Gates withdraws from limelight to fend off DoJ

Bill Gates' shock resignation as Microsoft CEO last week has everything to do with the Department of Justice's (DoJ) anti-trust case and nothing to do with an actual transfer of power, according to industry analysts.

Gary Cooper, research manager at the Butler Group, said Gates had recognised there was personal animosity directed at him from the DoJ, and that this was the catalyst behind the move. "He feels that if he takes himself out of the firing line there is an opportunity that they will be more objective about Microsoft," he told Silicon.com.

However, other analysts felt that the move was still too late to alter the DoJ's action. Clive Longbottom, analyst at Strategy Partners, said: "Microsoft are in their [the DoJ's] bad books now - it's going to be incredibly difficult to break that down now that they've gone so far."

Current Microsoft president Steve Ballmer will now takes the reigns as CEO at the software giant. Gates said he will return to the software development he loves in a new role as chairman and chief software architect.

The news of Gates' decision came at the end of a torrid week for Microsoft. It was forced to settle out of court with Linux specialist, Caldera, for a reported $150m, and was subject to press reports that the DoJ wants to split up the company.

However Gates move, whilst cosmetically significant, doesn't mean he will lessen his control over the company.

Butler Group's Gary Cooper was clear that "still nothing will happen within Microsoft without Bill Gates's say-so".

Meanwhile Steve Ballmer, groomed as Gates' successor since he became president in 1998, now takes on a dual role as president and CEO. Strategy Partners' Longbottom said that Ballmer will take a far more combative, and political, approach than Gates as CEO. He said that "while Gates upset the DoJ with his 'arrogance', Ballmer will go in to situations with 'more reasoned argument'".

Microsoft refused to be drawn on Gates' motives for stepping down and insisted that the move had been planned for some time.