Bill Gates steps down from Microsoft board

The co-founder of Microsoft Corporation, William Henry Gates III or Bill Gates has recently announced that he is stepping down from Microsoft’s board of directors in order to invest his time into philanthropy. The American business magnate stopped involving himself into day-to-day matters of the company for quite sometimes now and started focusing more into the foundation that he launched with his wife Melinda, which focuses on helping people to lead healthy and productive lives. The 64-year-old currently invests most of his time into philanthropy. Gates was the chairman of Microsoft's board of directors till 2014 and now he has completely stepped away. Gates dropped out of college and had set up Microsoft with his childhood friend, Paul Allen in Albuquerque, New Mexico in 1975. The company came into limelight when in 1980 it signed an agreement with IBM to build the operating system MS-DOS. Microsoft became a huge success and at the age of just 31, Gates had become the youngest billionaire. Gates said, "I am looking forward to this next phase as an opportunity to maintain the friendships and partnerships that have meant the most to me, continue to contribute to two companies of which I am incredibly proud, and effectively prioritise my commitment to addressing some of the world's toughest challenges".