Sunday, July 06, 2008

Farewell, Bill Gates - Forbes.com

Ongoing speculation, further reinforced in another recent Forbes article titled Jobs 2.0 

But soon those leaders will move on. First to go is Bill Gates, who on June 27 stepped aside at Microsoft. Next, I'd wager, will be Steve Jobs, for health reasons. Jobs, 53, underwent surgery for pancreatic cancer in 2004 and lately has been looking unwell. Apple p.r. folks claim he's fine. Apple p.r. is known for having a Clintonesque relationship to the truth. If Jobso is still running Apple at year-end, I'll be shocked.

Also headed for the exits will be Larry Ellison at Oracle. Ellison claims to be 63 but is barely aging (I secretly believe he's several hundred years old, and a vampire), and these days he seems more passionate about sailboat racing than about vending database software. My guess is that Ellison will acquire software seller Salesforce.com (nyse: CRM - news - people ) and replace himself with its 43-year-old founder and chief executive, Marc Benioff, a former marketing whiz at Oracle.

Farewell, Bill Gates - Forbes.com

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