Memo to Microsoft competitors: Get ready for 2016. Bill Gates, the software superpower's strongman, said during a Singapore stop on his cross-Asia sweep that he will step down from the company's helm when he's 60.
Let's see ... He's 42 now, so that puts his retirement date 18 years off.
That's lots of time to accumulate the US$950 billion he needs to become a trillionaire. But it might not be long enough for Microsoft to get to the end of its problems with the US Department of Justice.
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French Telecom a moneymaker: The notably stale French economy has been fresh in at least one area - telecommunications. French Telecom scored a $2.48 billion profit in 1997, up $350 million from 1996. FT's mobile-phone business surged 52 percent and now accounts for 11 percent of the company's revenues. Internet service is also climbing quickly - jumping 47 percent in the first two months of this year, the company said - but remains a small-time feature for the state-run group, with just 153,000 subscribers aboard.
