William H Iii Gates

Software billionaire Bill Gates' foundation will spend $200 million to fund medical research targeted at diseases most prevalent in poor countries. The grants, announced by Gates at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, are meant to draw attention and brainpower to diseases such as malaria, tuberculosis, bacterial meningitis and childhood diarrheal illness. "It's just a basic fact that 90% of the world's health research spending goes on 10% of the problems," Gates said.

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates pledged $100 million to fight AIDS in India. The contribution will focus on women and prevention methods that don't require the cooperation of a male partner. Gates' foundation has invested $100 million in research on microbicides, gels designed to kill HIV, the AIDS virus. A recent U.S. government report predicted that the number of people with HIV in India will rise to at least 20 million by 2010. The figure stands at about 4 million now, or about 0.

Bill Gates swept into Hollywood last week to trumpet his latest technology--Windows Media 9--as the answer to movie studios' prayers. Studios have held off putting the bulk of their movies on the Internet until they can be convinced that doing so won't result in the kind of massive piracy that has plagued the music industry. Studios also have been skeptical of the quality of experience that can be delivered over the Internet.

Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates said Tuesday that the technology industry wouldn't see any dramatic hit to innovation if it were forced to begin formally expensing the cost of stock options given to employees. Just the same, he said, the software giant had no plans to join Coca-Cola Co., General Electric Co. and other blue chips in voluntarily deducting options costs on the company's official income statement.

Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates said he expected tablet-size personal computers using the Windows operating system to begin selling in October as the company promotes new types of computers to boost slumping PC sales. Tablet PCs are designed with a screen the size of a pad of paper that users can write on with a stylus.

A day after Bill Gates displayed a kinder, gentler version of himself in federal court, the Microsoft Corp. chairman returned to the witness stand Tuesday--this time showing flashes of his impatience and evasiveness as he vowed to fight harsher antitrust penalties. In his second day of testimony, Gates alternately dodged questions from the states' trial lawyer Steve Kuney and, on occasion, acknowledged Kuney's concerns about the software giant's aggressive business conduct.

Trying to shed his image as ruthless and aloof, a smiling and confident Bill Gates strode into a federal courtroom here Monday to fend off tough antitrust punishment and repudiate Microsoft's reputation as a business bully. The software giant's chairman, the world's richest man, took the witness stand for the first time in the landmark antitrust case and warned that punishment sought by nine states suing his company would cripple Microsoft and hurt the entire computer industry.

In a bold but risky bid to fend off tough antitrust punishment of his company, Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates today is scheduled to testify in the landmark case. The much-anticipated appearance by the world's richest man will be the first time Gates has testified in court in person during Microsoft's four-year antitrust battle with the government.

Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates will testify against the antitrust sanctions sought by nine states still pursuing the landmark case against the software giant. It will be the first time Gates testifies in the historic four-year case. Gates gave a sworn deposition before the original trial, and videotaped portions of it were played in the courtroom in 1998 and 1999, prompting U.S. Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson to describe him as evasive and forgetful.

As Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates unveiled a $2-billion suite of tools for software writers Wednesday, the programmers who want to create applications for the company's Web services framework weren't the only ones taking note. The nine states pressing for harsher antitrust sanctions against Microsoft are increasingly citing the so-called .Net services framework in court, arguing that the plan will allow Microsoft to extend its monopoly over desktop computer operating systems into new areas.