Timeline
2000: Gates steps down as CEO of Microsoft. Gates’ former Harvard dorm-mate and right-hand man Steve Ballmer takes over the helm, while Gates becomes chief software architect. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is formed, merging the William H. Gates Foundation and the Gates Learning Foundation. Federal District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson concludes Microsoft misused its monopoly power, and orders the company be split in twoparts, one to produce the operating system and the other to produce other software components. More
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2001: Judge Penfield’s 2000 decision is overturned on appeal. The DOJ announces that it is no longer seeking to break up Microsoft and will instead seek a lesser antitrust penalty. An agreement is reached between the DOJ and Microsoft on Nov. 2. MGM releases the movie Antitrust, starring Tim Robbins, about a company and character loosely based on Microsoft and Bill Gates. More
2005: Queen Elizabeth II bestows an honorary knighthood on Gates for his contributions to the United Kingdom. Time names him a “Person of the Year,” along with Melinda Gates and Bono, for what the magazine called his “good Samaritan” work. More.
2006: Gates announces that his role as an executive at Microsoft will be phased out over the following two years. His intention, he says, is to spend more time working with The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Shortly after his announcement, Warren Buffet donates $31 billion, most of his fortune, to the foundation. More.
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2007: Gates “graduates” from Harvard; the university awards him with an honorary degree. Gates gives the commencement speech, encouraging the graduates to strive for social change. “Humanity’s greatest advances are not in its discoveries,” Gates says to the class, “but in how those discoveries are applied to reduce inequity.”
2008: Though his fortune continues to grow, Gates loses his spot as the richest man on the planet. After 13 years in the No. 1 spot on the Forbes’ list, Gates’ is surpassed by his friend Warren Buffet and Mexican telecom giant Carlos Slim Helu. Gates retires from day-to-day duties at Microsoft on June 27, but stays in the role of chairman and adviser on important development projects. He tells the Seattle Post-Intelligencer that he plans to pour the same amount of energy into his foundation that he did into Microsoft. He tells the newspaper, “I’m not a sit-on-the-beach type.”
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2001: Judge Penfield’s 2000 decision is overturned on appeal. The DOJ announces that it is no longer seeking to break up Microsoft and will instead seek a lesser antitrust penalty. An agreement is reached between the DOJ and Microsoft on Nov. 2. MGM releases the movie Antitrust, starring Tim Robbins, about a company and character loosely based on Microsoft and Bill Gates. More
2005: Queen Elizabeth II bestows an honorary knighthood on Gates for his contributions to the United Kingdom. Time names him a “Person of the Year,” along with Melinda Gates and Bono, for what the magazine called his “good Samaritan” work. More.
2006: Gates announces that his role as an executive at Microsoft will be phased out over the following two years. His intention, he says, is to spend more time working with The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Shortly after his announcement, Warren Buffet donates $31 billion, most of his fortune, to the foundation. More.
Top
2007: Gates “graduates” from Harvard; the university awards him with an honorary degree. Gates gives the commencement speech, encouraging the graduates to strive for social change. “Humanity’s greatest advances are not in its discoveries,” Gates says to the class, “but in how those discoveries are applied to reduce inequity.”
2008: Though his fortune continues to grow, Gates loses his spot as the richest man on the planet. After 13 years in the No. 1 spot on the Forbes’ list, Gates’ is surpassed by his friend Warren Buffet and Mexican telecom giant Carlos Slim Helu. Gates retires from day-to-day duties at Microsoft on June 27, but stays in the role of chairman and adviser on important development projects. He tells the Seattle Post-Intelligencer that he plans to pour the same amount of energy into his foundation that he did into Microsoft. He tells the newspaper, “I’m not a sit-on-the-beach type.”