Bill Gates giving up active roll at Microsoft

Microsoft announced that chairman and co-founder Bill Gates (pictured) will move out of his day-to-day role effective July 2008.

Depending on your point of view, it could be the end of an era, a new beginning or good riddance.

Gates co-founded Microsoft, which makes the ubiquitous Windows operating system, with Paul Allen in 1975, and took the company public in 1986. He remained CEO of the company until 2000, when Steve Ballmer took the reins.

Gates is ranked as the world's richest man by Forbes magazine, which estimated his net worth at $50 billion in its 2006 ranking. That was up an estimated $46.5 billion net worth a year earlier. He owned just over 1 billion shares of Microsoft, as of Sept. 9, 2005, according to the company's most recent filing detailing those ownerships. That amounts to 9.6 percent of shares outstanding.

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