All Things Digital

Earlier this week, BoomTown posted our speaker list for the sixth edition of D: All Things Digital, which will take place in a few weeks–May 27 to 29, to be exact–in Carlsbad, Calif.

The annual gathering of tech and media luminaries was created and is run by my partner Walt Mossberg and me.

D6 tech and media speakers include: Microsoft Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer of Microsoft (MSFT); News Corp.’s (NWS) Rupert Murdoch; Jeff Bewkes of Time Warner (TWX); Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg of Facebook; Michael Dell of Dell Computer (DELL); IAC’s (IACI) Barry Diller; Amazon’s (AMZN) Jeff Bezos; Howard Stringer of Sony (SNE); and TiVo’s (TIVO) Tom Rogers.

Also: Tom Glocer of Thomson Reuters (TRI); Melinda Gates of the Gates Foundation; FCC Chairman Kevin Martin; Lowell McAdam of Verizon Wireless (VZ); Activision’s (ATVI) Robert Kotick; and former Microsoft tech guru Nathan Myhrvold of Intellectual Ventures.

Just recently, we added Jerry Yang, CEO and co-founder of Yahoo (YHOO), and now he is being joined onstage at the conference by Yahoo President Sue Decker (pictured here in a lovely Wall Street Journal dot-drawing).

The pairing should make for a lively session, given all the heat around Yahoo of late, largely related to the scuttled attempt by Microsoft to buy the company.

What would you like to know about that and anything else about Yahoo?

As it so happens, you can ask!

While the conference is sold out, you can submit questions that you would like answered to Yang and Decker or any of the speakers via text or video. Walt and I will pick the best ones and let loose.

Ask early and often here!

In addition, the whole conference will be online at AllThingsD during the conference, via live blogs and reports of breaking news (and there will be breaking news, as there always is), along with video highlights.

And videos of all the interviews will be posted soon after it is over.

Project Granola?

Apparently, that’s the jokey nickname that’s been given by some in the company to Microsoft’s (MSFT) new online strategy, in the wake of its failed efforts to acquire Yahoo (YHOO) that ended in a big heap of mess this past weekend.

Now, sources tell BoomTown, it is all about “organic”–hence the image of a healthy handful of granola (except for the fact that, in my experience, nobody really likes granola after eating it as much as they think will before).

In any case, it is a word Microsoft folks have been slipping into the conversations with BoomTown over the past few days, so much so that I have started to feel like I was talking to execs from Whole Foods.

Now Microsoft’s greenness has gone public.

Case in point: Brian Hall, Windows Live General Manager, who trotted out the organic word in front of Merrill Lynch analysts yesterday, as reported by CNET’s Ina Fried, saying: “We’ve withdrawn the offer and moved on, and now are focused on how we grow as fast as possible organically.”

But what does organic mean exactly?

Two things, it seems.

First, stepping up spending on marketing, technology and research to try to find ways to differentiate from Google (GOOG) and get into the No. 2 spot now held by Yahoo.

Of course, that plan has not worked out so well as yet for the software giant, with Microsoft spending billions of dollars with no profits and little gain in online search or ad market share, while its archrival Google keeps growing stronger.

Even so, while in Korea today, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates backed Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer’s do-it-yourself path and his move to walk away from Yahoo.

“The key decisions on that will be made by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, who took a look at Yahoo and decided that, on our own, he likes the stuff that we’re doing,” said Gates.

Gates also added what amounts to the second option for Microsoft. “I wouldn’t rule out some partnerships, but we don’t have anything imminent there,” he said.

While a return to Yahoo is a possibility, in fact, buying up Web 2.0 stars is likely to be a bigger focus of the company.

“Yahoo can twist,” said one source. “Microsoft has lots and lots of other options.”

According to sources close to the company, for example, Microsoft’s bankers had been putting out subtle signals to Facebook to see if it would be open to a full buyout.

Microsoft already invested $240 million in the hot social-networking site, an investment that gave Facebook its kooky $15 billion valuation.

And its execs have long told Facebook execs they wouldn’t mind a bigger bite–um, like all of it.

“We just wanted to gauge their interest, more than any real effort,” said another source, who expects Facebook to stick to its longish path to an eventual IPO.

But, as is no secret, Microsoft has selections all over Silicon Valley to help it improve its Internet chances.

Those would include buying bigger vertical sites in strong categories like autos or jobs or finance, and also scooping up smaller but fast-growing socially oriented sites like Digg, Meebo, Yelp or focusing on ad plays like Spot Runner (which just got another big dollop of funding).

There might even be some sense in spinning some of these and all Microsoft Web units off into a separate Internet company, which would be another way of integrating even bigger deals for properties like Time Warner’s (TWX) AOL or News Corp.’s (NWS) MySpace (which are longer shots, I think).

In a post I did in February right after Yahoo rebuffed Microsoft for the first time, I suggested such a course for the company.

As I wrote:

Here’s a list: LinkedIn. Digg. Flixster. Slide or RockYou. Veoh. WordPress. Sphere. Sugar. Some international stuff. And more.

Then, some noted, Microsoft would have to give massive financial incentives to those entrepreneurs to stay and thrive. Most importantly, it would have to keep its Redmond hands from interfering.

Now that would send shivers up the spine of Larry and Sergey.”

And that, most of all, would be more like icing on the cake for Microsoft and be much more tasty than a bowl full of granola.

And, as Martha Stewart says: It’s a good thing.

Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer of Microsoft (MSFT). News Corp.’s (NWS) Rupert Murdoch. Jeff Bewkes of Time Warner (TWX). Yahoo’s (YHOO) Jerry Yang.

All of them engaged in roiling Internet deal-making of late and all of them in just three weeks on the same stage–but not, thankfully, at the same time, or we’d need a professional negotiator–at the 6th D: All Things Digital conference in Carlsbad, Calif.

The annual gathering of tech and media luminaries was created and is run by my amazing partner Walt Mossberg and me (see us here at D5) and will take place May 27 to 29.

The conference, as we describe it on our Web site, is “unlike any other executive conference.” What we mean by that is that we try to determine the next direction of the digital revolution via unscripted and informal, but pointed, conversations about the impact of digital technology with industry leaders.

In other words, Walt and I needling at the major players of the digital sector, until they give up the good stuff.

The other digital and media leaders coming? That would be: Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg of Facebook; Michael Dell of Dell Computer (DELL); IAC’s (IACI) Barry Diller; Amazon’s (AMZN) Jeff Bezos; Howard Stringer of Sony (SNE); and TiVo’s (TIVO) Tom Rogers.

Also: Tom Glocer of Thomson Reuters (TRI); Melinda Gates of the Gates Foundation; FCC Chairman Kevin Martin; Lowell McAdam of Verizon Wireless (VZ); Activision’s (ATVI) Robert Kotick; and former Microsoft tech guru and Nathan Myhrvold of Intellectual Ventures.

To say our timing is impeccably planned would be undeserved–we had no idea so much news related to all these companies and their leaders would break out, from the tough economy to takeover battles to court face-offs to mergers to trying to create a whole new way of reading.

Also, there will be some–as yet under wraps–amazing demos onstage too.

While the analog conference has been sold out for many months, the action will be on the AllThingsD.com site throughout the conference with round-the-clock live blogging by Digital Daily’s John Paczkowski, as well as video highlights from stage.

In addition, we’ll be pointing all over the Web to important tech and media news that breaks at D6.

And we will also stream the entire conference in the weeks after the conference takes place, so ATD’s audience can experience the whole thing, even if they cannot all attend.

But anyone’s questions can be there, though–this year, you can submit questions to any of the speakers via text or video that you would like answered. Walt and I will pick the best ones and let loose. Ask early and often here!

Walt and I are very excited for D6, even after last year, when we brought together industry legends Bill Gates and Apple’s Steve Jobs, for an historic joint interview.

At the time, Walt and I joked that we would not be able to top that amazing event (the video of the entire interview is below).

That interview was nearly unbeatable, but we also think that with the top-level interviewees we have assembled for D6, that it is game on.

Until then, here’s the Gates/Jobs video from D5:

The blogosphere immediately jumped all over the inevitable meme that after the Yahoo (YHOO) deal fell apart, Microsoft (MSFT) CEO Steve Ballmer’s job was at risk.

What with the problems with the new Vista operating system and the general feeling that Microsoft’s Internet strategy is in shambles, the argument that Ballmer would be shown the door by an impatient board and replaced by former CEO and Founder Bill Gates was clear.

Actually, not so such much at all, but that has not stopped all the noise.

Maybe Ballmer should go and maybe not, but I would like some proof that’s not in evidence as yet.

Instead, this TechCrunch story was typical, full of assertions as easy to make with certainty, but just as easy to knock down.

First, it noted that Ballmer being the “big driver behind this deal at Microsoft–some would say to the point of obsession” had made him vulnerable to the board, which he was trying to impress with a “transformative” deal and that he was worried about being fired.

Actually, I would be worried if Ballmer was not obsessed, given that more than $40 billion is an awfully big bet.

And has anyone noticed how typically ineffectual most boards are (see Yahoo, see Time Warner [TWX], see them all)?

I doubt there is a major force on the board of threat to Ballmer, except Bill Gates, who has never shown the slightest inkling of turning on his longtime partner.

Also, Gates himself fumbled with regards to the Web, and he even wrote a book about not doing that in 1995, called “The Road Ahead.”

Microsoft has bungled the Internet? It’s out of touch when it comes to the Web? Its troops have too many lifers who cannot innovate? Google (GOOG) has cleaned their clock? What!?

Of course, this has been news to exactly no one for about a decade now.

In any case, the Yahoo purchase was not the worst of ideas, if a bit obvious–although I have written several times that Microsoft should have bought up other Web 2.0 companies instead of Yahoo.

Both sides acted cloddishly, to be sure, and I am sure Microsoft’s board and execs are smarting a bit from misjudging this foray–I myself wonder how they did they not anticipate just how recalcitrant Yahoo would be.

But Microsoft’s withdrawal was clearly a better path than a hostile proxy fight.

So it did not work out (as yet)? So what? And if Microsoft stock rises tomorrow on the news, of course, all will be forgiven.

In addition, TechCrunch uses a source that is not exactly reliable, quoting “one secondhand account that leaked to us yesterday before the deal was called off,” who tells tales of Ballmer’s ranting and raving about how he wouldn’t let the board “crucify” him.

Ballmer can sometimes be a loudmouthed popinjay!? What ho?!?

Also news to exactly three people in the tech sector and they have been in an isolation tank since 1976.

More to the point, I got that exact anonymous email too, and it was credible and from someone with some good information.

But I felt I could not use the Ballmer info without more proof (also, I would need to know who this person is or find other non-anonymous-to-me people to bear its assertions out).

While compelling and sent in very good faith by an obviously smart person, as many of these types of emails are, I figured the lively emailer was probably from someone close to or even one of the many disgruntled employees of Microsoft who did not like the Yahoo deal.

There were lots of them, as BoomTown reported here, but I determined the emails were just wishful thinking.

But you be the judge!

Here’s two sections from the emails I got in their entirety related to Ballmer (with some minor edits to protect the sender) that TechCrunch clearly used verbatim, so you can see the whole thing rather than the pulled quotes:

Ballmer really does think his job is on the line if he doesn’t close the Yahoo deal, and soon. He’s worried after the fiasco that was the Windows Vista launch, then this, the Board will ask Gates to stay on while they find someone to replace him. Apparently this has caused Ballmer to be more of a tyrant than ususal, yelling and screaming at employees for almost no reason. Some Microsofties are secretly wishing the deal falls through so that Ballmer will get the axe and Microsoft will get new leadership.”

and

The particular incident… was that an exec made a comment about not having to worry about Ballmer anymore if this Yahoo deal falls through. He didn’t realize Ballmer was within earshot. Ballmer started yelling and screaming that this deal would go through and that the board wouldn’t be able to ‘crucify’ him over this. The scuttlebutt suggests that the board was ready to walk because they fear this deal is proving to be to big of a distraction, but Ballmer is obsessed with making it happen in order to protect his job. The board gave him one more week to get it done….many in Microsoft belive Gates will stay on if asked because even Gates realizes that Ballmer needs to go.”

Like I said: Wishful thinking.

This, of course, does not absolve Ballmer from having to come up with some very smart moves and fast to at least keep competitive with archrival Google and also figure out a way to protect its Windows software franchise in the wake of Google’s cloud computing effort.

But that is a longer and more vicious ground war that will go one for a long time.

Yahoo might be Ballmer’s Vietnam or Iraq, as still other bloggers are writing, but let’s keep in mind that the first went on for decades and the second, unfortunately, is still slogging on.

No news is bad news!

At least for those following the Microsoft-Yahoo takeover battle, since silence is maybe not so golden in this case.

Right now, even though Microsoft (MSFT) set a Saturday deadline for starting its proxy battle against Yahoo (YHOO), the waiting game continues as Yahoo hopes Microsoft will flinch and vice versa.

So, can a fun-packed weekend with the folksy Warren Buffett save the day?

In an unusual bit of timing, both Yahoo President Sue Decker and Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates will both be in Omaha starting Friday for the famous annual meeting of Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-A), which Buffett runs with his longtime partner Charlie Munger.

Decker came onto the board in 2007, while Gates–a close friend of Buffett’s–joined in 2004.

(Gates and Buffett pictured here together; Decker’s head shot here too.)

How awkward is that, since Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer might be slapping Decker’s boss, Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang, all around Wall Street next week?

At least, the pair are sure to have fun in Nebraska.

Berkshire Hathaway’s annual meeting is a beloved ritual for its shareholders, who flock to worship Buffett every year at the Qwest Center in Omaha.

The festivities will begin on Friday evening, include a “Baja Beach Bash” on Saturday and finish up with dinner at Gorat’s Steakhouse on Sunday evening.

And perhaps Buffett, nicknamed the Oracle of Omaha, might be just the kind of power broker who can finally bring sensibility to the situation.

Celebrated as the world’s most successful investor, Buffett’s plain-talking advice about the stock market is widely quoted.

My personal favorite is “Only when the tide goes out do you discover who’s been swimming naked.”

But maybe this one is more apt, when talking about Yahoo and its value to Microsoft: “It’s far better to buy a wonderful company at a fair price than a fair company at a wonderful price.”

The question for Gates and company–Is Yahoo wonderful or is it fair?

And until Buffett can work his magic, here’s another unlikely pair–Debbie Harry and Kermit the Frog–singing about making nice in the classic, “Rainbow Connection.”

Oh, Max!

I just got through telling someone who asked me that I thought you, Slide founder Max Levchin, was one of the smarter Web 2.0 characters.

Then, of course, you get to be on the cover of Portfolio magazine for its “Brilliant” issue this month. Apparently, Max, you are Silicon Valley’s new “It” Boy.

But for all your apparently massive amount of brain cells, which should be on display at your keynote today at the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco, how can you be so dumb as to stumble into that same old rabbit hole as so many other Internet hotshots?

Yes, Max: The goofy photo.

In your case, you look good in the coat-and-tie get-up. But please tell me why, oh, why are you balancing a giant lightbulb on the top of your head, as seen here?

It just ain’t dignified!

(Levchin revealed to me via email last night that he actually balanced the monster bulb on his head–but I remain unimpressed.)

Still, you can be comforted to know, though, that you join a legion of other legendarily goony tech figures in the continued march of egregiously wacky pictures.

Such as:

Microsoft’s Bill Gates and his prom date, a PC:

That lovely couple, Larry Page and Sergey Brin of Google, and those irksome colorful exercise balls (not that there is anything wrong with that):

Digg’s Kevin Rose channels Wayne’s World:

Former Netscaper Marc Andreessen as Le Dauphin of France:

And, my personal choice for goofy-de-tutti-goofball photos–Amazon’s Jeff Bezos with his noggin in a box:

Yesterday, you could feel the testiness jump right over the phone from several people close to Microsoft whom I spoke to about Yahoo’s latest gambit to sell its blue-sky growth plan to Wall Street.

Like a lot of Yahoo’s various moves of late–dating promiscuously with other suitors, handing out pricey severance plans to all employees and continuing to spurn the advances of the software giant without a raise in its $31-a-share bid–the projections by Yahoo (YHOO) that its sunny future warranted at least $40 a share were not taken well in Redmond.

In fact, the company–although it may ultimately have to–is quite adamant about not raising the price. “Sooner or later, they’ll run out of things to do,” said one Microsoft (MSFT) exec.

Sooner would be better, as paying $40 a share would add about $12 billion more the the $41 billion price tag, which would make it one of the biggest tech mergers in history if consummated.

But for the same high, high price, why not take all that money and buy AOL and the giant media conglomerate attached to it?

Yes, I mean Time Warner! Home of AOL and Harry Potter!

This thought occurred to me as I watched the stock of Time Warner (TWX) drift further downward over the last weeks, even though it has tried to give itself a shot in the digital arm by paying $850 million in cash to buy the Bebo social network.

Current price tag for the whole ball of TWX: $51.5 billion. (Of course, debt brings the price up to about $85 billion to $87 billion, but this is just a fantasy, so indulge me.)

And for that you not only get the relatively decent AOL online ad network, you also get a social network in Bebo (No. 3, but Microsoft has only a tiny piece of Facebook), the powerful AIM instant messaging service, a just-as-famous brand name in need of some TLC, some nice Web properties and, best of all, a chance to shove out Google (GOOG) from its search-ad relationship with AOL (Google owns 5% of the unit, which it bought for $1 billion).

Plus, all kinds of stuff you can either keep or spin off: powerful cable assets, top-notch television and movie studios (those cool “Entourage” guys on HBO!), the biggest magazine company (People, Sports Illustrated!), cable networks (Anderson Cooper and Larry King on CNN) and much, much more.

Frankly, compared to Yahoo, Time Warner kind of feels like a bargain, and they know from getting taken over by digital types.

Years ago, as I reported in my book, “aol.com,” Microsoft Co-Founder and longtime leader Bill Gates once said to AOL Founder and then-CEO Steve Case in 1993: “I can buy 20% of you or I can buy all of you. Or I can go into this business myself and bury you.”

How ironic would it be if that promise finally came true?

Is it just me or has the world turned upside down?

One sign: Longtime Microsoft (MSFT) nemesis and Oracle (ORCL) pooh-bah Larry Ellison gave an apparent thumbs up to the software giant’s attempt to take over Yahoo (YHOO) in an article by Andrew Ross Sorkin in the New York Times yesterday.

After noting that the current trend toward hostile tech takeovers were due to his moves against PeopleSoft and BEA (”They are copying us,” he said. “Others would be foolish not to try.”), he seemed to say Yahoo’s CEO and Co-Founder Jerry Yang was too “emotional” about the situation.

Then, in the biggest surprise, the colorful Silicon Valley icon was quoted in the article: “Mr. Ellison, whose distaste for Microsoft is legendary, hinted that he’s actually rooting for his longtime nemesis over his neighbor, Yahoo. ‘I’ve certainly watched Bill for years,’ he said, referring to Bill Gates, Microsoft’s chairman and co-founder. ‘MSN is modestly successful. It would be a formidable portal combined with Yahoo.’”

Next week: False prophets–and if we are talking Web 2.0, profits!

According to a source with knowledge of the situation, as part of the preparation for a possible proxy fight it is preparing to wage against Yahoo, Microsoft has been angling in Silicon Valley for prominent techies to serve on a board it must nominate.

If Microsoft (MSFT) does move ahead–which is still a big if–it must name a new slate of directors to replace the current Yahoo (YHOO) board, which has rejected the software giant’s initial unsolicited bid of $31 a share.

Microsoft has until almost the ides of March–the 13th, actually, but BoomTown always likes to sprinkle in a little dramatic history here and there–to offer up its own board.

One well-known tech figure contacted by Microsoft about a possible director’s seat on such a board said the software giant seemed concerned with having members who had deep ties to the tightly knit tech community in Silicon Valley.

This person said they would likely turn down an offer if made.

It is not clear how many important tech players Microsoft can land, given the loyalty to a Silicon Valley icon like Yahoo, but it has to try.

Why? Obviously, to soften the image of an invader from the north. Microsoft’s HQ is in Redmond, Wash.

That is especially important, since Microsoft has always and continues to be considered an outsider in the Bay area, despite its campus in Mountain View, Calif., which is not far from Yahoo or rival Google.

Such movements are part of the proxy Kabuki, of course, and many wonder exactly how serious Microsoft is in its efforts to win Yahoo the hard way. Tough proxy battles are tough going, complex and, most of all, rain uncertainty down on both companies involved.

That’s probably why Microsoft’s top angler–Bill Gates–positioned the company as both withholding and olive-branch-offering in comments about Yahoo this past week.

On Monday, Gates went more with a stoic John Wayne approach, when he told the Associated Press: “We sent them a letter and said we think that’s a fair offer. There’s nothing that’s gone on other than us stating that we think it’s a fair offer. … They should take a hard look at it.”

Then on Tuesday, in an interview with CNET, after a speech he gave at Stanford University, Gates turned on the geek-loving charm: “[Yahoo CEO and Co-Founder] Jerry Yang, to his credit, has kept a lot of very top engineers that have been just doing their work and improving those things. That’s why we see the combination as so powerful. … We think the combination with Yahoo would accelerate things in a very exciting way, because they do have great engineers and they have done a lot of great work.”

(Thanks to Gizmodo for the cool techie fishing illustration above.)

Sorry that this video of Microsoft’s Bill Gates speaking at Stanford University is a day late, but here it is below.

(Our lame excuse: After two lovely scoops on Tuesday–Owen Van Natta’s departure from Facebook and Yahoo’s severance plan for all employees–BoomTown took yesterday off to clean AllThingsD.com’s HQ. Really, we did, since it was filthy after a year of neglect, due to the gaping maw of need that is blogging.)

In any case, the hour-long speech–titled “On Software, Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Giving Back”–that took place at Stanford’s Memorial Auditorium on Tuesday afternoon in front of a crowd of students, faculty and press did not have any news to speak of and was very high-concept about the future of tech.

Gates took the show on the road to the University of Texas in Austin yesterday, part of a kind of farewell tour to seven nationally recognized universities.

But, as I watched it, I felt as if the iconic Gates–who will step down this summer from his daily duties at the software giant he co-founded and built into a massive powerhouse–was pretty happy with his new persona of tech-guru-in-chief.

For sure, it is definitely a kinder, gentler Gates, who speaks of ubiquitous touch screens, instant online information globally and a way to map the human brain.

And the students seemed to love it, asking a series of earnest questions of Gates at the end of the speech, most of which were related to his well-known philanthropic efforts and how to do good in the world.

As a human being I was actually touched, although–to be honest–as a reporter I was dying for someone to ask about Microsoft’s aggressive and unsolicited bid for Yahoo, which is vintage Gates of yore. (Only students were supposed to be part of the Q&A, and while BoomTown feels like a 20-year-old, our looks are a little longer in the tooth.)

Here’s the video of various parts of the speech, including a snippet at the start of Gates’s goodbye spoof video featuring Bono (and apologies for it being so, well, jumpy, but BoomTown had to sit behind a very restless photographer who was acting like has was a paparazzo and Gates was Britney Spears):

No, not as the conquering hero of Yahoo yet, but to give a talk to students at Stanford University about topics Gates often focuses on.

In a speech titled “On Software, Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Giving Back,” Gates will address the young folks gathered tomorrow afternoon at Stanford’s Memorial Auditorium, as well as to a contingent of media. And he will do a question-and-answer session with only students.

A temporarily muted BoomTown will be there, so here’s a shameless offer to any hoodie-wearing student: Free latte to anyone who asks Gates about the Yahoo bid.

Actually, we kid. That’s because Gates actually spoke out on the issue yesterday in an interview with Reuters.

While the software giant’s founder and chairman has taken a back seat to CEO Steve Ballmer in the Yahoo bid, Gates wasted no time in tempering expectations if Microsoft (MSFT) failed in its effort to buy Yahoo (YHOO).

Calling the Yahoo offer “very fair”–uh-oh, maybe the $35-per-share offer is not in the mail–Gates insisted the company would continue to invest copiously in search to try to catch rival Google no matter what.

“We can afford to make big investments in the engineering and marketing that needs to get done,” Gates told Reuters. “We will do that with or without Yahoo.”

But Gates also threw Yahoo a tasty compliment, noting: “But we also see that we’d get there faster if the great engineering work that Yahoo has done and the great engineers there were part of the common effort.”

And that’s got to be worth, in the wise words of J. Wellington Wimpy, at least a few samoleans.

(Completely unrelated factoid, except as it pertains to Wimpy: Gates loves hamburgers too, especially In-N-Out Burger, and has been known to seek the chain out when traveling down south of Seattle.)

In his speech yesterday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates talked about a new form of capitalism, which he called “creative capitalism.”

By that, one of the world’s richest men said the market had to find a way to help poorer countries in new and more benevolent ways.

Obviously, it is a complicated and controversial issue that Gates is likely to turn his attention to much more, especially after he steps away from his day-to-day job at the software giant this summer.

Here’s the video:

Lots of people were bellyaching about the lackluster nature of Bill Gates’s final performance at CES last night–long on deals and stats and short on the futuristic predictions Gates often makes.

Digital Daily’s John Paczkowski was unimpressed, as were Duncan Riley of TechCrunch and ZDNet’s Mary Jo Foley, for example.

But, to my mind, giving the Microsoft co-founder and chairman a hard time at this point is sort of like razzing Celine Dion, who coincidentally also just completed her own longtime run in Las Vegas in her Caesars Palace show, “A New Day.”

In other words, let’s just all admit that–as irksome as both have sometimes been–they do kind of grow on you after a while.

While that may be still debatable with Dion, I know, it is squarely the case with Gates, who has had the longest-running and most complicated relationship with the tech industry, even as he has dominated it for most of the past two-plus decades.

Gates’s impact will surely be chewed over in the history books in centuries hence–likely as not, always with the Yin to his Yang, Steve Jobs of Apple.

And, despite all the controversy his tenure has engendered (most especially the bullying antitrust behavior), as he transitions from his day-to-day role at Microsoft in July in what will likely be one of the longer goodbyes in the digital arena (including his sixth appearance at our D6 conference in May), I am guessing his influence will be seen as a net plus in the years to come.

While many level charges at Microsoft as a hindrance to innovation over the years, via the overwhelming dominance of its Windows operating system, the fact of the matter is that the digital industry has never been more fast-moving and quick-changing, and it remains one of the brighter spots in the pantheon of businesses worldwide.

While that is not because of Gates and Microsoft alone, it is also not in spite of them either. In fact, it’s quite bracing to see Gates attempt to make quick shifts over the years as technology has raced past him, an indication of just how powerful change is compared to the world’s richest man.

Very powerful, as it has turned out, and watching Gates try to keep up has been a perfect metaphor for all those who labor in the tech sector.

His famous December, 1995 sleeping-giant-has-awakened speech about the Internet was a case in point, as were his aggressive moves in later years into a wide range of arenas such as gaming, search, online services, social networking and even an attempt to take on the iPod hegemony with the Zune.

It is clear that most of Microsoft’s efforts outside of its core software business–and a great business it remains, by the way–have been less impressive. But it points to a key factor that never changes throughout the tech arena that even the giants are always vulnerable.

Now, going forward, what Microsoft will do post-Gates, of course, is all that matters.

Will it try to vaunt ahead in the search and portal arena and catch No. 1 Google by attempting to acquire Yahoo?

Will it use its popular Xbox to finally move successfully into the home-entertainment space, as evidenced by announcements Gates made last night at CES about deals with media giants like NBC Universal and others?

Can its MSN ever be more than just an also-ran portal?

What will happen to software in the years ahead as applications inevitably move to the Web?

Gates will not be the one to figure it all out, as he will be off, focused on his laudable philanthropic work when these questions and more get answered.

But even he could not have made an accurate guess onstage last night, as much as pundits wanted him to.

In fact, one of the more tiresome things to endure at CES–aside from the long lines–is always having to listen to the spate of predictions of what is to come, when, the truth is, no one really knows how it will all turn out.

It was always thus. After all, reaching way back in history: Wasn’t the launch of the Titantic supposed to herald in the age of high-tech super-boats? Of course, no one figured in the tragic results from its encounter with an iceberg.

But it did make for a pretty good song, so let’s enjoy a bit of Celine to send Bill Gates off on what one hopes is a much safer journey:

On Sunday, the AllThingsD team, including Walt Mossberg, Katherine Boehret, John Paczkowski and BoomTown, are headed for Las Vegas for the annual Consumer Electronics Show, that cornucopia of gadgets, gewgaws and whizzy devices and the geeks who love them that takes place all next week.

We’ll be live-blogging, catching keynotes, doing videos and, most importantly, giving you important insights about what the key tech trends are in the coming year. (Also, we hope to get in a few games of craps, but that’s neither here nor there.)

Some of the tech luminaries who will be appearing include Microsoft’s Bill Gates, Yahoo’s Jerry Yang and Paul Otellini of Intel, but the real action is on the noisy floors of the convention where gadgets vie for supremacy.

Some important themes, looking at the news coming out so far: mobile focus, social networking and wireless.

Over the next week, I will be posting the most popular videos on BoomTown from 2007.

To kick it off, here’s the interview Walt Mossberg and I did at D5 with Microsoft’s Bill Gates and Apple’s Steve Jobs, a truly historic interview with the tech industry’s two main legends.

The discussion took place the evening of May 30, 2007 at D: All Things Digital, the annual tech and media conference that Walt and I host. The next conference takes place in late May 2008.

We also made the popular interview with Gates and Jobs available for download on iTunes (where it is among the most popular video podcasts ever for download).

Here is the interview in its entirety:

And here is our highlight video of the interview, which is much shorter:

And here is the very funny historic prologue we played before Gates and Jobs came onstage: