Microsoft Corp. board members decided that Bill Gates needed to step down from its board in 2020 as they pursued an investigation into the billionaire’s prior romantic relationship with a female Microsoft employee that was deemed inappropriate, people familiar with the matter said.
Members of the board tasked with the matter hired a law firm to conduct an investigation in late 2019 after a Microsoft
MSFT,
+2.11%
engineer alleged in a letter that she had a sexual relationship over years with Gates, the people said.
Also read: Bill Gates reportedly asked out colleagues while married
During the probe, some board members decided it was no longer suitable for Gates to sit as a director at the software company he started and led for decades, the people said. Gates resigned before the board’s investigation was completed and before the full board could make a formal decision on the matter, another person familiar with the matter said.
“Microsoft received a concern in the latter half of 2019 that Bill Gates sought to initiate an intimate relationship with a company employee in the year 2000,” a Microsoft spokesman said. “A committee of the Board reviewed the concern, aided by an outside law firm to conduct a thorough investigation. Throughout the investigation, Microsoft provided extensive support to the employee who raised the concern.”
An expanded version of this report appears on WSJ.com.
Also popular on WSJ.com:
Bald eagles are back. And they want to eat your pets.
Police in cities across U.S. brace for a violent summer.
