Bill Gates needs to call Hector Santos

Grok Headline matches for Bill Gates needs to call Hector Santos

Why hotels need to charge you $7 for a
phone call (hint: Bill Gates is
involved)

Why hotels need to charge you $7 for a
phone call (hint: Bill Gates is
involved) 02/14/2004 02:39 PM

If you stay in a lot of hotels, as I do, it seems odd that after reaming you out of $150 per night they also need to charge you $7 for a short phone call, $7 to wash a T-shirt, $20 for breakfast, $13 for Internet access, etc.  A friend who owns hotels explained what is happening...

A standard travel agency sells you a hotel room for $X and takes a commission, usually 10%, passing the remaining 90% on to the hotel.  Thus 90% of what you pay can be used by the hotel to make your stay pleasant, invest in high-speed Internet, put in a phone system.  Some online services such as Orbitz and Travelocity act as travel agents, finding the best rooms that they can and taking a fixed percentage commission.

Expedia, a company spun off by Microsoft in 1999 but presumably still substantially owned by Microsoft and Bill Gates, uses its dominant market position to arrange favorable deals with hotels.  The deal might be that Expedia gets to buy up to 50 rooms per night for $75 each, for example.  If the market is soft Expedia can resell those rooms to consumers for $100 per night.  If the market is tight Expedia can resell those rooms for $200 per night, pocketing the $125 difference between what they charge the traveler and what they pay the hotel.  If things are so bad that nobody wants to pay $75 on a particular night, Expedia dumps the vacant rooms back on the hotel.  Much of the profits that hotels formerly earned and invested back in their properties is now being captured by Expedia.

So if you book via Expedia and have to pay $20 for breakfast, have some sympathy for the hotel owner.  He might have gotten less than half of what you paid Expedia for that room.

"A post about bill gates somehow fools a
whole lot of people into believing bill
gates posted the story, or is at least
reading the comments with rapt
interest."

"A post about bill gates somehow fools a
whole lot of people into believing bill
gates posted the story, or is at least
reading the comments with rapt
interest." 04/16/2004 08:49 AM

Bill Gates CES Keynote

Bill Gates CES Keynote 01/08/2004 07:33 PM
You know, tomorrow morning, when the International CES officially opens, you will see the most cutting edge products and technology from nearly 2,500 exhibitors. The International CES has a very impressive lineup of leaders who want to share their knowledge with you. Our keynoters include Fumio Ohtsubo, the president of Panasonic's AVC Networks Company, and senior managing director of Matsushita Electronic Industrial Company; Carly Fiorina, chairman and CEO of Hewlett Packard Company; and Gary Forsee, chairman, president and CEO of Sprint Company.

Dinner With Bill Gates

Dinner With Bill Gates 07/28/2004 09:41 AM
Jeff Maurone: Are you beginning to feel like you are in Myst (the video game), because I was.

Bill Gates gets a 4% pay raise

Bill Gates gets a 4% pay raise 09/21/2004 12:24 PM
Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, the world's richest man, got a modest pay raise over the last year, according to a company filing.

Gates, who is also the company's chief software architect, received $901,667 in salary and bonus from the company for the fiscal year ended June 30, the company revealed in its proxy filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. That's up 4.4 percent from the year earlier total in salary and bonus.

But Gates' increase was lower than the nearly 15 percent rise in pay and bonus he received the previous fiscal year. The filing also shows Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer received the identical pay and bonus as Gates, as he has each of the previous two years. Neither executive received stock options.

With 1.1 billion shares of Microsoft stock, or about 10 percent of its shares outstanding, Gates' dividends during the year came to about $175.6 million.

This November, the company plans to pay a special dividend of $3 per share, subject to shareholder approval. The company announced in July that Gates will donate his $3.3 billion proceeds of the special dividend to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the charitable organization named for him and his wife.

News source: CNN Money

Read full story...

Bill Gates on webl0gs and RSS.

Bill Gates on webl0gs and RSS. 05/21/2004 01:07 PM
Bill Gates on weblogs and RSS. It was inevitable, wasn't it?! Embrace and extend, baby. Embrace and extend...

Bill Gates on Spam

Bill Gates on Spam 06/29/2004 01:38 PM
Internet News Jun 29 2004 4:59PM GMT

bill gates on bl0gging

bill gates on bl0gging 05/20/2004 09:53 PM
CEO summit talk where he name-checks RSS and blogging for the second time

U.S. fines Bill Gates $800,000

U.S. fines Bill Gates $800,000 05/03/2004 03:16 PM
It may just be pocket change for the richest man in the world, but Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates has been fined $800,000 by the federal government for violating an antitrust rule. Will the world's richest man feel an $800,000 fine? The technical incident has nothing to do with the government's massive antitrust battles with Microsoft (MSFT: Research, Estimates). Gates, whose fortune has been estimated at more than $40 billion, ran afoul of the Federal Trade Commission and the Justice Department's Antitrust Division for his purchases of stock in a drug company and a waste-hauling firm.

Bill Gates Is A Genius And You're Not

Bill Gates Is A Genius And You're Not 07/21/2004 11:39 PM
Analysts are cheering the news that Microsoft will pay its shareholders a one-time dividend of $32 billion, that it will increase its quarterly dividend and buy back another $30 billion in shares.

Bill Gates to be Knighted

Bill Gates to be Knighted 01/25/2004 10:37 AM

Bill Gates fined $800,000

Bill Gates fined $800,000 05/03/2004 04:36 PM
CNN May 3 2004 8:05PM GMT

Is Bill Gates Innovative?

Is Bill Gates Innovative? 09/17/2004 12:34 AM
I'd argue, to a certain degree, yes. After all, he is probably one of the major force in creating the software industry -- software as something that a company can sell on its own, rather than something that is given away free with the hardware.

took Bill Gates several hours

took Bill Gates several hours 06/06/2004 03:12 AM
A nice intuitive challenge .. Bill Gates figured it out .. Here’s

member.melbpc.org.au/~lborrett/computing/petals-bg.htm< br />track this site | 4 links

Bill Gates And The Next Holy War

Bill Gates And The Next Holy War 06/24/2005 04:42 PM

By Howard Anderson, Macworld UK

Bill Gates to Upgrade Fun

Bill Gates to Upgrade Fun 09/01/2004 01:57 PM
The Microsoft man has a plan for the parks. What it is, he's not saying yet.

Bill Gates Gives $20M to CMU for New
Building

Bill Gates Gives $20M to CMU for New
Building 09/16/2004 01:06 AM

Bill Gates: Unplugged

Bill Gates: Unplugged 11/19/2003 03:25 PM
Microsoft's chairman compares Linux to Unix in the 1970s and urges people to "be careful" with utility computing.

Bill Gates Says Make Spammers Pay

Bill Gates Says Make Spammers Pay 01/23/2004 11:00 PM
AP via Daily Press Jan 24 2004 3:08AM GMT

Bill Gates Blog. AHHHHHH!!!!!

Bill Gates Blog. AHHHHHH!!!!! 06/26/2004 04:27 AM
Bill Gates May Blog. Always ahead of the curve, the astute visionary's groundbreaking foray into the virginal internet territory, known by computer hackers as "web logging," won't be all business, either. He's expected to share personal details such as tidbits from recent vacations. I for one am trembling on the edge of my seat. 1.0 lacks that special something.

Beating Bill Gates: Part 2

Beating Bill Gates: Part 2 03/14/2003 12:56 PM

Bill Gates Hasn't Stopped Spam Yet

Bill Gates Hasn't Stopped Spam Yet 04/08/2005 08:15 PM
Early last year, Bill Gates announced that he was concentrating on the spam problem and had a few ideas on how to stop the problem. Of course, all of those ideas sounded like ideas that others were already trying -- and there was still plenty of spam. It's now been a year since Bill Gates said that his methods could get rid of spam in two years and it's not clear if his efforts have done very much. Certainly, Microsoft has been suing spammers, and some claim that the overall amount of spam has been decreasing a bit. However, we're still quite a long way from getting rid of spam -- which means the special department at Microsoft who's only job is to manage Bill Gates' spam (even if it's not as much as we were originally told) will probably still have plenty of work to do a year from now.

Bill Gates stalks Nintendo - again

Bill Gates stalks Nintendo - again 08/05/2004 10:29 AM
Have cash, will buy unwanted shares

Bill Gates says make spammers pay

Bill Gates says make spammers pay 01/24/2004 12:10 AM
Boston Globe Jan 24 2004 4:32AM GMT

Bill Gates to get honorary knighthood

Bill Gates to get honorary knighthood 01/25/2004 01:52 AM
iafrica.com Jan 25 2004 6:04AM GMT

Bill Gates: Chairman of the couch

Bill Gates: Chairman of the couch 01/06/2005 11:33 AM
ZDNet Jan 6 2005 2:03PM GMT

Bill Gates to visit China

Bill Gates to visit China 06/17/2004 12:08 AM
Content.sina.com - Wed Jun 16, 08:26 am GMT

In Search Of China's Bill Gates

In Search Of China's Bill Gates 09/22/2004 09:59 AM
Fortune Sep 22 2004 1:52PM GMT

Bill Gates receives knighthood

Bill Gates receives knighthood 01/26/2004 06:41 AM
Arise Sir Global Philanthropist KBE and Bar

Bill Gates Has Left the Building

Bill Gates Has Left the Building 04/28/2004 05:25 PM

For the first time ever in the two years I've been blogging, I have closed the comments on an entry. I always thought I could never get enough comments, but the things happening on the semi-legendary Bill Gates entry need to stop. Comments are split between very sad stories, and people making fun of those sad stories.

While I was at it, I closed the comments on the Bush and Clinton entries as well. People thought they were talking to Bush (a title of "Emailing the President" probably didn't help), and the Clinton thing is straying too far into politics (admittedly, my own comments aggravated this).

I had to dig out the manuals to find the right tag to close them, because I removed that tag from my template long ago, thinking I'd never want to close the comments on anything.

Click here to comment on this entry

"Bill Gates and Petals Around the Rose"

"Bill Gates and Petals Around the Rose" 06/11/2004 12:52 PM

Bill Gates donates $83m for TB research

Bill Gates donates $83m for TB research 02/13/2004 10:44 AM
Microsoft founder and billionaire, Bill Gates has donated $83 million dollars to help in the research of Tuberculosis. Executive Director of the Gates Foundation's Global Health Programme, Dr. Richard Klausner said, "It is unacceptable that TB continues to kill someone every 15 seconds when we have the ability to discover new tools to stop it. Through accelerated research and development, a new vaccine could permanently change the trajectory of the epidemic and save millions of lives every year." Tuberculosis is responsible for killing over two million people every year.

Bill Gates spins the hits

Bill Gates spins the hits 09/22/2004 12:50 AM
Usatoday.com - Tue Sep 21, 08:15 am GMT

Make Spammers Pay, Bill Gates Says

Make Spammers Pay, Bill Gates Says 01/25/2004 04:14 PM
San Jose Mercury News Jan 25 2004 7:08PM GMT

Q&A: Microsoft chairman Bill Gates

Q&A: Microsoft chairman Bill Gates 11/06/2003 06:28 AM
vnunet.com Nov 6 2003 5:31AM ET

Next EC antitrust czar was Bill Gates
fan

Next EC antitrust czar was Bill Gates
fan 08/23/2004 08:48 AM
The Register Aug 23 2004 1:23PM GMT

Bill Gates Interview w/ Spiegel

Bill Gates Interview w/ Spiegel 02/07/2005 01:23 AM
Slashdot Feb 6 2005 5:13PM GMT

Toyota Versus Bill Gates

Toyota Versus Bill Gates 08/10/2004 12:24 PM
Unlike Microsoft, Toyota doesn't "rush to market."

Bill Gates talks about bl0gging

Bill Gates talks about bl0gging 05/21/2004 04:10 AM

Reuters

Microsoft's Gates Touts Blogging as Business Tool

Gates described to his audience, which included Warren Buffett, Jeff Bezos, Michael Dell, Carly Fiorina, Barry Diller and other top business executives, how blogs worked and suggested that they could be used as a tool for businesses to communicate with customers.

[...]

Microsoft, which has already amassed more than 700 employee bloggers talking up its products and software in development, is embracing blogs and RSS technology because they are yet another potential threat and opportunity, said Joe Wilcox, analyst at Jupiter Research.

[...]

Instead of RSS, however, Google is also promoting a rival syndication standard called Atom.

So, we already knew that Microsoft knows about and cares about blogs. Does the fact that Bill Gates explained blogs to a bunch of people who already knew what blogs were mean anything substantive?

Scoble, can you give us the inside skinny? Is this going to turn into a Google-Atom vs. Microsoft-RSS war as the article insinuates?

via Gen Kanai

Grok Description matches for Bill Gates needs to call Hector Santos
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Bill Gates needs to call Hector Santos

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