As the dust settled on Bill Gates' announcement that he planned to step down from day-to-day involvement with Microsoft, so the spotlight fell on Ray Ozzie, his successor as the company's chief software architect.
At 50 years old, Ozzie is a year younger than Gates, and the two have been friends and rivals since the Silicon Valley boom of the 1980s. Ozzie's most famous creation is Lotus Notes, the collaborative e-mail and database program.
It was this background -- and his wider interests in collaborative working -- which led the software giant to buy his company, Groove Networks Inc, last year.
At that point Ozzie, who is said to be a shy and extremely technical man, became Microsoft's chief technology officer -- a role that fed speculation that he was being groomed as Gates' long-term replacement. Steve Ballmer, Microsoft's effusive chief executive, has since been reported as saying he had wanted to hire Ozzie for the last 23 years.
Ozzie's influence is expected to push Microsoft further into highly developed Web applications and knowledge sharing programs, areas where Microsoft is feeling the pressure from companies such as Google.
Wall Street largely shrugged off Gates' announcement. Microsoft shares were only US$0.11 lower at US$21.96 in early trading on Friday. That appeared partly to result from Gates' insistence that he would still play a role at Microsoft as non-executive chairman, and partly perhaps because his priorities had already been shifting since he gave up the Microsoft chief executive role in 2000.
Gates told staff that he intends to "transition out" of Microsoft by 2008 to devote more of his energies to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which hands out grants of more than US$1billion annually, primarily to fight diseases such as AIDS, polio and malaria. The foundation has assets of US$29.5 billion.
Ozzie will immediately assume the role of chief software architect and begin working with Gates. Chief technical officer Craig Mundie will take the new title of chief research and strategy officer. Ballmer said it was unrealistic to think that any one person could replace Gates.
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