10-17-2018, 09:04 AM
Paul Allen, entrepreneur:
Paul Gardner Allen (January 21, 1953 – October 15, 2018) was an American business magnate, investor, and philanthropist. Alongside Bill Gates, Allen co-founded Microsoft in 1975, which helped spark the microcomputer revolution and later became the largest PC software company in the world.[2] In March 2018, he was estimated to be the 44th-wealthiest person in the world, with an estimated net worth of $21.7 billion, revised at the time of his death to $20.3 billion.[3][4][5]
Allen was the founder and Chairman[6] of Vulcan Inc., which managed his various business and philanthropic efforts. He had a multibillion-dollar investment portfolio including technology and media companies, scientific research, real estate holdings, private spaceflight ventures, and stakes in other sectors. He owned two professional sports teams: the Seattle Seahawks of the National Football League[7] and the Portland Trail Blazers of the National Basketball Association,[8] and was part-owner of the Seattle Sounders FC, which joined Major League Soccer in 2009.[9]
Allen was the founder of the Allen Institute for Brain Science,[10] Institute for Artificial Intelligence,[11] Institute for Cell Science,[12] and Stratolaunch Systems.[13] He gave more than $2 billion to causes such as education, wildlife and environmental conservation, the arts, healthcare, community services, and more.[14] He received numerous awards and honors in several different professions, and was listed among the Time 100 Most Influential People in The World in both 2007 and 2008.[15]
Allen was born on January 21, 1953, in Seattle, Washington, to Kenneth Sam Allen and Edna Faye (née Gardner) Allen.[16] Allen attended Lakeside School, a private school in Seattle, where he befriended the two-years-younger Bill Gates, and with whom he shared an enthusiasm for computers. They used Lakeside's Teletype terminal to develop their programming skills on several time-sharing computer systems.[17] They also used the laboratory of the Computer Science Department of the University of Washington, doing personal research and computer programming; on at least one occasion in 1971 they were banned from the laboratory for abuse of their privileges there.[18] According to Allen, in their teenage years he and Bill Gates would go dumpster-diving for computer program code.[19] After graduating and obtaining a perfect SAT score of 1600,[20] Allen went to Washington State University, where he joined Phi Kappa Theta fraternity;[21][22][23] after two years, however, he dropped out in order to work as a programmer for Honeywell in Boston, near Harvard University where Bill Gates had ended up.[17] Allen later convinced Gates to drop out of Harvard in order to create Microsoft.[24]
In 1975, in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Allen and Gates began marketing a BASIC programming language interpreter.[17] Allen came up with the original name of "Micro-Soft," according to a 1995 Fortune magazine article.[26]
In 1980, after Microsoft had committed to deliver IBM a disk operating system (DOS) for the original IBM PC, although they had not yet developed one, Allen spearheaded a deal for Microsoft to purchase QDOS (Quick and Dirty Operating System), written by Tim Paterson, who, at the time, was employed at Seattle Computer Products.[27][28] As a result of this transaction, Microsoft was able to secure a contract to supply the DOS that would eventually run on IBM's PC line. This contract with IBM proved the watershed in Microsoft history that led to Allen's and Gates' wealth and success.[17] Allen effectively left Microsoft in 1982 after receiving a Hodgkin's lymphoma diagnosis.[17][29]
Gates reportedly asked Allen to give him some of his shares to compensate for the higher amount of work being performed by Gates.[30][31] According to Allen, Gates said since he "did almost everything on BASIC", the company should be split 60–40 in his favor. Allen agreed to this arrangement, which Gates later attempted to amend to 64–36.[32] In 1983, Gates tried to buy Allen out at $5 per share; however, Allen refused and left the company with his shares intact. This proved critical to Allen's becoming a billionaire after Microsoft went public.[32][33]
Allen officially resigned from his position on the Microsoft board of directors on November 9, 2000. He remained as a senior strategy advisor to the company's executives.[34][35][36] In January 2014, he still held 100 million shares of Microsoft.[37]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Allen
Paul Gardner Allen (January 21, 1953 – October 15, 2018) was an American business magnate, investor, and philanthropist. Alongside Bill Gates, Allen co-founded Microsoft in 1975, which helped spark the microcomputer revolution and later became the largest PC software company in the world.[2] In March 2018, he was estimated to be the 44th-wealthiest person in the world, with an estimated net worth of $21.7 billion, revised at the time of his death to $20.3 billion.[3][4][5]
Allen was the founder and Chairman[6] of Vulcan Inc., which managed his various business and philanthropic efforts. He had a multibillion-dollar investment portfolio including technology and media companies, scientific research, real estate holdings, private spaceflight ventures, and stakes in other sectors. He owned two professional sports teams: the Seattle Seahawks of the National Football League[7] and the Portland Trail Blazers of the National Basketball Association,[8] and was part-owner of the Seattle Sounders FC, which joined Major League Soccer in 2009.[9]
Allen was the founder of the Allen Institute for Brain Science,[10] Institute for Artificial Intelligence,[11] Institute for Cell Science,[12] and Stratolaunch Systems.[13] He gave more than $2 billion to causes such as education, wildlife and environmental conservation, the arts, healthcare, community services, and more.[14] He received numerous awards and honors in several different professions, and was listed among the Time 100 Most Influential People in The World in both 2007 and 2008.[15]
Allen was born on January 21, 1953, in Seattle, Washington, to Kenneth Sam Allen and Edna Faye (née Gardner) Allen.[16] Allen attended Lakeside School, a private school in Seattle, where he befriended the two-years-younger Bill Gates, and with whom he shared an enthusiasm for computers. They used Lakeside's Teletype terminal to develop their programming skills on several time-sharing computer systems.[17] They also used the laboratory of the Computer Science Department of the University of Washington, doing personal research and computer programming; on at least one occasion in 1971 they were banned from the laboratory for abuse of their privileges there.[18] According to Allen, in their teenage years he and Bill Gates would go dumpster-diving for computer program code.[19] After graduating and obtaining a perfect SAT score of 1600,[20] Allen went to Washington State University, where he joined Phi Kappa Theta fraternity;[21][22][23] after two years, however, he dropped out in order to work as a programmer for Honeywell in Boston, near Harvard University where Bill Gates had ended up.[17] Allen later convinced Gates to drop out of Harvard in order to create Microsoft.[24]
In 1975, in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Allen and Gates began marketing a BASIC programming language interpreter.[17] Allen came up with the original name of "Micro-Soft," according to a 1995 Fortune magazine article.[26]
In 1980, after Microsoft had committed to deliver IBM a disk operating system (DOS) for the original IBM PC, although they had not yet developed one, Allen spearheaded a deal for Microsoft to purchase QDOS (Quick and Dirty Operating System), written by Tim Paterson, who, at the time, was employed at Seattle Computer Products.[27][28] As a result of this transaction, Microsoft was able to secure a contract to supply the DOS that would eventually run on IBM's PC line. This contract with IBM proved the watershed in Microsoft history that led to Allen's and Gates' wealth and success.[17] Allen effectively left Microsoft in 1982 after receiving a Hodgkin's lymphoma diagnosis.[17][29]
Gates reportedly asked Allen to give him some of his shares to compensate for the higher amount of work being performed by Gates.[30][31] According to Allen, Gates said since he "did almost everything on BASIC", the company should be split 60–40 in his favor. Allen agreed to this arrangement, which Gates later attempted to amend to 64–36.[32] In 1983, Gates tried to buy Allen out at $5 per share; however, Allen refused and left the company with his shares intact. This proved critical to Allen's becoming a billionaire after Microsoft went public.[32][33]
Allen officially resigned from his position on the Microsoft board of directors on November 9, 2000. He remained as a senior strategy advisor to the company's executives.[34][35][36] In January 2014, he still held 100 million shares of Microsoft.[37]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Allen
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.