Microsoft board members concluded the software giant's founder, Bill Gates, should step down from its board last year during an investigation into an allegedly inappropriate relationship with a female Microsoft employee, The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday, citing people familiar with the matter. Board members hired a law firm to investigate the allegations in 2019 after a Microsoft engineer said in a letter she had a years-long sexual relationship with Gates, the Journal's sources said. Gates stepped down before the investigation was finished. A Gates spokeswoman said he had "an affair almost 20 years ago which ended amicably," but that his departure from the board "was in no way related to this matter." Gates and his wife, Melinda French Gates, announced May 3 they were ending their 27-year marriage.