Microsoft founder Bill Gates would support CEO Satya Nadella if he wanted to spinoff the company's Xbox gaming division, with the comments coming from a recent interview with Fox Business Network.

In response to questions about separating Bing and the Xbox division, and acknowledging that Microsoft has spun off products like Expedia and Slate, Gates said that separating Microsoft's Xbox gaming division from gaming as a whole at Microsoft isn't necessarily an "obvious" move.

"Well, we're taking PC gaming — Windows gaming — and Xbox gaming and bringing those a lot closer together," Gates said. "The power of the PC graphics chips means you can do great games there. So I'm sure Satya and the team will look at that, and, you know, it's up to them. But we're going to have an overall gaming strategy, so it's not as obvious as you might think."

When asked by interviewer Liz Claman on whether Gates would support Nadella if he wanted to spin off the Xbox division, Gates responded with a rather definite "absolutely." Whether that does eventuate is to be seen, but at least we know the founder of Microsoft's stance on such business.