02.08.08
Mysterious New Moves in the Gates Foundation
It’s a question of timing
The last time we mentioned the Gates Foundation, we highlighted the following new addition/assignment:
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation named former World Bank official Geoff Lamb managing director of public policy, a new position that highlights the philanthropy’s growing need to work more closely with governments world-wide.
For those with some background in politics, the role of World Bank executives ought to strike a nerve. What’s more, Melinda Gates’ presence in listings of secretive Bilderberg Group meetings might actually mean something.
It is important that you are made aware of some of the Foundation’s lesser-known activities. These activities receive little or no publicity in the mainstream media.
The Foundation came under attacks from critics who explored the activity of the Foundation in a wider context and we also saw the role of seemingly-philanthropic acts as means of assisting Microsoft [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8] and having people dependent on (or locked in to) Microsoft software. It is an optimal situation to have. A charity acts as a moral shield. It’s hard to say something negative about the Foundation as a whole.
Mind the following news from yesterday. The head of the Foundation (since 1997 in fact) has just departed. Of interest:
Buffett, the head of Omaha, Neb.-based Berkshire Hathaway Inc. and a longtime friend of the Gateses, announced in June 2006 that he would give the foundation about $1.5 billion annually, to be distributed in the year it is donated. Stonesifer said Bill and Melinda Gates asked her to insure Buffett’s gifts would have their maximum impact before she left the CEO spot.
She said her bosses have no intention of filling the chief executive job themselves.
From the Billwatch Quotes Database we extract the following situation which involved this departing director of the Gates Foundation:
Quote: “If it [the timing of the donation] had anything to do with the antitrust case, we would have told someone”
By: Ms. Stonifer, director, William H. Gates Foundation
Reference: Responding to the question if the timing of Gates’ $3.3 billion gift to the foundations…
If you look at our past writings you’ll see this mentioned in a broader context. To this date, the donations seem somewhat strategic in the sense that they are sometimes tied to a few business interests.
Be aware that Microsoft is hurting financially, albeit very secretly. This was covered a lot recently, so start here and follow the references back in time if this is news to you. An Associated Press article has just shown up in some Web sites and it states Microsoft’s problem fairly well.
The investor backlash during the past week has reduced Microsoft’s market value by more than $40 billion, an amount roughly equal to the current value of its bid for Yahoo.
Remember the fact that Microsoft sought a big loan just in order to buy Yahoo. At the moment, the company’s cash reserves are being used for aggressive stock buybacks and the Seattle P-I reported that Microsoft had lost over half of its cash piles in just two years. That was last year and you are encouraged to follow the reference in order to find out more. It would be needless and wasteful to just repeat very detailed posts with compelling proof. █
