Bill Gates: Microsoft Founder Becomes the Richest Person in the World
Bill Gates is a founder of Microsoft, the largest software company in the world. He is known as an entrepreneur and also a successful entrepreneur in the world. Even though it had dropped out of campus, under the control of Bill Gates and Paul Allen, Microsoft carried out many technological innovations and aggressive business strategies.
From his hard work, Bill Gates became one of the number one richest people in the world for many years before being replaced by Jeff Bezos, founder of the Amazon website. What’s the story?
Quick Info
Full Name | William Henry ‘Bill’ Gates |
Birth Date | October 28, 1955 |
Birth Place | Washington |
Gender | Male |
Profession | Founder of Microsoft |
Parents | Father – William H. Gates
Mother – Mary Maxwell Gates |
Bill Gates Net Worth | 149 billion USD |
Bill Gates Biography
William Henry Gates III or Bill Gates born on October 28, 1955, in Seattle, United States. He grew up in a well-off family. His father was William H. Gates Sr. and his mother’s name is Mary Maxwell.
He has an older sister named Kristianne and a younger sister named Libby. Their parents taught their children to be competitive individuals and strive to excel. He is very close to his mother Mary.
Bill Gates Early Life
Since childhood, Bill Gates has loved reading books. He is known as a bookworm who can spend hours reading books like encyclopedias. At the age of 11, his parents began to worry about their child’s behavior, which was often withdrawn and bored quickly.
When he was 13 years old, his parents sent him to Lakeside School. At this school, he developed and excelled in the fields of mathematics and science. Stay up-to-date with Deltsapure! Provide accurate and updated news for readers.
Bill Gates Knows Computers
How did Bill Gates get to know computers? A Seattle computer company offers and provides computers for students at Lakeside School. Then an association at the school called the Mother’s Club used the proceeds from the sale of used school goods and then bought teletype terminals for use by students.
He became fascinated with what computers could do at that time, and he then spent much of his free time hunkered down in front of a teletype terminal. During school, he wrote a tic-tac-toe program in the BASIC programming language that allowed users to play against a computer.
Meet Paul Allen
In Bill Gates’ biography quoted from biography.com, it is known that he first met Paul Allen at Lakeside School.
The two of them quickly became friends because they both paid attention and were enthusiastic about computers. Paul Allen is more quiet and shy. While Bill Gates is passionate and sometimes aggressive.
The two of them spent a lot of their free time together creating computer programs. In 1970, at age 15, he and Paul Allen worked together to develop “Traf-o-Data,” a computer program that monitored traffic patterns in the Seattle area.
From this collaboration, they received 20,000 dollars to start their business. He and Paul Allen wanted to start their own company, but Gates’ parents wanted him to finish school and go to college, and hoped their son would become a lawyer.
After graduating from school, Paul Allen then chose Washington State University, while Bill Gates studied at Harvard, even though the two of them always met.
Dropped Out From Harvard
He continued his education at Harvard University in 1973, where his initial dream was to pursue a career in law. While at Harvard, he spent more time in the computer club than in class.
After two years of college, Paul Allen moved to Massachusetts and worked with Honeywell. Here, he shows Bill Gates the Popular Electronics magazine which features an article about the Altair 8800 computer.
They were both fascinated by the possibilities of what the Altair 8800 computer could create in the world of personal computing.
The Altair computer was made by a small company in the Albuquerque area, USA called MITS. He and Paul Allen then contacted the MITS company and told them that they were making a BASIC application that could run on the Altair computer.
In reality, they didn’t have an Altair to use or the code to run it, but they wanted to know if MITS would be interested in someone developing the software.
MITS leader Ed Roberts asked the two of them to carry out a demonstration. Then the two of them, Gates and Allen, spent two months writing BASIC programs in the Harvard computer laboratory.
Paul Allen then went to MITS to test the software and it worked well. Finally Paul Allen was hired at MITS. Bill Gates then decided not to continue his education at Harvard. He chose to work with Paul Allen.
Founded Microsoft
In 1975, Bill Gates and Paul Allen founded Microsoft, a software company that would become one of the largest companies in the world. Microsoft’s first product was BASIC software that ran on the Altair computer.
Microsoft’s BASIC software program ran well on the Altair computer, Gates and Allen received royalties from users of the BASIC program on the Altair computer, but only some paid it. Their programs are mostly pirated and used for free.
He wrote an open letter to those who used his program for free and pirated it, but this open letter was not liked by computer fans at that time.
The relationship between Bill Gates and the head of MITS at that time, Ed Roberts, was not good, especially in terms of software development and the company’s business direction. In the end, Ed Roberts then sold MITS to another computer company and decided to collaborate with Microsoft.
Microsoft then wrote the program in various formats for other computer companies. Then in early 1979, Microsoft moved the company to Bellevue east of Seattle.
At that time he already had 25 company employees. In 1979 Microsoft made about 2.5 million dollars. At the age of 23, Bill Gates became CEO of Microsoft.
At that time the computer industry began to grow, companies such as Apple, Intel and IBM developed hardware and components for computers.
On the other hand, Bill Gates continues to favor software applications from Microsoft. Thanks to his mother’s connections at the IBM company, he was able to meet the CEO of IBM.
In November 1980, IBM was looking for software that could run on a personal computer (PC) and then approached Microsoft. Bill Gates was able to convince IBM that Microsoft was able to meet IBM’s hardware needs. But on the other hand, he and Paul Allen did not yet have an operating system to use on IBM’s new computer.
Bill Gates then purchased an operating system to run on a computer similar to the IBM PC. He made a deal with the developer of the operating system. Subsequently Microsoft became the exclusive licensing agent and became the full owner of the operating system but did not inform them about the IBM deal.
The company sued Microsoft for withholding important information. Microsoft settled the trial for an undisclosed amount, but neither Gates nor Microsoft admitted any wrongdoing.
Microsoft then installed the newly purchased operating system to work for the IBM PC. He then set a cost of 50 thousand dollars, the same price when he bought the operating system. Even though IBM wanted to buy the source code for the operating system, Bill Gates refused.
He then proposed that IBM pay only a licensing fee for copies of the operating system sold with IBM computers. This allowed Microsoft to license software they called MS-DOS to other PC manufacturers, in case another computer company cloned the IBM PC.
Microsoft also released software called Softcard, which allowed Microsoft BASIC to operate on the Apple II machine built by Steve Jobs.
From 1979 to 1981 Microsoft’s growth and profits accelerated. Its employees increased from 25 people to 128 people, and Microsoft’s revenue jumped from $2.5 million to $16 million.
In 1981, Bill Gates was appointed president and chairman of the board of Microsoft. Meanwhile, Paul Allen was appointed as executive vice president of Microsoft.
In 1983, Microsoft grew rapidly by opening offices in England and Japan. At that time, it was estimated that around 30 percent of computers in the world ran software made by Microsoft.
Bill Gates and Steve Jobs rivalry?
Historically, Microsoft and Apple collaborated in developing their software and hardware. In 1981, Apple, then led by Steve Jobs, invited Microsoft, then led by Bill Gates, to help develop Microsoft software on Apple Macintosh computers.
Through this knowledge collaboration, Microsoft then developed Windows, a GUI (Graphical User Interface) based operating system that uses a mouse to move the graphical interface, displaying text and images on the screen.
Different from the previous MS-DOS system which only used text via the keyboard. At that time, Bill Gates quickly recognized the threat posed by operating systems that used graphical interfaces or GUIs for MS-DOS and Microsoft in the future.
Microsoft then advertised that the new Microsoft operating system would use a graphical interface then called “Windows,” and would be compatible with all PC software products running on MS-DOS systems.
MS-DOS users had to wait two years after its announcement. In November 1985, Bill Gates and Microsoft launched the Windows operating system. Visually the Windows system looked very similar to the Macintosh system that Steve Jobs’ Apple Computer had introduced two years earlier.
Apple has previously given Microsoft full access to their technology while working to make Microsoft products compatible for Apple computers. Bill Gates advised Steve Jobs to license Apple’s software, but he ignored the suggestion and was more interested in selling computers.
Bill Gates Leadership Style
Despite Microsoft’s success, Bill Gates never felt truly satisfied. Gates’ intelligence allowed him to see all sides of the software industry, from product development to corporate strategy.
He always analyzes every step of the company, develops all possible innovations or novelties and puts them into action, asking questions about anything that might happen.
His management style was legendary. He challenged employees with their ideas to keep the creative process going.
Bill Gates and Microsoft Monopoly
Bill Gates is known as a cruel competitor. At that time IBM developed their own operating system, called OS/2, to replace MS-DOS. He then encouraged Windows to improve its features and expand its uses.
In 1989, Microsoft introduced Microsoft Office, which combined office applications such as Microsoft Word and Excel into a single system that was compatible with all Microsoft products.
This application is not compatible with OS/2. The new version of Windows at that time managed to sell around 100,000 copies in just two weeks while IBM’s OS/2 slowly declined.
Microsoft can be said to have a monopoly on the use of operating systems for PCs. The Federal Trade Commission began investigating Microsoft for its allegedly abusive marketing practices. Throughout the 1990s, Microsoft faced a series of Federal Trade Commission and Justice Department investigations.
Some allegations suggest Microsoft made secret deals with computer manufacturers who installed the Windows operating system on their computers. Another allegation was that Microsoft forced computer manufacturers to sell Microsoft Internet Explorer as a condition for using the Windows operating system on their computers.
Bill Gates Leaves Microsoft
In 2000, Bill Gates decided to resign as CEO of Microsoft. He then handed over the position of CEO to Steve Ballmer.
Bill Gates chose to become chief software architect, although he remained chairman of the board of directors. In 2006, he announced that he would devote more time to the foundation he founded called the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. He then stepped down as Microsoft’s chief software architect on June 27, 2008.
In February 2014, Bill Gates stepped down as chairman of Microsoft and moved to a new position as technology advisor. Microsoft CEO at that time, Steve Ballmer, was replaced by 46 year old Satya Nadella.
Bill Gates Personal Life
On January 1, 1994, Bill Gates married Melinda French in Hawaii. At that time, Melinda Gates was 23 years old, working as a Microsoft product manager and met Bill Gates, who was her boss, who was 32 years old at that time. Melinda Gates is known to be very intelligent and organized.
In 1996, their first daughter, Jennifer Katharine Gates, was born. Then their second child named Rory John Gates was born in 1999. Their third child named Phoebe Adele Gates was born in 2002.
How Much Is Bill Gates Net Worth?
In March 1986, Bill Gates made Microsoft conduct an Initial Public Offering (IPO) with a value of $21 per share. This then made Bill Gates a millionaire at the age of 31. He owns 45 percent of the company’s shares.
Over time, Microsoft company shares increased. In 1987, Bill Gates became a young billionaire when his stock hit $90.75 per share.
Since then, Bill Gates has been at the top of the list of richest people in America according to Forbes magazine. In 1999, Bill Gates’ fortune reached $ 101 billion.
For several years, Bill Gates has always been in first position on the list of the richest people in the world before being replaced by Jeff Bezos, founder of the Amazon website in 2018.
This is because he donated most of Bill Gates’ assets to charity through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. In March 2024, Bill Gates net worth was estimated at 149 billion USD according to Wikipedia source.