Report: Microsoft Investors Want Bill Gates to Step Down

New reports have surfaced regarding the software giant, Microsoft Corp. According to them, the board of the company is being pressurized by three of the top investors of Microsoft to force Bill Gates in stepping down from his role of Chairman. Bill Gates co-founded the company about 38 years ago and the company is now worth $277 billion. The Chief Executive Officer of the company, Steve Ballmer has been under pressure for years as he was given the role of improving the performance and the share price of the company. However, it is the first time that the investors have aimed at Gates, who is regarded as an influential and respected figure in the field of technology.

No comment was made by a representative of Microsoft Corp. Despite the pressure, there is no indication that the request of the three investors will be tolerated by the Microsoft board. According to the sources, when combined, all three investors hold about 5% of the company. However, it was requested by the sources that the identity of the investors should not be revealed because this discussion was simply a private matter. Bill Gates is the largest individual shareholder of Microsoft and owns about 4.5%.

The three investors have made this suggestion because they are concerned that the adoption of new strategies is prevented because of the role of Chairman held by gates. They have an objection to Gate’s presence in the committee that has been chosen to select a successor of CEO Ballmer, who has announced his decision of retirement. They are worried that the power of the CEO of making substantial changes will be limited as long as Bill Gates remains chairman. It is another concern that in comparison to his declining shareholding, Gates, who devotes most of his time to his philanthropic foundation, wields extra power.

Before Microsoft went public in 1986, Bill Gates had owned about 49% of the company, but as per a pre-set plan, he sells of about 80 million shares of the company every year. If this cycle is continued, Gates will lose his entire financial state in the company in the year 2018. In 2000, after handing the role of CEO to Ballmer, Bill Gates lowered his profile and instead shifted his focus on his Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Ballmer had announced in August that he would be retiring in a year, amidst pressure from investors.

The hunt for a new CEO has begun at Microsoft, although the board has stated that his strategy of turning prominent software into services will still be followed through. However, some investors are of the opinion that the new CEO should not be forced to follow through this strategy. Mixed reactions were seen amongst shareholders when they heard that investors were lobbying for ousting Bill Gates from his role of Chairman of the company. Some are of the opinion that fresh eyes are needed while others maintain that he should be asked to play a larger role instead of ditching him.

A Jump That Covered 24 Miles At 834 MPH in 4 Minutes

A man jumped from even more than 24 miles high in sky to Earth on Sunday, which made him the first human to break sound fence under his own control — with just some help from the gravity. This man is Felix Baumgartner, a daredevil from Austria who made the fastest and highest jump in history after climbing to a height of 128,100 feet by a helium capsule. Millions of people around all over the world experienced the dizzying view through the camera in his capsule, which displayed a curved blue world encircled by black of space. Felix from here stepped off into the void and dived for more than 4 minutes, getting a maximum speed measuring Mach 1.24 833.9 or miles/hour.

He broke speed and altitude records that were set by Joe Kittinger half a century ago. He is now 84 and a retired colonel from Air Force. His supported Mr. Baumgartner while talking to him from mission control through tense moments. There were engineers who considered terminating the operation after Mr. Baumgartner’s faceplate started fogging during the ascension, but he kept proceeding and planned for jumping blind.

That proved needless, but a new calamity happened initially in the jump when he began losing control in the stratosphere’s thin air — the same issue that had almost killed Mr. Kittinger. As soon as the atmosphere thickened, it got manageable for Mr. Baumgartner to stop spinning and fall efficiently until he successfully released his parachute almost a mile above the surface and smoothly landed in the desert of New Mexico.

As per Mr. Baumgartner, it was harder than he had expected. “Trust me, when you stand up there on top of the world, you become so humble. It’s not about breaking records any more. It’s not about getting scientific data. It’s all about coming home.” He said.

Mr. Kittinger admired Mr. Baumgartner’s bravery for continuing with the operation and stated that he had done more than just breaking a record.  He further added, “He demonstrated that a man could survive in an extremely high altitude escape situation.”

Mr. Baumgartner was assisted by a NASA-style operation appointed at an airfield in Roswell which included 300 people, comprising more than seventy engineers, physicians and scientists who had been working for last 5 years on this project, referred as Red Bull Stratos, named after the beverage company that had funded it.

In addition to aiming at the records, the scientists and engineers in the RBS team have been meeting and distributing piles of data envisioned to helping astronauts, future pilots and maybe the space tourists survive in case they have to escape.

While making the custom-made capsule and suit, the aerospace veterans’ team had to struggle with one critical doubt: What will happen to a human body while it is breaking the sound barrier? Also, there was one other major unanticipated issue for Mr. Baumgartner, identified to his admirers as “Fearless Felix”.

Even though he had no distress jumping off bridges and buildings, and soaring in a carbon-fiber wing across the English Channel, he found himself undergoing panic attacks when he had to be inside the pressurized helmet and suit for hours. At a point in 2010, instead of taking a durability test in the suit, he fled the United States in an airplane. With the assistance from a sports psychologist and many other specialists, he started to learn the techniques to deal with claustrophobia.