Bill Gates faced a fairly benign crowd at the Institute of Directors in London on Wednesday morning where he made his last UK speech before his retirement.
But it was not without a few moments of controversy.
When the 1000-strong audience was given a chance to question Mr Gates, one IT manager of a law firm accused Microsoft of being overly dominant in corporate software and complained of the arrogance of the company’s sales force. With other suppliers, he said, he could fire and re-engage them if their terms and conditions changed, but not so with Microsoft’s Office package.
Mr Gates was immediately on the defensive, saying there was plenty of competition in corporate software.
“I’d like to see the terms and conditions you have with IBM and we can immediately match them,” he said, sounding more like a keen-as-mustard sales rep than an executive less than six months away from slipping the corporate leash.
Oracle and many other companies also provided competition, he said. The problem was competition in corporate software just wasn’t covered as much in the media.
Mr Gates went on to stress how innovative the software sector was.
“People should wish that other commercial sectors were as competitive and innovative as the software space. Just think what food would cost and the advantages you would have experienced.”
The competition issue was clearly still a very sore point with him. Earlier, when questioned about his most stressful moments at Microsoft he had sighed “Trying not to be sued by your own government. Especially when it is unjust.”
Perhaps it is not surprising given the recent US decision to extend its close anti-trust scrutiny of Microsoft by another two years, and the new competition case opened in the EU earlier this month.
Mr Gates was visibly happier when talking about his future plans at his charitable foundation, tackling the world’s health problems and giving away most of his fortune. Then, the shoe will be on the other foot, as he gets to chivvy governments for not being generous enough and demand large sums of money from them.
