Is Bill Gates Putting Together A New Company? Please?

Is ex-Microsoft founder Bill Gates forming a new company or is the economy so depressed that people are conjuring up more wishful thinking than you can shake a joystick at?

That's question on everyone's mind after rumors to that effect spread like wildfire on the Internet over the past few days.

Although details are sketchy at best, TechFlash.com, which broke the story, said that Gates has put together a new company, bgC3 LLC, based in Kirkland, Wash. The company was identified as a "think tank" in federal trademark filings, according to TechFlash.

However, Wall Street Journal blogger Robert Guth took the site to task, saying that the news was actually not news. Guth said that he spoke with Gates earlier in the year, and already knew about bgC3. He also characterized bgC3 as a legal entity, a place that is separate from the offices at Microsoft and The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, "a third place to hang his hat."

TechFlash's Todd Bishop, a former Seattle Intelligence reporter, defended the report. He pointed to Gate's own words from a June interview he conducted (along with reporter Tom Paulson) with Gates after he left Microsoft .

"I am funding some of the things (former Microsoft Chief Technology Officer) Nathan Myhrvold is up to -- and there are some spin-outs coming out of that," Gates told Bishop. "So, I'm helping to back some of those things, but that's not me full time in any way. My full-time work absolutely will be the foundation. Nothing is going to come up. There will be things that either I personally put money into or I get the foundation to put money into, and so I am boning up on a lot of science."

Bishop could be accused of reading into the conversation or he could be going after a great news story, but whichever the case, he certainly did his homework.

"In our search for information about bgC3, we checked all sorts of federal, state and local databases, including Washington state corporation records, trademark filings, and real estate documents," he said. "I spent more time in the Kirkland building-permit desk than I did at my own desk some days this past week. If anyone out there has ideas about additional records to check, please let me know."

Meanwhile, Microsoft did better than expected in its quarterly earnings report Thursday. The company reported its first fiscal quarter results, posting net income of $4.37 billion from $4.29 billion in the same period a year ago, and a revenue gain of 9 percent to $15.06 billion. Even the company's anticipated lowered earnings guidance was not as severe as had been expected. Microsoft's stock closed at $22.32 per share, a gain of 3.67 percent, and rose higher in after hours trading following the release of its earnings.