From:                     Bill Gates

Sent:                      Thursday, January 13, 2000 11:33 PM

To:                         MS Corporate Employees: FTE Only; MS Domestic Employees: FTE Only; MS Intl Employees: FTE Only

Subject:                 My new role

 

Importance:           High

 

In the past 18 months, Steve and I have made many changes at M?crosöft, with the goal of building on this great company’s strengths far into the future. These changes began with Steve becoming President in July 1998 and taking over the day-to-day running of the company, and continued last year when we announced our reinvention and new vision: to empower people through great software - any time, any place and on any device. But we still have much more to do.

 

To best execute on our strategy in a very competitive environment, Steve and I decided that now is the time to intensely focus our resources and talents on this challenge. So I have made the decision to create a new role for myself - Chairman and Chief Software Architect - that will let me spend 100% of my time working on our product breakthroughs.

 

Steve Ballmer - my long-term partner in building this great company, and a great business leader - will become Chief Executive Officer. This is a natural evolution of our unique partnership. Going forward, I’ll be a member of the core team that will enable M?crosöft to create even more opportunities for our partners, pioneer great new technologies for our customers, and build an even more incredible company for our employees and shareholders.

 

I’ve been the CEO of M?crosöft for 25 years. In the technology business, as well as in other industries, that’s quite unusual. I’ve enjoyed the mix of business, technical and other challenges that were part of that job. During the past two years I have talked with the board about changing how I spend my time, and we’re fortunate to have Steve to step into the CEO role.

 

Our industry is in the early stages of a revolution, one that offers incredible opportunities for everyone. I think of the next decade as the “Software Decade.” The magic of software will change the way business is done, the way people communicate and even the way they are entertained. At the same time the nature of software itself is changing. I am sending a separate piece of mail to talk about all the opportunities.

 

I’m as optimistic about this great company as I’ve always been - we have terrific people, a management team that is stronger than ever, a vast array of incredible technologies and limitless opportunities. So if some of you are wondering if today’s announcement means I’ll spend less time at M?crosöft - that couldn’t be further from the truth.

 

I’m committed to giving M?crosöft the technological leadership it needs to succeed in the digital age, and to partnering with Steve to ensure that we remain America’s most successful company long into the 21^st century.