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Bill Gates Biography

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Bill Gates was born October 28, 1955, in Seattle, Washington. He is famous for building through technological innovation, great business strategies and aggressive business tactics, the world's largest software business, Microsoft. He is also well known for becoming the wealthiest person in the world in the process of building his company.
Gates came from an upper middle-class family. His family atmosphere was warm and close, and he and his two sisters were always encouraged to be competitive and strive for excellence. He started to show an interest in computer programming at the age of 13 at the Lakeside School. It was there that he met his friend and future partner Paul Allen, who was two years his senior. The two became fast friends, …show more content…

By this time Paul Allen also resigned from the company after being diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease.
In 1981 Apple invited Microsoft to help develop software for Macintosh computers. It was through this knowledge sharing with Apple that Microsoft was to develop Windows. In November 1985, Bill Gates and Microsoft launched Windows; nearly two years after his announcement. Visually the Windows system looked very similar to the Macintosh system Apple Computer Corporation had introduced nearly two years earlier.
In 1986, Bill Gates took Microsoft public with an initial public offering (IPO) of $21 per share. Gates held 45 percent of the company's 24.7 million shares and became an instant millionaire at age 31. Gates's stake at that time was $234 million of Microsoft's $520 million. Over time, the company's stock increased in value and split numerous times. In 1987, Bill Gates became a billionaire when the stock raised to $90.75 a share. Since then, Gates has been at the top, or at least near the top, of Forbes' annual list of the top 400 wealthiest people in America. In 1999, with stock prices at an all-time high and the stock splitting eight-fold since its IPO, Gates's wealth briefly topped $101 billion.
Several companies started trying to develop their own operating system to replace Microsoft’s MS-DOS but Gates pushed ahead with the Windows software, improving its operation and expanding its uses. In 1989, Microsoft introduced Microsoft Office

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