"lead the strategies we have in place to help reduce inequities in the United States and around the world."

yeah, like having a monoploy on the OS/media player/business suite apps market.....then appealing again and again against the EU when it fines you.....piss off you self-righteous, double standards turds....where does all this foundation cash go anyway?

charity foundation or <cough>tax write off</cough>. i'm sure bill does a wonderful job and gets the warm welcome he received at live eight a couple of years ago.....

The cash goes to anything that will benefit Microsoft or Bill Gates. If it is for education etc the benefits will be to lock them into Windows. If it is for healthcare by providing drugs etc then the drugs will only be supplied by US companies that has Bill Gates as a major shareholder.

Bill Gates is obsessed with money. He indicated this when he wrote his 'hobbyists are thieves' letter in the '70's when software was free. He is more interested in supplying substandard products at maximum revenue to line his pockets. The man is pure scum who profits from other peoples work.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation gives huge amounts of cash to health care & education initiatives worldwide.

I fail to see the advantage of transferring a vast majority of your fortune over to a foundation just to avoid tax payments. Why give away $37bn, just to avoid a few million in tax payments?

alan - because a 'few million' is exactly that - a lot of money.

do some research on this, St. Bill 'entertain a crowd' Gates is a shrewd 'investor' in his money.

why does someone need to set up a public foundation with all his cash? why not do it anonymously? it's a real 'look at me, being really generous with my cash' while microsoft themselves are NOT reducing in equalities in the US or around the world are they?

Couldn't agree more with the other comments. How dare Bill give money to the poorest people in the world, while preventing Steve Jobs and Larry Ellison from buying second jets. It's a clear tax dodge - why pay 15% tax when you can give away 100% of your money?

I don't know about other reg readers - but I feel perfectly satisfied having done nothing to help Africa's poor, now that I know Gates is helping them. They are obviously being punished for Windows ME.

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Guided by the belief that every life has equal value, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation works to help all people lead healthy, productive lives. In developing countries, it focuses on improving people's health and giving them the chance to lift themselves out of hunger and extreme poverty. In the United States, it seeks to ensure that all people—especially those with the fewest resources—have access to the opportunities they need to succeed in school and life. Based in Seattle, the foundation is led by CEO Patty Stonesifer and co-chair William H. Gates Sr., under the direction of Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett.

Warrem Buffett recently exceeded Bill Gates as the richest man, how can you fault an organization for giving away 3billion a year, or are you just upset you didn't get any of it?

http://www.gatesfoundation.org/default.htm to see what they are doing.

wow... and I thought I was cynical.

... give the money to better causes than putting it in to government coffers. So what if it is a tax dodge. Better that it goes to the needy than to politicians expense budgets!!

the mean-spirited little turdbaskets on this site were berating Terry Pratchett for giving money to Alzheimers charity have I seen such a load of peevish small-minded tosh.

Now I'm no lover of Microsoft software - the last great innovation they delivered was the wizard in about 1991 - but for fuck's sake - this man has given BILLIONs to charity. So what if he wants his name on the building - that's BILLIONs people.

And it's not giving aid tied to believing in Jebus or advancing the position of {coca-cola / McDonalds / Branston pickle} in the world - it's about fighting AIDs and doing other good things.

The vast majority of the world's people couldn't give a toss about Linux / Windows / Mac / Zunepods - they want fresh running water, schools to go to and the chance to live a long, healthy life. Gatesy is taking the money from his {brilliant business acumen / one lucky break / evil pigopoly} and using BILLIONs of it to do shit like buy AIDS drugs for the poor.

And you pin-dicked little turds feel hard done to because his company didn't adopt girly open standards for browsers and office software.

There has to be a new kind of tard for this shurely....

Yours in anonymous cowardice (I don't want my boss to see me posting swears on tinternet during class time)

Have to agree with AC here. I do not like Bill Gates, nor his software, but the man puts his money where his mouth is when it comes to charity. Far better that it goes to help others then sit in a vault doing nothing.

His software may suck, his business ethics may be questionable (at best), but the man has saved and improved life for far more people than I will ever meet.

So you can hate the man, but give respect the work his foundation is doing - everyone else who reads this will do far less in their life.

I can appreciate Bill's generosity with regards to the poor, and I can criticise his bad choice in morals in business.

I don't need to pick sides to understand when he gives and when he takes. I'm more interested in his personal philosophy, does this man really think that nothing good can come about without business money? Inquiring minds want to know.

The cost to humanity of his "generosity" has been enormous and uncounted. By monopolizing the PC OS market by criminal (such was the verdict of the US court) tactics he set the development and utilization of the PC back, in my opinion, by between 5 and 10 years.

Hubris is never a good fountain of charity. The ethical approach is not to be found in the B-school manuals, let alone Buffett's stamping-ground of the NYSE or the USA-legal thinking of BG's father who master-minded the original Windows-licensing policies that proliferated the presence of Windows simply because few people saw the advantage of paying extra for the OS they wanted since they couldn't get a refund for the one they didn't want.

If his foundation is not benefiting M$ to a great degree, albeit indirectly, I will be amazed.