The Comeback Kid 比尔·盖茨东山再起
Bill Gates is smiling again. The boyish enthusiasm is back, and the gruelling burdens of monopoly lawsuits and dotcom downturns are receding. America's best?known billionaire is back to doing what he has always done best --? designing exciting new products and making barrels of money.
The launch of Office XP, a sophisticated rethink of Microsoft's most popular business tool at the end of last May, marks merely the opening shot in a forthcoming technological blitz that Gates is serenely his company's status as the unshakeable colossus of computing.
“It's great to see people enthused about what we are doing.” Gates happily declares.
How different it all looked a year or so ago, when the US Department of Justice won its claim that Microsoft had abused its Windows monopoly, and a court ordered the company to split itself in two. Then there was the dotcom truouble. Last year the bubble burst, dragging down the shares of all high?tech companies, including Microsoft.The rout eventually dislodged him from his status as the wrold's richest man. During his 25 years at the helm of Microsoft, the company he founded in the garage of his home in Seattle, Gates has gone through a series of striking incarnations, from garage geek to ruthless executive to generous philanthropist. Last year it seemed a new label might be added to the list -- busted flush. Battered by the pressures of the interent revolution -- and with two small children to raise -- Gates handed executive control of Microsoft to his long?standing friend and colleague, Steve Ballmer. Defeated in court and depicted by rivals as a corportate Attila the Hun, he seemed bitter and angry. There were tales of him ranging at the govermment officials he blamed for persecuting him.
Gates turned for succour to his frist love overseeling software development.
Gates, now the Comeback Kid, is sitting on a corportate cash pile of ＄30 billion (￡21 billion)and is increasing it by ＄1 billion every month.Microsoft's share price has rebounded 63％ this year(though at about ＄70, it is stil far below its peak of ＄117). He looks sure to bounce right back up the list of the World's richest people.
The company's legal problems are far from over, but a furious fightback has left many observers sceptical that the government will ever succeed in breaking up Microsoft. An appeals?court ruling, expected soon, is likely to overturn last year's lower?court decision, burying the issue for years.
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比尔·盖茨再次微笑了，他那孩童般的热情又回来了，那场令人身心疲惫的反袭断诉讼案以及网络公司低迷徘徊的局面正接近尾声。美国这位遐迩闻名的亿万富翁重新做起了他一贯最拿手的工作——设计人心的新产品并赚得大把钞票。
5月底，微软将其最受欢迎的办公商务软件的经典改进版Office XP投放市场。这只是头一炮，标志着即将闪电式推出一系列技术产品，盖次深信，这些产品将巩固其公司作为计算机行业不可动摇的“航空母舰”地位。
盖茨不无骄傲地说：“看到人们对我们所从事的工作如此热心真是太棒了。” 大约一年前，一切看起来还是那么糟糕。当时美国司法部指责微软垄断视窗操作系统，法庭下令微软一分为二。接着便是网络公司陷入困境，去年网络泡沫破裂，致使包括微软在内的所有高技术公司的股价直线下降。此次股市“滑铁卢”使他从全世界首富位置上跌了下来。微软公司是盖茨在其家乡西雅图的一间车库里亲手创建起来的。此后25年，他经历了不少风雨，从默默无闻的车库伙计到冷酷无情的公司总管，再到慷慨大方的慈善家……而去年看来有一个新头衔可能要加到他身上——被降级的富翁。由于受到因特网革命的强烈冲击，加之家有两个幼童要抚养，盖茨将微软的行政控制权交给了他的长期朋友兼同事——史蒂夫·鲍尔默。
微软在反垄断诉讼案中败诉，盖茨的竞争对手把他说成是野蛮的匈奴，对此盖茨感到既痛苦又愤怒。据说他曾对政府官员咆哮，指责他们迫害他。
盖茨只好求助于他心爱的软件来排忧解难，他决定全面掌管软件的开发工作。 东山再起的盖茨正经营着一家拥有300亿美元现金的公司，而且公司正以每月10亿美元的速度扩展。微软的股价今年已经回升了63％。看来盖茨肯定要再次被列入世界首富名单。
微软的诉讼案远未结束，但它发起的猛烈回击使许多观察家怀疑政府究竟能否成功地将微软分解。估计这场官司还要拖上数年。
