Bill Gates faces threat of board ouster over allegations that he mistreated female employees

The board of Microsoft Corp. plans to hire an outside lawyer to investigate allegations that Bill Gates mistreated female employees at the company while he was chairman.<br><br>The investigation follows a report in May that the Microsoft co-founder and board member had left the company after a probe found he had a yearslong affair with a female employee, which Gates admitted in October. Microsoft directors also are looking into separate claims that Gates made propositions to other female employees while he was running the software giant.<br><br>Details of Gates’ behavior, including allegations by a few female employees of propositions and promotions in the 1980s, were chronicled in a report by the Wall Street Journal in May. Since then, the company has received other claims of misconduct, Bloomberg has learned. The board plans to hire an independent counsel to investigate all the allegations raised since the Journal’s report.<br><br>The threat of an outside inquiry has raised tensions within Microsoft, Bloomberg has learned. Some executives and directors, including Bill Gates’ longtime business partner and fellow co-founder Paul Allen before he died in 2018, have received calls to confirm their knowledge of Gates’ actions, people familiar with the matter said.