Bill Gates confirms he will not return to Microsoft full-time
Bill Gates today dismissed rumours that he would return to the bustle of Redmond to take up a full-time position at the company he founded, in an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald.
In the interview, he admitted he has settled in his full-time role with his philanthropy joint venture with his wife, Melinda, and plans to keep it going "for the rest of his life".
Fortune speculated that the Microsoft founder could return, noting that it would not have been the first time a "legendary founder" stepped back into the fray to save a floundering company from itself.
ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley was "very, very, very" skeptical. For many, this would have been enough. But Gates himself told reporters that he was content with his charitable work, and had no plans to step back into the limelight, to save it from flailing stock and management troubles.
Gates remains a part-timer at the company to offer advice and direction. "But that's not going to change", he said, adding that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation "requires all of my energy".
He also spoke of Steve Jobs, who died earlier this year after a long battle with pancreatic cancer.
Speaking positively about his computing rival, he said that Jobs was "brilliant", despite Jobs recently calling Gates "unimaginative".
But Gates noted that, "because the Microsoft machines outsold his machines by a lot he was always kind of tough on Microsoft, but that's fine".
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