Bill Gates is the creator of Microsoft.
Biography
William Henry Gates III
Occupation: Entrepreneur
Birth Date: October 28, 1955
Education: Lakeside School, Harvard College
Place of Birth: Seattle, Washington
Best Known For:
Entrepreneur Bill Gates founded the world's largest software business, Microsoft, with Paul Allen and became one of the richest men in the world.
Occupation: Entrepreneur
Birth Date: October 28, 1955
Education: Lakeside School, Harvard College
Place of Birth: Seattle, Washington
Best Known For:
Entrepreneur Bill Gates founded the world's largest software business, Microsoft, with Paul Allen and became one of the richest men in the world.
Family
Bill Gates grew up in an upper middle class home and the middle child to 2 sisters. His mom raised him to be competitive, and even though he had a family fortune he wanted to have money of his own.
School
Was a good reader, but a bit of a loner in public school. At 13 his parents enrolled him in Lakeside School, a private prep school where he was introduced to computers. He enjoyed them so much he would sneak off at night to go to the lab to work with the computers. This is where he met his friend and business partner, Paul Allen.
Pre-Microsoft
At 15 Gates and Allen developed a program called "Traf-O-Data" that monitored traffic patterns in Seatle. They were paid $20,000 for this program and both wanted to quit school and start a company. Gates parents wanted to make sure that he got and education and become a lawyer.
MITS
Gates and Allen then created a software program for the Altair Computer. Altair was a small computer company based in New Mexico. From their work with Altair, Allen and Gates formed Microsoft. Gates soon found a problem with the software industry, people were making copies of the original software without buying new copies. He thought that this was stealing and set out to change the industry.
Microsoft
In 1978, Gates was 23 and became CEO of Microsoft. He and his 25 employees made 2.5 million dollars that year. He payed close attention to the details and reviewed every line of code that was sold. He spent a lot of his time traveling the county telling about Microsoft. His travel companion was usually his mother who knew many CEO's.
IBM
In 1980, IBM was looking for software to operate their new PC. IBM hired Gates to write the software but when it came time to deliver, Gates had a new plan on how to deliver the operating system. IBM thought that they were going to by the code and own the software, but instead, Gates only sold them licenses to the software. So for every computer sold, Gates would make money off the license fee.
Microsoft Inc.
In 1981, Gates and Allen incorporated Microsoft and Gates was again placed as the CEO and Chairmen of the Board. By 1983, Microsoft was going globala and 30% of the worlds computers were being run by Microsoft software. In that same year, Allen found out that he had cancer. After successful treatment and surgery he went into remission but resigned. Coming that close to death, Allen wanted to do something else with his life.
MS Windows
MS Windows was developed by Gates after a shared knowlege session with Steve Jobs at Apple. MS Windows would be a "point and click" system that would be easier to use for the general public. Because of this shared session and Window's success, Apple sued Microsoft and the courts decided that Microsoft didn't do anything wrong, because Apple did not protect their intelectual rights as Gates had advised them to.
In 1986, Microsoft went public, and at $21 a share, Gates was a millionare at age 31. By 1989, MS Office sold 100,000 in just 2 weeks. They were investigated by the Federal Trade Commission for a possible monopoly. A monopoly is where there is only one seller of a product and since there is no competition, the one seller can set the price at whatever they want it to be and there would be no one to stop them. The FTC wanted Gates to break up his company into 2 different companies, one that just did operating systems and one that did software development. Gates fought the FTC and one and was able to keep Microsoft into just one company.
Foundation
In 1994, Gates married Melinda and found out that his Mom had cancer. She became so sick that she died that same year. He spent the next year traveling with his new wife and re-evaluating his life. In 2000, he and his wife decided to create the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation with $28 Billion dollars of thier own money. In that same year he stepped down as the CEO of Microsoft.
Impact
- Being the most successful and richest business man in the history of the world.
- Time Magazine named him the most influential people of the 20th century.
- Made intellectual property a real thing, something that could be contracted on paper and more than just and idea.
Bill Gates grew up in an upper middle class home and the middle child to 2 sisters. His mom raised him to be competitive, and even though he had a family fortune he wanted to have money of his own.
School
Was a good reader, but a bit of a loner in public school. At 13 his parents enrolled him in Lakeside School, a private prep school where he was introduced to computers. He enjoyed them so much he would sneak off at night to go to the lab to work with the computers. This is where he met his friend and business partner, Paul Allen.
Pre-Microsoft
At 15 Gates and Allen developed a program called "Traf-O-Data" that monitored traffic patterns in Seatle. They were paid $20,000 for this program and both wanted to quit school and start a company. Gates parents wanted to make sure that he got and education and become a lawyer.
MITS
Gates and Allen then created a software program for the Altair Computer. Altair was a small computer company based in New Mexico. From their work with Altair, Allen and Gates formed Microsoft. Gates soon found a problem with the software industry, people were making copies of the original software without buying new copies. He thought that this was stealing and set out to change the industry.
Microsoft
In 1978, Gates was 23 and became CEO of Microsoft. He and his 25 employees made 2.5 million dollars that year. He payed close attention to the details and reviewed every line of code that was sold. He spent a lot of his time traveling the county telling about Microsoft. His travel companion was usually his mother who knew many CEO's.
IBM
In 1980, IBM was looking for software to operate their new PC. IBM hired Gates to write the software but when it came time to deliver, Gates had a new plan on how to deliver the operating system. IBM thought that they were going to by the code and own the software, but instead, Gates only sold them licenses to the software. So for every computer sold, Gates would make money off the license fee.
Microsoft Inc.
In 1981, Gates and Allen incorporated Microsoft and Gates was again placed as the CEO and Chairmen of the Board. By 1983, Microsoft was going globala and 30% of the worlds computers were being run by Microsoft software. In that same year, Allen found out that he had cancer. After successful treatment and surgery he went into remission but resigned. Coming that close to death, Allen wanted to do something else with his life.
MS Windows
MS Windows was developed by Gates after a shared knowlege session with Steve Jobs at Apple. MS Windows would be a "point and click" system that would be easier to use for the general public. Because of this shared session and Window's success, Apple sued Microsoft and the courts decided that Microsoft didn't do anything wrong, because Apple did not protect their intelectual rights as Gates had advised them to.
In 1986, Microsoft went public, and at $21 a share, Gates was a millionare at age 31. By 1989, MS Office sold 100,000 in just 2 weeks. They were investigated by the Federal Trade Commission for a possible monopoly. A monopoly is where there is only one seller of a product and since there is no competition, the one seller can set the price at whatever they want it to be and there would be no one to stop them. The FTC wanted Gates to break up his company into 2 different companies, one that just did operating systems and one that did software development. Gates fought the FTC and one and was able to keep Microsoft into just one company.
Foundation
In 1994, Gates married Melinda and found out that his Mom had cancer. She became so sick that she died that same year. He spent the next year traveling with his new wife and re-evaluating his life. In 2000, he and his wife decided to create the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation with $28 Billion dollars of thier own money. In that same year he stepped down as the CEO of Microsoft.
Impact
- Being the most successful and richest business man in the history of the world.
- Time Magazine named him the most influential people of the 20th century.
- Made intellectual property a real thing, something that could be contracted on paper and more than just and idea.