- Bill Gates on Friday said he's stepping down from Microsoft's board of directors to focus on his philanthropic work.
- While Gates hasn't worked full-time for Microsoft since 2008, and he stepped down as board chairman in 2014, he's still had a crucial influence on the direction of the company.
- Gates advised Microsoft against buying Slack, paving the way for its successful Teams chat app, and helped set the stage for the acquisition of LinkedIn - and those are just the things we know about.
- Gates said he'll continue to "be engaged with" Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, and Nadella emphasized Gates will continue to advise Microsoft on products and services.
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When Bill Gates stepped down as Microsoft's chairman when Satya Nadella became CEO in 2014, he said he would devote more than a third of his time to "meet with product groups," and "define this next round of products."
That included reportedly advising Nadella against buying Slack - which led to the creation of Microsoft's success with the Teams chat app - and helping set the stage for the company to acquire LinkedIn in a meeting with founder Reid Hoffman. And those are just the examples we know about.
Gates on Friday said he's stepping down altogether from Microsoft's board of directors to focus on his philanthropic work at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. That means he'll be spending a lot less time at Microsoft, but in his announcement, Gates said he will continue advising Nadella on Microsoft's future.
"With respect to Microsoft, stepping down from the board in no way means stepping away from the company," Gates wrote. "Microsoft will always be an important part of my life's work and I will continue to be engaged with Satya and the technical leadership to help shape the vision and achieve the company's ambitious goals."
Although Gates stopped working for Microsoft full-time in 2008, his influence on the company has been crucial. Nadella has talked about the more tacit ways Gates inspired him, but there are also concrete example of Gates intervening in ways that shaped the direction of the company.
Back in 2016, former Microsoft executive Qi Lu - who ran research and development for Bing, Office, and Skype - reportedly wanted to the company to make a big, $8 billion purchase of chat app Slack. Gates reportedly jumped in and suggested the money could be better used investing in making its popular Skype app more business-friendly with new features.
The decision paved the way for Microsoft Teams chat app, which according to Microsoft now has 20 million daily active users - more than Slack (although Slack takes issue with Microsoft's math).
The same year, Gates helped Microsoft acquire professional social network LinkedIn. A securities filing revealed Gates met privately with LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman as initial talks about the acquisition began, discussing a strategy for LinkedIn and a potential Microsoft board seat for Hoffman. Hoffman ultimately joined the board in 2017.
In a statement about Gates leaving the board, Nadella emphasized Gates will continue to advise Microsoft on products and services.
"Bill founded our company with a belief in the democratizing force of software and a passion to solve society's most pressing challenges. And Microsoft and the world are better for it," Nadella said in a statement. "The board has benefited from Bill's leadership and vision. And Microsoft will continue to benefit from Bill's ongoing technical passion and advice to drive our products and services forward."
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