Backgrounder: Gates and Microsoft

    LOS ANGELES, June 15 (Xinhua) -- Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates said on Thursday he will transfer his day-to-day duties over a two-year period while continuing on as the company's chairman.

    Gates said in a statement that he made the "hard decision" so as to concentrate on the charitable work of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

    Gates, 50, founded the world's largest software company with childhood friend Paul Allen in 1975. Guided by a belief that the computer would be a valuable tool on every office desktop and in every home, they began developing software for personal computers.

    Gates took Microsoft public in 1986 and was the company's chairman and CEO until 2000, when he assumed the role of chief software architect. Also in 2000, he and his wife formed the Bill&Melinda Gates Foundation, whose assets now total 29.1 billion U.S. dollars.

    For the past six years Gates has focused on Microsoft's software development as the company's chairman and chief software architect.

    In 1999, Gates wrote Business @ the Speed of Thought, a book that shows how computer technology can solve business problems in fundamentally new ways. The book was published in 25 languages and is available in more than 60 countries.

    The book was listed on the best-seller lists of the New York Times, USA Today, the Wall Street Journal and Amazon.com. Gates' previous book, The Road Ahead, published in 1995, held the No. 1 spot on the New York Times' bestseller list for seven weeks.

    Microsoft had revenues of 39.79 billion U.S. dollars for the fiscal year ending June 2005, and employs more than 61,000 people in 102 countries and regions.

    Born on Oct. 28, 1955, Gates grew up in Seattle with his two sisters. Their father, William H. Gates II, is a Seattle attorney. Their late mother, Mary Gates, was a schoolteacher, University of Washington regent, and chairwoman of United Way International.

    Gates attended public elementary school and the private Lakeside School. There, he discovered his interest in software and began programming computers at age 13.

    In 1973, Gates entered Harvard University as a freshman. While at Harvard, Gates developed a version of the programming language BASIC for the first microcomputer - the MITS Altair.

    Gates' foresight and his vision for personal computing have been central to the success of Microsoft and the software industry.

    Under Gates' leadership, Microsoft's mission has been to continually advance and improve software technology, and to make it easier, more cost-effective and more enjoyable for people to use computers. The company is committed to a long-term view, reflected in its investment of approximately 6.2 billion U.S. dollars on research and development in the 2005 fiscal year. Enditem