REDMOND, Wash. (AP) — On his final full day at Microsoft Corp., Bill Gates went on stage to reminisce with his longtime friend Steve Ballmer, and neither man could hold back tears as Ballmer handed Gates a large scrapbook as a farewell present.Gates, who is stepping back to focus on his philanthropy, sat with CEO Ballmer in a Microsoft conference room and meandered through moments in Microsoft's history. They stopped to get in a few good digs at IBM Corp., whose first personal computers were loaded with Microsoft's DOS operating system before IBM adopted its own operating software and their relations strained.
"They went off with OS 2, we were left with good old Windows, and sure enough the David versus Goliath story came out with the right ending," said Gates, eliciting laughter from the crowd of 830 Microsoft employees.
Gates, playing up his absent-minded professor side, cracked up the employees in attendance — they won a seat at the event in a lottery — when he said Microsoft was so central in his life that he often found himself driving to its campus even when he was supposed to be headed somewhere else, like delivering his kids to school.
When it came time for Ballmer to make his public farewell to Gates, he joked about the inevitable inadequacy of a thank-you gift, and presented him with a large scrapbook embossed with Gates' signature. Then, the tears came.
"We've been given an enormous, enormous opportunity. And Bill gave us that opportunity," Ballmer said, his face reddening. "I want to thank Bill for that."
As the employees rose to their feet, Gates swiped at tears of his own.
Gates, playing up his absent-minded professor side, cracked up the employees in attendance — they won a seat at the event in a lottery — when he said Microsoft was so central in his life that he often found himself driving to its campus even when he was supposed to be headed somewhere else, like delivering his kids to school.
When it came time for Ballmer to make his public farewell to Gates, he joked about the inevitable inadequacy of a thank-you gift, and presented him with a large scrapbook embossed with Gates' signature. Then, the tears came.
"We've been given an enormous, enormous opportunity. And Bill gave us that opportunity," Ballmer said, his face reddening. "I want to thank Bill for that."
As the employees rose to their feet, Gates swiped at tears of his own.
Gates, playing up his absent-minded professor side, cracked up the employees in attendance — they won a seat at the event in a lottery — when he said Microsoft was so central in his life that he often found himself driving to its campus even when he was supposed to be headed somewhere else, like delivering his kids to school.
Gates, who will remain Microsoft's chairman on a part-time basis, said he would still take on Microsoft projects picked by Ballmer and two other executives who have assumed most of his day-to-day tasks, Craig Mundie and Ray Ozzie.
One of those will be Web search, where Microsoft lags far behind Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc. in market share. With an acquisition of Yahoo now again apparently off the table, Gates threw his weight Friday behind a strategy of assembling a team of smart people and combining Microsoft's own breakthroughs with what competitors are already doing.
When it came time for Ballmer to make his public farewell to Gates, he joked about the inevitable inadequacy of a thank-you gift, and presented him with a large scrapbook embossed with Gates' signature. Then, the tears came.
"We've been given an enormous, enormous opportunity. And Bill gave us that opportunity," Ballmer said, his face reddening. "I want to thank Bill for that."
As the employees rose to their feet, Gates swiped at tears of his own.
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