This gave him the opportunity to once again challenge the decision, if it was directed against Microsoft, and thus delay the final result for years. Then, in June 2001, Gates scored another point when an appeals court overturned the decision to split the company in two and returned the case to the previous court. In addition, the Justice Department, now under the Bush administration, has changed its mind and dropped the demand to break up the company. After spending two years and countless millions of dollars, the parties seem to be back on track.

Microsoft may have won this battle, but the war itself is far from over. As soon as one lawsuit nears completion, a new one suddenly pops up. In August 2001, the European Union launched an antitrust case over the packaging of Windows Media Player. The head of the European Competition Commission at the time was Mario Monti, the man who thwarted the General Electric-Honeywell merger.

Apparently, Gates still has a lot of fierce battles to go.

Despite the general background of instability created by antitrust process, Gates tried to continue to manage the affairs of Microsoft. Since the first edition of this book, Gates has announced to the world the launch of two new products: Windows XP and the Xbox game console.

Windows XP is the next generation of the Windows operating system, heralding the death of DOS. Among the innovations of Windows XP in its original version was a technology called Smart Tags. Tags are links to other web pages. In practice, this means that a visitor to the Internet can be directed from the site they are viewing to Microsoft or another service without the knowledge or desire of the owner of that site. The smart tags technology caused a real explosion of rage, so that in June 2001 the company was forced to make a 180-degree turn and remove this innovation from the operating system. Windows XP was released in October 2001. It was characterized by a new excellent design and even closer connection with the Internet. The new operating system differs from previous versions of Windows also in that it requires registration for installation on a personal computer.

The Xbox game console is Microsoft's long-anticipated foray into the game console business. A number of well-established firms such as Sega have already been squeezed out of this particularly fiercely competitive business. The computer games business is one of the most profitable, so Microsoft will definitely try to grab a solid market share, estimated at $ 15 billion.

With the release of the Xbox game console, Microsoft has significantly reduced the dependence between the presence of a personal computer and the Internet. This is a wise strategy. Sony, one of Microsoft's biggest competitors in this area, produces the flagship PlayStation 2, which combines gaming with high-speed Internet access. This is a potential danger to Microsoft's hegemony, as users access the Internet through Sony. Xbox provides both Internet access and a hard drive. Gaming on the Web with broadband access will be an important part of Microsoft's business strategy. However, the mere fact of access to the Internet will not help if the “gamers” themselves do not recognize the Xbox as a successful innovation. Time will show. In any case, in December 2001, Xbox was shouldering shoulder with the main competitor - the new GameCube from Nintendo.

Gates is also fighting on other fronts. In recent years, Microsoft has faced a new threat from the Linux operating system. Despite the invasion of corporate information technology systems, Linux has not yet managed to significantly weaken the position of Microsoft's operating system - Windows. But the company continues to face new challenges. Now Microsoft is fighting in the battle for the portable computer market, which, according to some analysts, could dislodge the personal computer from its position.

Gates' new Internet strategy, and therefore Microsoft's, is to bring Microsoft products together so that users can access and share information wherever they are. This strategy is reflected, for example, in the release of the PocketPC 2002 handheld computer. The PocketPC 2002 operating system makes it easy for the handheld computer to communicate with other databases and corporate networks.

Another thing is how successful this idea of ​​​​invasion of the portable computer market is. Analysts are unsure if laptops are a promising consumer product, as many buyers prefer mobile phones and wireless technology. The laptop market may not be the best direction for Microsoft. But, as usual, Gates won't back down until he gets what he wants.

In general, recent years have not been easy for the Microsoft leader. However, it is characteristic that he does not give up and is still ahead of everyone. By the way, this outstanding super-successful man from Redmond recently celebrated a significant milestone. In 2001, Gates celebrated the twentieth anniversary of the first personal computer—and the start of the Wintel (Windows/Intel) hegemony. The cream of the crop in Silicon Valley, starting with Gates and former Intel CEO Andy Grove, gathered to mark the occasion to pay homage to the ubiquitous beige box. If you ignore the predecessors, including the Apple II, the date of the creation of the personal computer is considered to be the launch of the IBM personal computer in August 1981. The celebration of this anniversary was a powerful reminder that Gates has dominated the information industry for two decades. technologies. But for some reason it seems to us that much longer.

Bill Gates' life and times

The Gates Phenomenon

Love him or hate him, Bill Gates continues to be the greatest of tech mogul scientists. Dominance in the computer software market made him the richest man on the planet. Talk among friends and acquaintances about Gates' wealth and rising power has become popular entertainment. One might be tempted to think that there have never been such charismatic business leaders as he. In fact, there were other super-rich businessmen, such as John D. Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie. But Bill Gates' wealth is only part of his appeal.

His dizzying leap to fame heralds the creation of a new order in the world of business - the leadership of entrepreneurs and business leaders of a special kind. We willingly label them fanatics, but they know things most of us don't. They understand exactly what potential new technologies contain, which is not available to an ordinary manager or accountant. They are not just very smart; they understand matters that we are not able to understand at all, and this makes us feel uncomfortable.

When it comes to the future, they see it, we don't. A member of the intellectual elite, the technologist, Gates is a symbol of the leaders of the future. Although Microsoft is based in Redmond, Washington, he is probably the greatest of what we call Silicon Valley entrepreneurs. For many Microsoft employees, he is a mystical, almost religious figure; for others in the same industry, he is the Antichrist. Both views are scandalous, but notice how great his influence is. (With all the buzz surrounding Gates' alleged abuse of monopoly power, we easily forget that back in the 1970s, IBM was also the target of antitrust investigations. Over time, memories fade. Today, Big Blue seems almost holy compared to Microsoft. Such is the nature of power: the less we understand it, the more we fear it.)

However, in business schools, you will not receive clear recommendations about Gates' management technique or his management style. In fact, professors and other management gurus remain inexplicably silent on the question of what lies in the basis of the success of the President and CEO of Microsoft. Maybe they feel unfairly offended. Gates, after all, dropped out of Harvard, where he majored in law. Academics prefer more traditional business leaders—ordinary dedicated employees.

Where, then, should we turn to find out what drives this remarkable man? Is there a better source than Encarta, Microsoft's own encyclopedia? “Much of Gates' success is the result of his ability to transform technical utopias into market strategies and combine creativity with technical insight,” says William Henry III's introduction about Gates. Not bad for trying to explain Gates' wonderful talents in one sentence, isn't it? However, what sets Gates apart from all other business leaders is probably the impact he has on our lives. While the power of the old tycoons was usually concentrated in one sector of the industry, the power over the computer gives Microsoft the opportunity to extend its tentacles into all areas of our lives.

Media moguls like Rupert Murdoch have power over everything that appears in our newspapers or on television screens. But the influence of people who create software is truly immeasurable. Encarta, the encyclopedia created by Microsoft, is just one example of how Bill Gates and his company have infiltrated every aspect of our lives. It's no surprise that his dominance of the computer market makes us a little uneasy. No wonder he is vilified and attacked. After all, how many business leaders have managed to rewrite history?

But if we leave aside the praises and curses - who is Bill Gates really? Smart, essentially kind and gentle computer prodigy who happened to be in the right place at the right time? Or is it a dark story about a man who was finally able to calmly retire after twenty years of work, but prefers to continue working 16 hours a day? There are many stories about Gates, a brilliant mathematician and computer programmer, and another Gates, a ruthless businessman who goes out of his way to crush his competitors. Only by separating fact from fiction, we can discover the real Gates. The picture that emerges from this analysis is far more