs and the Pepsi CEO was in hindsight also a Hindenburg idea. What happend to we are changing the world with technology?

> What happend to we are changing the world with technology?

Well, we did. Are you sure you want more?

Re: Bill Gates has stepped down from Microsoft's board

#125

Post by ehsankia »

rconti wrote: post #75
daxfohl wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Kind of odd, being an employee there, I've never heard of eleven of the twelve board members before.

Padmasree Warrior, Reid Hoffman, Satyella Nadalla, I'd expect a decent number of people have heard of. The rest, no. But that's just my bias.

It would definitely be odd if you worked at Microsoft and hadn't heard of Satyella Nadalla :)

Re: Bill Gates has stepped down from Microsoft's board

#126

Post by sytelus »

lacker wrote: post #77
sytelus wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most of the board members seem to be partners at various investment firms. Many of them don't seem to even remotely tech people. It's kind of sad that the Microsoft board lacks any external visionaries.

At a huge company like Microsoft the board isn't really a great place for visionaries. It's much better at things like helping the CEO understand the thoughts of large institutional investors that provide Microsoft with capital. A visionary is better suited as a "special advisor" to someone... like the role that Bill Gates is keeping.

This is not true. Look at Google board. Very few investor suits but many tech visionaries.

Re: Bill Gates has stepped down from Microsoft's board

#127

Post by sytelus »

mbesto wrote: post #101
sytelus wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most of the board members seem to be partners at various investment firms. Many of them don't seem to even remotely tech people. It's kind of sad that the Microsoft board lacks any external visionaries.

Board members focus on things like governance and fiduciary responsibilities, not on what the next version of Windows is going to be. You'll find that most VCs are also not "even remotely tech people". Guess what - they also happen to sit on many tech startup boards.

No. Governance squarely lies with CEO and fiduciary responsibility with CFO. Board is supposed to look at these but they are not responsible for it (i.e. Enron board members don't go to jail for fraud but CEO and CFO may). The board does not exist just for administrative purposes. At all time, senior leadership need to behave so that they have confidence of board members. In return, board members are supposed to advice on investments company is making or not making, competative landscape, internal struggles, big problems, earnings expectations etc.

Re: Bill Gates has stepped down from Microsoft's board

#128

Post by manigandham »

_jal wrote: post #54
tuna-piano wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1. Bill Gates is extremely competitive, he's a bulldog, he fights and wants to win against whatever. He built Microsoft into a Monopoly and is fighting hard (and doing a great job) against diseases. 2. Bill Gates looks at problems logically, finds missing links, and solves those links. Whether that is refrigeration for vaccines, getting useful data for diseases, etc. 3. Bill Gates knows a ton about diseases, epidemic…

I really despise the US habit of worshipping of the wealthy.

He's self-made and wealthy because of his qualities and capabilities. That's what people admire. There's no denying that Bill Gates is one of the best executives ever.

Re: Bill Gates has stepped down from Microsoft's board

#129

Post by sytelus »

freepor wrote: post #108
sytelus wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most of the board members seem to be partners at various investment firms. Many of them don't seem to even remotely tech people. It's kind of sad that the Microsoft board lacks any external visionaries.

Board members aren't there to invent the next iPhone, they're there to determine when the CEO should be fired, and to hire a new CEO when necessary. Right now, the Microsoft board is particularly pointless since Satya Nadella is one of the highest-performing CEOs in the world and isn't close to retirement.

That's not how it works. When CEO wants to take on big bet, he will typically need board approval. You can imagine Steve Jobs standing in board room and presenting costs and promise of iPhone. If your board is all classic investor suits then they might not see through things. They can move to prevent CEO from spending big money because that would reflect in reduced earnings because of higher capex. I think this is one reason Google gets away with far larger R&D capex than Microsoft because their board has real tech folks and ex-founders.

Re: Bill Gates has stepped down from Microsoft's board

#130

Post by mkl »

ehsankia wrote: post #125
rconti wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Padmasree Warrior, Reid Hoffman, Satyella Nadalla, I'd expect a decent number of people have heard of. The rest, no. But that's just my bias.

It would definitely be odd if you worked at Microsoft and hadn't heard of Satyella Nadalla :)

Not really. The CEO of Microsoft is Satya Nadella. Satyella Nadalla doesn't seem to exist.
Post reply on HN