# Gates hands the Microsoft CEO job to Steve Ballmer

Date: 2000

## The fact

On 13 January 2000 [Bill Gates](/people/bill-gates) became chief software architect and chairman, handing the CEO job to Steve Ballmer, a completed succession during US v. Microsoft.

## Context

Neighbouring 2000 findings are April. Neighbouring foundation 2000 is later the same year. He remained chairman until 2014.

April 2000 findings are neighbouring docket. Foundation January 2000 is neighbouring philanthropy.

Bill Gates was Microsoft CEO until January 2000, chairman until February 2014, then a technical adviser until 2020, and a Gates Foundation co-chair. That is not authorship of every Windows copy, every GAVI dose, or every IRS schedule. Melinda French Gates is a different person. Bill Clinton is PER-000772, a different person. A pledge is not a coverage rate. A docket is not a personality.

## Evidence and sources

Microsoft carries the official instrument or communique. Reuters records the same dated act independently.

## Significance

The path is [industrial-policy activism](/drivers/industrial-policy-activism): a completed CEO succession is a governance instrument during an antitrust war. A handoff is not a divestiture.

## What is established and what is not

Established: 13 January 2000 CEO handoff to Ballmer, independently reported.

Not established: that Gates left Microsoft that day, or a unique later cloud coefficient from the memo.

What would change the picture: a contradictory original with a different date or name, a later repeal, a court that vacated the instrument, or a measured series that can be argued, with lag and alternatives, as a consequence of this instrument rather than of later institutions.

The date is the date of this instrument, not a licence to back-date every later harm or benefit.

The board approved. DOJ still litigated.. A later repeal, court stay, or successor order would be a different Fact with a different date. That pair identifies Gates hands the Microsoft CEO job to Steve Ballmer, not a later speech about Gates hands the Microsoft CEO job to Steve Ballmer.

Co-authors and later implementers named in Context remain on the file. Gates hands the Microsoft CEO job to Steve Ballmer on 2000-01-13 is not a licence to treat every later Microsoft communique as this same act. If a later repeal, stay, or successor instrument exists, it needs its own date and its own row. This dossier refuses to average Gates hands the Microsoft CEO job to Steve Ballmer into a personality. The contribution described on this Person row is limited to He handed the CEO chair to Ballmer and stayed chairman. The board approved. DOJ still litigated. That limit is the alternative to treating office-holding as authorship of every later series.

## People

- Bill Gates: https://factrail.ai/people/bill-gates

## Drivers

- Industrial-Policy Activism: https://factrail.ai/drivers/industrial-policy-activism

## Sources

- https://www.reuters.com/article/us-microsoft-gates-idUSKCN0Q70K4
- https://news.microsoft.com/

## Methodology

https://factrail.ai/methodology

Canonical: https://factrail.ai/facts/gates-leave-ceo-2000