Born William Henry III is an American entrepreneur, business mogul,
investor, philanthropist, and widely known as one of the most richest
and influential people in the world. William Henry III was born to
attorney, William Henry II and teacher, Mary Maxwell Gates in Seattle,
Washington, USA.
Bill Gates as a child was very competitive, curious, and depth thinker.
His parents decided to enroll him in the private preparation school,
Lakeside School. Gates soon excelled at Lakeside, where he made himself
oriented to a wide variety of subject ranging from Math, Science,
English Literature and even becoming a superb Drama student. Bill Gates
surrounded by historical events at a young age was inspired. In 1969,
Apollo 11 took men to the moon, this involved huge computers, and which
cost billions of research dollars to function and operate. A computer
during that era, was very genuine to have. However, Lakeside had gotten
a deal with the city of Seattle and received, this became Bill Gates
first encounter toward a computer.
Bill Gates would spend hours,upon hours at the computer room at the
high-school, and he eventually met a man named,Paul Allen whom shared
the same interests as Bill Gates. Bill Gates in 1973 graduated,
Lakeside and was accepted by the prestigious University Of Harvard.
Gates during his years at Harvard University never had a definite
career plan, for some time he thought of pursuing a career in law for
the admiration he had with politics, but his true craze was staying up
all day and night with the computer. Bill Gates met Steve Ballmer whom
would soon join Gates in his venture to start his own company,
Microsoft. This all started when Paul Allen, Bill's former school mate
moved to Boston from Seattle for a job. Paul Allen picked up a magazine
at Harvard Square which read, "World's First Minicomputer Kit To Rival
Commercial Models" to Bill Gates and Paul Allen this was the moment
they had been waiting for, the dawn of personal computer had begun. Ed
Roberts who ran this phenomenal product was looking for someone to do
further programming to it. Bill Gates and Allen Paul soon took on this
task and this partnership with Ed Roberts eventually led to the first
product made by Microsoft the Altair BASIC. "Microsoft" was created in
1976 Altair BASIC was an programming language which ran on the MITS
Altair 8800. Gates due to the success of Altair BASIC decided to drop
out of Harvard and never returned to complete his studies. Microsoft
was located in Albuquerque from 1976 to 1979. In 1979 they relocated
their location to Bellevue Washington on January,1,1979.
Microsoft began to expand and specialize in languages such as
Basic,Cobol,Fortan,and Pascal. With this expansion and Microsoft having
hit the one million dollar profit margin mark, it was a matter of time
until a big-shot computer creative company came knocking at their door.
That company was IBM. The partnership IBM and Microsoft developed was a
pivotal role which defined technology, to what it has become today. It
established what Gates had predicted, every home in America would have
one computer per household. IBM wanted an operating system for their
new line of personal computers. Bill Gates bought an operating system
in which he renamed, MS-DOS for IBM. He received profit from IBM for
every MS-DOS product made, as IBM didn't own the licensing fee, and
Gates refused to give it to them.
The partnership with Bill Gates and Paul Allen soon ended, due to Paul
being diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease. Their partnership would be seen
as one which defined the technology field world-wide. This made Gates
the sole-man in the Microsoft empire. In 1985, Microsoft had generated
140 million dollars in sales in just that year alone.
In 1986, Bill Gates introduced Microsoft Windows it would be come one
of the most used operating systems in history, and one of the most
advanced. Apple around this time, came up with an ingenious software,
Gates advised them to have a copyright, however Apple was more focused
on selling computers, this prompted Gates to take advantage of an open
opportunity. At the age of 31, Gates became a billionaire owning 45% of
his stock.
Bill Gates always had insecurities, even if he at such a peak. IBM soon
to separate from MS-DOS with the success of their sales, decided to
create their own operating system which it licensed from Microsoft
called Dos2. OS2 eventually failed as Gates decided to invest his name
and the entire future of Microsoft to advancing the Windows operating
system, even if it meant losing IBM as a client. He came out with
Windows 3.0 which turned out be a best market seller. Microsoft was
soon becoming a monopoly, and Gates started receiving the reputation of
being ruthless,and unfair. Gates was accused for practicing unfair
marketing practices, and a case with the Department Of Justice Division
Anti Trust Department was opened. Microsoft would receive royalty fee
because of a "per-processor" license Microsoft had which stated, for
each computer a microprocessor is sold; a royalty payment must be made.
Regardless, if it was a Microsoft operating system or not. Operating
Equipment Manufacturers saw this as unfair, this would lead him further
to be a monopoly, which no software company liked. Apple had no way of
competing, IBM had no way of competing, it was Microsoft receiving
these royalty fees even for a non-Microsoft Operating System which most
manufactures thought was most unfair. Microsoft agreed to stop charging
the fees and the Department Of Justice dropped the case.
Bill Gates's mother died shortly after their marriage of breast cancer.
Bill Gates because of the influence his mother had on him, created
philanthropic organizations that fought certain causes, and was
pursuing the interests his mother had. In 1995, Windows 95 was
introduced, Bill Gates at this time slowed down on his work with
Microsoft as he became a family man, welcoming his first daughter he
had with his wife, Melinda French. Netscape came out with a browser
which allowed you to access the world of internet. This was a realm,
Microsoft had yet to embark. Netscape sales soared through the roof,
while Microsoft was behind. Microsoft then promptly released the
web-browser Explorer. With the success of Explorer Gates had yet to
know he would be receiving a nation-wide law-suit which would cost
Microsoft millions. Gates was charged with practicing unlawful conduct,
and running a illegal monopoly in 1998. An anti-trust suit along with
president Bill Clinton's Justice Department filed a anti-trust suit
which would be seen as the most severe lawsuit's related to the
technology field. Bill Gates to save his company stepped down from
Microsoft as the CEO and allowed Steve Balmer to be CEO. Bill Gates was
the Chairman.
Bill Gates changed the way the world operates,functions, Gates made
life easier for humans to live in. To get tasks done within seconds at
a time, creating several multitasking software programs. Bill Gates
will forever be remembered as a business man, philanthropist, and
investor. Bill Gates with multiple products unleashed with his company
Microsoft, allowed the technology field to expand and become more
competitive,always setting the stakes much higher, and presented a
field with endless surprises.
