HOWZAT

Bill Gates

Steve and I have talked a lot about that. I will do some of those things in my part time role. I will be in Washington DC for my Foundation things. I will also be representing in separate meetings whatever the issues are from Microsoft, and something like going to Davos and speaking I think Steve will still choose to have me. But he may decide to step up some external activities, particularly during the first year that I am gone to get the message out. There has been somewhat the impression that Bill did this and Bill did that, which is so ridiculous. But this is an opportunity to get visibility not only for Steve but also Ray Ozzie, Craig Mundie, and even a few layers down to the people who did Xbox, which is a resounding success, the people who did the new version of Office, which is an overwhelming success, or SharePoint. Steve will be going out and creating that visibility so that the over-simplified view is a little bit corrected.

John Waples

I know share prices are funny things but is a there frustration within the company that since you became Chairman the share prices have flat lined, albeit last year was good year?

Bill Gates

They have not flat lined.

John Waples

Is there a frustration that some of the opportunities and technology are not being fully understood outside?

Bill Gates

No. Don’t get confused about the share price. In the year 2000 the share price was stupid and Steve and I were the only people to step up and say these technology companies are overvalued. Steve said it and I said it. It was just insane. What happened since Steve took over is that we have doubled our profit and doubled our sales. It is an unbelievable story and against all the pundits saying that various things would happen, it is phenomenal. In terms of the market’s notion of technology valuations, Cisco is a third of what it was in the year 2000. How poorly have they done these last seven years? Intel is half of what it was. How poorly have they done? In 2000 it was insane, we said it and meant it. The share price can be very high or very low; that is not what we control. We control innovation, sales and profits. Those are the things that have done super well.

John Waples

You have said an awful lot during your tour in the past ten days about interoperability about how things are worked together. Which parts of Microsoft in the next three to five years will be the most exciting areas?

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