Jerry,

>Maybe I'm just making a wild guess, but is it because,as top man and 51+% shareholder he calls the shots?

Common misconception, but Bill Gates in NO WAY has 51% of MSFT...

Here are the stats:

Bill Gates Current Wealth (from http://www.quuxuum.org/~evan/bgnw.html) =
$41.58 billion

MSFT's current market capitalization (value of all stock -- from http://www.wsrn.com/apps/quote/?s=MSFT):
$336.9 billion

The billions cancel and so Gates' share is 41.58/336.9 = .1234 = 12.34%

Not exactly chump change, but Gate's does not run the show based on a majority of stock...

Just wanted to help keep everyone's facts straight...

JoeK