ECONOMICS REPORT - Bill Gates Steps Aside at Microsoft
Thu, 3 July 2008
This is the VOA Special English Economics Report.
经济报道－比尔.盖茨从微软卸任
2008年7月3日
这是VOA特别英语的经济报道。
Last week, Bill Gates retired from full-time work at the world's biggest computer software company, Microsoft.He will remain chairman of the company he established with Paul Allen in nineteen seventy-five.
上周，比尔.盖茨从全球最大的计算机软件公司（微软）的全职工作中退下。他仍将担任他与保罗•艾伦在1975年创立的微软公司的董事长。
Mister Gates leaves Microsoft at a time of change in the computing industry.Microsoft grew at a time when personal computers, or PCs, were replacing big mainframe computers as the main computing tools.He showed that huge profits could be made in software as PCs increasingly were found "on every desk and in every home."
盖茨先生在计算机行业充满变数的年代离开微软公司。在个人计算机（PC）代替大型计算机，作为主要计算工具的年代，微软公司成长壮大。他表明，当PC不断出现在每张办公桌和每个家庭时，软件可获取高额利润。
Early on, Microsoft understood the importance of the "network effect."That is, software is the kind of product that increases in value as more people buy and use it.
一开始，微软公司就明白“网络效应”的重要性。网络效应是指：软件是一种产品，当越来越多的购买与使用软件时，其价值上升。
Now, free Internet software threatens to replace PC-based software.Devices like "smart phones" connect people to the Internet.Google has become a leader in Internet Web searching and advertising.Microsoft has struggled to change with the new computer environment.Its efforts to sell music and its latest operating system, Vista, have not been big successes.And an attempt this year to buy Yahoo for over forty-seven billion dollars failed.
目前，网络上免费软件有可能取代PC机用软件。诸如“智能电话”之类的设施，将人与网络相联。谷歌在网络摸索和广告领域已成为领袖。微软公司跟随计算机新环境的变化，但面临困境。微软公司出售音乐和最新的操作系统（Vista远景）不太成功。另外，今年超过470亿美元收购雅虎的行动也未如愿。
In the last several years, Bill Gates has slowly given control of Microsoft to others.In two thousand, he gave the job of chief executive officer to Steve Ballmer, a friend of his since their years at Harvard University.Mister Ballmer has been with Microsoft since nineteen eighty.
在过去的几年中，比尔.盖茨慢慢地将微软公司的控制权移交给其他人。2002年，他将CEO的工作卸给史蒂夫.鲍尔默，他是盖茨在哈佛大学时期的朋友。鲍尔默先生自1980年起一直为微软工作。
Still, it is hard to overestimate the influence of Bill Gates on computing.He developed the business model that put the Windows operating system on about ninety percent of the world's one billion PCs.Microsoft now has almost ninety thousand employees.
但是，仍然无法低估比尔.盖茨对计算机行业的影响。他开发了商业模型，即将视窗操作系统安装在90%左右的全球10亿PC机上。目前，微软大约有9万员工。
At fifty-two years old, Bill Gates is currently the third richest man in the world. He is worth about fifty-eight billion dollars.He remains Microsoft's biggest shareholder.
比尔.盖茨52岁，目前是全球第三大富翁，财富大约为580亿美元。他仍然是微软公司最大的股东。
Mister Gates will now spend most of his time working at his charity organization, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.The foundation is the world's largest charity with over thirty-seven billion dollars.It provides money for health, education and other projects, mostly in developing countries.
目前，盖茨先生将其大部分时间用于其慈善组织，即比尔与梅林达•盖茨基金会。该基金会是全球最大的慈善机构，财富超过370亿美元，主要是向发展中国家的健康、教育和其它项目提供基金。
And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter.Transcripts and archives of our programs are at www.unsv.com.I'm Steve Ember.
这是由Mario Ritter编写的VOA特别英语的经济报道。节目的文稿和档案，请访问www.unsv.com。我是Steve Ember。
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