Microsoft’s Bill Gates Attends Last Shareholder Meeting As Chairman

Let me start by saying something I think many of us can agree on: as influential as Bill Gates has been throughout his entire tenure at Microsoft, things won?t change much when the man leaves his post officially next year.

Nevertheless, the now-mostly-symbolic head honcho (a.k.a., Chairman) at Microsoft (Ballmer is CEO) had his last meeting with shareholders yesterday, making for something of a reflective moment for all ? though reports say little sentimentality was displayed, if any ? and opening the door for plenty more prognostications of what the company?s future holds without its founder?s regular presence to offer critical guidance. Or whatever he provides the people of Redmond with these days.

The meeting held on the 13th was pretty much all about money. (FYI, the stock is down a whopping 27 pennies as of 11AM this morning. Make of that what you will.) Which means it was thoroughly boring. Unless you?ve invested a good amount of green in the company, in that case it may well have been quite a momentous gathering. But it did manage to start up the ol? thinking machine, churning up questions of what Gates? departure in July 2008 will mean for the software giant.

So, you want to know what will happen to Microsoft once Billster leaves his post? Sure you do, you?re still reading this. Well, honestly, nothing. Yep, nothing. Nothing will happen. Nada. Nichts.

Why not? Simple. Because the company is massive. It?s huge. It?s pretty much the largest employer of coders in the world. And even a guy like Gates - a guy who?s played quite a large role for the past two decades or so in the day to day, week to week, month to month operations ? can all but say au revoir to his great big brainchild and the gears will just keep turning, almost entirely unperturbed.

That isn?t to say Gates is meaningless. He still carries a good deal of weight at the deck of the ship ? even if it is only executive. (Ray Ozzie is now the Chief Software Architect.) But it?s not like Microsoft?s in a particularly bad place. It?s doing okay. Really okay. Like, making-many-billions-of-dollars okay. So it?s not as if, come July 1, 2008, the whole thing will somehow suddenly hit an iceberg and sustain irreversible damage. It?ll continue on its steady way.

Of course, how well it moves along into the future is really up to Ballmer & Co. Despite the remote chance that they could royally screw things up and steer Titantic II right into disaster, it?s doubtful that such a fate will befall the company. It?s not Gates amid morons, after all. The crew as a whole can hold its own. Sure, Ballmer might want to cut down on the insanity - the yelling and the throwing of objects are good points to start addressing ? but all in all, things?ll be moving along relatively steady for many years to come.

Yes, yes, it should certainly be said that that big changes in the tech world are definitely underway at the moment, and Microsoft would do well to take notice, for the fact that it?s future undoubtedly depends on intelligent adaptation. But I think Redmond?s aware of that. I think it can handle that truth.

Now, whether it can handle it as ruthlessly well as it handled the last couple of decades, that?s really something to consider another day.

Have your own spin on Microsoft?s future? Share it. Post your comments below!