By Jay Greene
Thursday, November 15 2007 01:43 PM
URL: http://www.zdnetasia.com/news/business/0,39044229,62034442,00.htm

In his last shareholder meeting as a full-time employee, Microsoft Chairman William Gates spent little time dwelling on the significance of the moment.

It's been more than a year since Gates said he'd step down from his role at Microsoft to focus on philanthropy beginning July 1, 2008. But it was only toward the end of presentation at the company's annual meeting on Nov. 13 that Gates briefly reflected.

"This is the dream we started Microsoft 30 years ago to pursue," Gates said of the long-term bets being placed by Microsoft researchers. Next year, he noted, he'd be at the meeting as a "part-time chairman."

As the company heads into the final year of Gates' tenure, Microsoft is regaining part of the luster it has lost since the beginning of the decade. It still trails rivals such as Google and Apple in key new markets, including online advertising and digital music. Still, sales jumped 27 percent in the quarter ended Sept. 30, a gain analysts consider astonishing considering Microsoft's size.

Buoyant Shares and Sales
And CEO Steven Ballmer said planned introductions of products--ranging from the second generation of the Zune digital music player to software developer tools to servers for running corporate networks--will help the company continue growing. "I believe we've laid the foundation for significant growth for Microsoft," Ballmer said.

That, coupled with the US$31 billion returned to shareholders last year through stock repurchases and dividends, has helped push shares to levels not seen since the early part of the decade.

Earlier this month, the company's stock rose as high as US$37.50, the highest since July, 2000. "We're confident we can continue this momentum throughout the fiscal year," Ballmer said.

Indeed, shares closed on Nov. 13 at US$34.46, up US$1.19 for the day and almost US$5 since the beginning of 2007. Recent results have been buoyed by better-than-expected PC sales, which, in turn, boost sales of Microsoft's Windows and Office software monopolies.

Researchers at Gartner are projecting 11 percent growth in PC shipments in 2008 and 11.6 percent growth in 2009. Microsoft's Halo 3 video game title scored the best entertainment title opening ever when it debuted Sept. 25.

10,000 millionaires
What's more, Microsoft isn't standing by as Google seeks to widen its dominance of online advertising. Microsoft made its largest acquisition ever this year, buying Internet advertising network aQuantive for US$6 billion in May, to expand in the burgeoning market for selling and placing ads on Web sites. It also beat out Google in a contest for a stake in the social network Facebook.

Like most annual meetings, Microsoft's is largely a scripted affair with Chief Financial Officer Chris Liddell zipping through an agenda that included introductions of directors and brief presentations of the handful of matters on which shareholders vote.

This year's meeting was held in the cavernous Washington State Convention & Trade Center in downtown Seattle and was attended by about 500 shareholders.

There was none of the fanfare that might befit a founder of a company that in fiscal 2007 crossed the US$50 billion annual-sales threshold and generated US$14 billion in net income.

That's up from a profit of US$24 million on sales of US$140 million a little over two decades earlier. On Gates' watch, Microsoft became the world's largest maker of software, employing more than 78,000 people and creating the code that's used on some 1 billion personal computers around the globe.

Along the way, Microsoft locked horns with the Justice Dept., the European Union, and an untold number of competitors new and old--from Google to IBM. By 2000, around the time its market value peaked, it had created an estimated 10,000 millionaires, according to an economist hired by Microsoft to study its impact on Washington State.

No autographs

No autographs
Instead, the shareholder meeting provided its share of offbeat moments, particularly when shareholders had the chance to ask questions of executives. One investor wanted to know if Microsoft would increase its share repurchases.

Ballmer's response: The company spent 175 percent of cash flow on buybacks in the last fiscal year, something he said clearly wasn't "sustainable."

Shareholders offered only modest gripes. Two shareholder proposals, both focused on addressing alleged human rights violations in China, were roundly defeated, winning only 3 percent and 4 percent of shareholder votes, respectively.

The Reverend Ken Hutcherson, who in the past has leaned on Microsoft to oppose gay-rights legislation, threatened to turn up the heat on the company once again. "I am one of the worst nightmares that this company has had," Hutcherson said to more hisses than applause.

A few shareholders queried Microsoft management on competition with Google, both in online search and in the mobile-phone business. Ballmer pointed to the efforts Microsoft is putting into search and noted that Microsoft is a leader in mobile-phone software, a business Google has yet to enter.

Finally Gates, who typically stops at the end of shareholder meetings to autograph annual reports for shareholders, simply walked offstage, his last appearance as a full-time chairman.