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A vote for Bill Gates as interim Microsoft CEO

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Re: A vote for Bill Gates as interim Microsoft CEO

#61

Post by unono »

mcintyre1994 wrote: post #57
unono wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Microsoft's problem has been growth, and that's because they appear to always miss capitalizing on the new thing (web,search,mobile,social,tablets) - all things a startup guy is most talented at. They lack vision, a guy who has vision himself and can herd cats (visionaries) is the best thing for them. PG's about as good as anyone at that.

I'm sure I've missed one but I can't think of a dominant force in any of them fields that YC have invested in. I don't know about every investment, and like I said I've surely missed one, and I'm sure their portfolio has come closer than Microsoft to them markets, but if I were looking to find someone capitalising on them I can't think of any YC company immediately. Any ideas? Edit: To be fair, Dropbox beat Microsoft…

Airbnb and Heroku. And all this is since 2004, with tiny funds, and early 20s kids. Imagine how he'd do with unlimited money and talent.

Re: A vote for Bill Gates as interim Microsoft CEO

#62

Post by unono »

benologist wrote: post #59
unono wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

PG hasn't been running a startup, but managing hundreds of them. A large company is just a large number of small groups. A startup is a small group. PG is someone who has proven effective at managing to give a big ROI from managing quite a few small groups. Hence he is eminently suited to running a large corporation.

YC startups are independent and autonomous, the only people running them are their own CEOs.

So PG would be really good at delegating, another plus point for him as future Microsoft CEO.

Re: A vote for Bill Gates as interim Microsoft CEO

#63

Post by bpicolo »

jlgreco wrote: post #55
stingraycharles wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find that hard to believe. Weren't there a few oil sheiks with more money?

Forbes has him at number two, with Carlos Slim from Mexico still as number one. Regardless, I think it is pretty apparent that money is not his bottleneck.

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/business/2013/05/bill-gates-once...

Forbes last calculated in March. Gates overtook more recently.

Re: A vote for Bill Gates as interim Microsoft CEO

#64

Post by cmsmith »

sliverstorm wrote: post #27
unono wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You appear to delight in tearing down my suggestion with your multiple comments, and in knocking PG - whilst on PG's site. The biggest successes are in tech are from highly regarded, but less socially polished, techies (classic nerds), not manager types people which you appear to be pushing for (witness Balmer or Whitman).

You appear to delight in tearing down my suggestion with your multiple comments Microsoft has 8329956402 shares outstanding. Do you honestly believe that MSFT stock price can rise to value in the trillions, making the MSFT market cap ten sextillion dollars? knocking PG - whilst on PG's site. First, I wasn't knocking pg, I was asking a question. Second, when did use of his site constitute a requirement to idolize him?…

>Microsoft has 8329956402 shares outstanding. Do you honestly believe that MSFT stock price can rise to value in the trillions, making the MSFT market cap ten sextillion dollars?

He said the market cap would be trillions, not the share price.

Re: A vote for Bill Gates as interim Microsoft CEO

#66

Post by ics »

pearjuice wrote: post #29

If I were him I would never-ever take that position as a CEO ever again. He is basically living the dream right now without debts to Microsoft - like unfinished duty or bad rep - and a clean name (founder of MS, steered himself and MS into billionairity yet giving away all his money now). Unless it is guaranteed Microsoft will climb out of the hole it is in when Gates gets on top, it can only hurt him in terms of pre…

Surely what Mr. Gates needs to do here is start a scrappy little tech startup, hide it away from the world for a few months/years, while developing all the stuff he wished MS could do if it wasn't in debt to its current customer base, and then infiltrate MS under guise of a courtesy acquisition.

Re: A vote for Bill Gates as interim Microsoft CEO

#67

Post by mabhatter »

what has Bill Gates DONE in the TECH industry that deserves sitting in the big chair of the most influential tech company?

Steve Jobs had a comeback Jesus would be jealous of, but he also founded/built up TWO rockstar level companies Pixar and Next Computing in the ten years being kicked out of Apple. Bill Gates is just doing charity work... he's out of the game.

Re: A vote for Bill Gates as interim Microsoft CEO

#68

Post by dragonwriter »

cmsmith wrote: post #64
sliverstorm wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You appear to delight in tearing down my suggestion with your multiple comments Microsoft has 8329956402 shares outstanding. Do you honestly believe that MSFT stock price can rise to value in the trillions, making the MSFT market cap ten sextillion dollars? knocking PG - whilst on PG's site. First, I wasn't knocking pg, I was asking a question. Second, when did use of his site constitute a requirement to idolize him?…

>Microsoft has 8329956402 shares outstanding. Do you honestly believe that MSFT stock price can rise to value in the trillions, making the MSFT market cap ten sextillion dollars? He said the market cap would be trillions, not the share price.

That was a later edit; when I first read it (after the post you about the # of shares outstanding and the resulting calculated market cap), it said "stock" not "market cap".

Re: A vote for Bill Gates as interim Microsoft CEO

#69

Post by pigscantfly »

mabhatter wrote: post #67

what has Bill Gates DONE in the TECH industry that deserves sitting in the big chair of the most influential tech company? Steve Jobs had a comeback Jesus would be jealous of, but he also founded/built up TWO rockstar level companies Pixar and Next Computing in the ten years being kicked out of Apple. Bill Gates is just doing charity work... he's out of the game.

Well, for one thing, he founded it. And to be honest, I'd rather have another billionaire doing philanthropic work than working on another Pixar.

Re: A vote for Bill Gates as interim Microsoft CEO

#70

Post by unono »

cmsmith wrote: post #64
sliverstorm wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You appear to delight in tearing down my suggestion with your multiple comments Microsoft has 8329956402 shares outstanding. Do you honestly believe that MSFT stock price can rise to value in the trillions, making the MSFT market cap ten sextillion dollars? knocking PG - whilst on PG's site. First, I wasn't knocking pg, I was asking a question. Second, when did use of his site constitute a requirement to idolize him?…

>Microsoft has 8329956402 shares outstanding. Do you honestly believe that MSFT stock price can rise to value in the trillions, making the MSFT market cap ten sextillion dollars? He said the market cap would be trillions, not the share price.

dragonwriter's right, I should have put that as an edit. But even from 'stock price', a reasonable person would infer market cap.
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