27 June 2008

Mr Bill's last day as FTE

Today is a momentous day in anyone's life. It is the last full time day at Microsoft for Chairman Bill Gates. He hands over the corner office to CEO Steve Balmer.

As he probably reflects on his departure - let me add 2 cents as a Microsoft former employee and a stockholder.

Time to split the company.

In the good old days at company meetings it used to be that the devoted throng would yell SPLIT! SPLIT! meaning the stock. Now we need the company to split into parts. It is too big. There is almost no way to see the massive appreciation for stock that employees and investors alike would like to see happen.

Now we need to free the entrepreneurial spirit and the enterprise needs to be smaller, leaner and meaner. Massive companies such as Microsoft do not serve the market and their stakeholders well. I don't buy that argument that scale matters in software.

So Bill - best of luck and please put the beast out of its misery. We don't need a 8 million pound gorilla. We could really use a bunch of smart 800 lb gorillas about now though.

Cheers

Timothy

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