William Henry Gates III is an American business tycoon, entrepreneur, investor, and author known as the founder of Microsoft Corporation – a company that develops and manufactures computer software, consumer electronics, and many other related services.
Early years and education
Bill Gates was born on October 28, 1955 in Seattle, Washington. He is the fourth of his name in his family but he is known as William Gates III simply because his father used the suffix II. Bill was also known for the nickname “Trey” in his younger years.
Gates developed an interest in computer programs and wrote his first software program while attending Lakeside School when he was 13. His first computer program was an implementation of the game tic-tac-toe. In this game, users competed with the computer and Gates was really fascinated with how the software worked. He really enjoyed working with computers and started learning source code, such as Fortran, Machine Code and Lisp. Gates also had their school’s payroll system computerized when he was in high school.
Gates graduated from high school in 1973 and enrolled at Harvard College but he eventually dropped out without finishing his course because he was more interested in pursuing his own coding and starting his own business.
Microsoft
In 1975, Bill Gates and Paul Allen co-founded Micro-Soft – it was a BASIC interpreter for microcomputers (the name changed to Microsoft in 1976). Allen and Gates continued to develop programming language software for various systems but later on. Microsoft’s Altair BASIC became popular but Gates discovered that a pre-market copy of Microsoft had leaked and was being copied and distributed. He believed that more than 90% of the users had not paid for the software so he wrote an open letter to Hobbyists explaining that the “hobby market” was in danger because professional developers are not properly compensated so they can produce more high-quality software.
IBM
In 1980, International Business Machine (IBM) approached Allen and Gates with a proposal so Microsoft would write the BASIC interpreter for IBM’s personal computer – the IBM PC. The PC DOS operating system was created by Microsoft for IBM for a one-time fee of $50,000.
Gates did not transfer the copyright on the operating system because he believed other hardware vendors would clone the system. Microsoft worked really hard to sell their operating system to other companies and it soon gained the dominant position of software manufacturer.
Windows
In 1985, Microsoft released its first retail version of Windows – it’s a graphical operating system for MS-DOS which replaced text interfaces with graphics. It became the dominant player in the operating system industry and acquired almost 90% of the market share.
Microsoft launched its IPO in 1986 with an opening stock price of $21, and a closing stock of $27.75.
In 1989, Microsoft introduced Microsoft Office – Microsoft Word and Excel soon became very popular that it became the standard. The success of MS Office became a monopoly on operating systems for PCs.
In 1995, Windows 95 was released which set the new standards for operating system and this also became the foundation of all the future versions of Windows up until Windows XP and Vista.
In January 2000, Gates stepped down as CEO of Microsoft but created the new position of Chief Software Architect for himself. He gradually transferred his duties to others as he became more active in philanthropic works. He stepped down as Chairman of Microsoft in 2014.
Net Worth
Bill Gates’ net worth as of February 2019 is $97.9 billion.