April 4, 1975
The Microsoft. The company name of 2.3 trillion dollars remains to this day inextricably linked to his Bill Gates. But Microsoft was founded by Gates and his childhood friend, Paul Allen.
The two met at school when Gates was 12 and Allen 14. As Allen would later write in his book “Idea Man”, Gates was still a child when he set out to set up one of the world’s largest companies.
Hailing from a wealthy family, he read Fortune magazine with religious reverence, which his parents subscribed to. “One day he showed me the magazine’s annual tribute and asked me, ‘What do you think it’s like to run a Fortune 500 company?’ I had no idea. And Bill said, ‘Maybe one day we’ll have our own company.’ “He was 13 years old and already, he was a budding businessman,” Allen wrote.
In 1975, when the two co-founded Micro-Soft (as it was then called microprocessors and software), they began making computer software at a time when most Americans still used typewriters.
Allen quit his job in Boston and Gates dropped out of Harvard to focus on their company. Microsoft originally developed software for MITS, the company of the first Altair 8800 personal computer, so it chose Albuquerque, New Mexico, as its headquarters.
At that time, the Bill Gates was running so hard with his Porsche in the New Mexico desert that once, Paul Allen had to get him out of jail, where he had ended up after his arrest for trespassing and so on.
Eventually, Microsoft moved to Seattle in 1979 and became a multinational (today the second largest in terms of capitalization in the world), while Bill Gates became the world’s youngest billionaire at the age of 31 when the company went public.
Allen left Microsoft in 1983 after being diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma. At the time, he was undergoing radiation, with the result that his contribution to the company was reduced, something that did not go unnoticed by Bill Gates and the then CEO of Microsoft, Steve Ballmer.
“One afternoon in late December 1982, I overheard Bill and Steve talking loudly in Bill’s office, and I stopped outside to listen. It was easy to understand the meaning of the discussion. They complained about the lack of production on my part and discussed how they could reduce my stake in Microsoft by issuing options for themselves and other shareholders. “It was clear he had been thinking about this for a long time,” Allen wrote in his book.
He was determined to leave, although both Gates and Ballmer apologized. But his childhood friend would try to “throw” him again. He offered to buy his share for just $ 5 per share. “I’m not sure I’m willing to sell, but I would not discuss anything less than $ 10 per share,” was Allen’s response. Bill Gates refused and as it turned out, did him a great favor.
Holding his stake in Microsoft after resigning from the company, Allen was able to become a billionaire.
In any case, the way Allen approaches the fact that he left Microsoft in his book is a life lesson.
“If the cancer came back it would be useless – if not dangerous – to return to Microsoft’s stress. If I continued to recover, I would now understand that life is too short for you to spend it unhappy. ”
Paul Allen died in 2018, at the age of 65, after the recurrence of his cancer. According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, at the time of his death he had a fortune of $ 26.1 billion. After leaving Microsoft, he became involved in investment and philanthropy.
“Paul was a real partner and a dear friend. “Personal computers would not exist without him,” said Bill Gates after his death.
“In his own quiet and persistent way, he created magical products, experiences and institutions and in doing so, changed the world,” said current Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.
moneyreview
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