Gates Sails the Seas of Change

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You've got to love leaked memos for juicy bits of corporate gossip. Over the last several days, we've gotten a peek into how Microsoft's (Nasdaq: MSFT) Bill Gates really feels about the current tech climate -- and the sea change he sees coming.

According to the memo, Gates sees the Internet's coming shift towards more service-based offerings as a "disruptive" change confronting his company. Indeed, we all know that Microsoft's crowning achievements have always been the Windows operating system and ubiquitous software like Microsoft Office, and there are certainly signs that such services are shifting to the Internet. In the memo, Gates also mentioned the importance of online ad revenues.

Gates cited an earlier memo from Ray Ozzie, who was recently chosen to head up a new services unit at Microsoft. Ozzie's memo highlighted competition from, yes, Google (Nasdaq: GOOG), as well as eBay's (Nasdaq: EBAY) sweetheart Skype, Research In Motion (Nasdaq: RIMM), Adobe (Nasdaq: ADBE), and old nemesis Apple Computer (Nasdaq: AAPL).

None of us is surprised that Google is in the spotlight here. However, the leaked memo becomes more interesting in light of Gates' previous public stance toward Google's challenges to Microsoft. Gates has sometimes seemed downright dismissive of many Google initiatives -- just a few weeks ago, he went on the record shrugging off many of Google's new offerings as "me-too products."

Whether you're a Bill Gates fan or not, the leaked memo tells us a few things. First, Microsoft is acknowledging threats from disruptive companies and innovations, despite its public stiff upper lip. (Investors may have interpreted that dismissive air as strength and confidence -- or the kind of blind hubris that can get companies into trouble.) The memo is also an interesting view of a giant getting itself ready for a fight.

For other investors, it underlines the big changes underway in the computing world, and the many new opportunities it may present . if we know how to look for them.

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Alyce Lomax does not own shares of any of the companies mentioned. eBay is a Motley Fool Stock Advisor pick. The Fool has a disclosure policy.