William Henry Gates III (born October 28, 1955 in Seattle, Washington, USA) is an American business magnate, philanthropist, the world's third
richest person (as of 2008), and chairman of Microsoft, the software company he founded with Paul Allen. During his career at Microsoft, Gates
held the positions of CEO and chief software architect, and remains the largest individual shareholder with more than 8 percent of the common stock.
He has also authored or co-authored several books.
Gates is one of the best-known entrepreneurs of the personal computer revolution. Although he is admired by many, a large number of industry insiders
criticize his business tactics, which they consider anti-competitive, an opinion which has in some cases been upheld by the courts. In the later
stages of his career, Gates has pursued a number of philanthropic endeavors, donating large amounts of money to various charitable organizations and
scientific research programs through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, established in 2000.
Bill Gates stepped down as chief executive officer of Microsoft in January, 2000. He remained as chairman and created the position of chief
software architect. In June, 2006, Gates announced that he would be transitioning from full-time work at Microsoft to part-time work at
Microsoft and full-time work at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. He gradually transferred his duties to Ray Ozzie, chief software
architect and Craig Mundie, chief research and strategy officer. Gates's last full-time day at Microsoft was June 27, 2008. He remains at
Microsoft as a part-time, non-executive chairman.
After reading the January 1975 issue of Popular Electronics that demonstrated the Altair 8800, Gates contacted Micro Instrumentation and
Telemetry Systems (MITS), the creators of the new microcomputer, to inform them that he and others were working on a BASIC interpreter for
the platform. In reality, Gates and Allen did not have an Altair and had not written code for it; they merely wanted to gauge MITS's
interest. MITS president Ed Roberts agreed to meet them for a demo, and over the course of a few weeks they developed an Altair emulator
that ran on a minicomputer, and then the BASIC interpreter. The demonstration, held at MITS's offices in Albuquerque, was a success and
resulted in a deal with MITS to distribute the interpreter as Altair BASIC. Paul Allen was hired into MITS, and Gates took a leave of
absence from Harvard to work with Allen at MITS in Albuquerque in November 1975. They named their partnership "Micro-soft" and had their
first office located in Albuquerque. Within a year, the hyphen was dropped, and on November 26, 1976, the trade name "Microsoft" was
registered with the USPTO.
Microsoft's BASIC was popular with computer hobbyists, but Gates discovered that a pre-market copy had leaked into the community and was being
widely copied and distributed. In February 1976, Gates wrote an Open Letter to Hobbyists in the MITS newsletter saying that MITS could not
continue to produce, distribute, and maintain high-quality software without payment. This letter was unpopular with many computer hobbyists,
but Gates persisted in his belief that software developers should be able to demand payment. Microsoft became independent of MITS in late 1976,
and it continued to develop programming language software for various systems. The company moved from Albuquerque to its new home in
Bellevue, Washington on January 1, 1979.
During Microsoft's early years, all employees had broad responsibility for the company's business. Gates oversaw the business details,
but continued to write code as well. In the first five years, he personally reviewed every line of code the company shipped, and often
rewrote parts of it as he saw fit.
IBM partnership:
In 1980 IBM approached Microsoft to make the BASIC interpreter for its upcoming personal computer, the IBM PC. When IBM's representatives mentioned
that they needed an operating system, Gates referred them to Digital Research (DRI), makers of the widely used CP/M operating system. IBM's
discussions with Digital Research went poorly, and they did not reach a licensing agreement. IBM representative Jack Sams mentioned the licensing
difficulties during a subsequent meeting with Gates and told him to get an acceptable operating system. A few weeks later Gates proposed using
86-DOS (QDOS), an operating system similar to CP/M that Tim Paterson of Seattle Computer Products had made for hardware similar to the PC.
Microsoft made a deal with SCP to become the exclusive licensing agent, and later the full owner, of 86-DOS. After adapting the operating
system for the PC, Microsoft delivered it to IBM as PC-DOS in exchange for a one-time fee of $80,000. Gates insisted that IBM let Microsoft
keep the copyright on the operating system, because he believed that other hardware vendors would clone IBM's system. They did, and the
sales of MS-DOS made Microsoft a major player in the industry.
Windows:
Gates oversaw Microsoft's company restructuring on June 25, 1981, which re-incorporated the company in Washington and made Gates President of
Microsoft and the Chairman of the Board. Microsoft launched its first retail version of Microsoft Windows on November 20, 1985, and in
August, the company struck a deal with IBM to develop a separate operating system called OS/2. Although the two companies successfully
developed the first version of the new system, mounting creative differences undermined the partnership. Gates distributed an internal
memo on May 16, 1991 announcing that the OS/2 partnership was over and Microsoft would shift its efforts to the Windows NT kernel development.
Management style:
Bill Gates giving his deposition at Microsoft on August 27, 1998From Microsoft's founding in 1975 until 2006, Gates had primary responsibility for
the company's product strategy. He aggressively broadened the company's range of products, and wherever Microsoft achieved a dominant position he
vigorously defended it. Many decisions that led to antitrust litigation over Microsoft's business practices have had Gates's approval. In the 1998
United States v. Microsoft case, Gates gave deposition testimony that several journalists characterized as evasive. He argued with examiner David
Boies over the contextual meaning of words like "compete," "concerned," and "we." BusinessWeek reported:
Early rounds of his deposition show him offering obfuscatory answers and saying 'I don't recall,' so many times that even the presiding judge had
to chuckle. Worse, many of the technology chief's denials and pleas of ignorance were directly refuted by prosecutors with snippets of e-mail
Gates both sent and received.
Gates later said that he had simply resisted attempts by Boies to mischaracterize his words and actions. As to his demeanor during the deposition,
he said, "Did I fence with Boies? ... I plead guilty. Whatever that penalty is should be levied against me: rudeness to Boies in the first
degree." Despite Gates's denials, the judge ruled that Microsoft had committed monopolization and tying, blocking competition, in
violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act.
As an executive, Gates met regularly with Microsoft's senior managers and program managers. Firsthand accounts of these meetings describe
him as verbally combative, berating managers for perceived holes in their business strategies or proposals that placed the company's
long-term interests at risk. He often interrupted presentations with such comments as, "That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard!"
and, "Why don't you just give up your options and join the Peace Corps?" The target of his outburst then had to defend the proposal
in detail until, hopefully, Gates was fully convinced. When subordinates appeared to be procrastinating, he was known to remark
sarcastically, "I'll do it over the weekend."
Gates's role at Microsoft for most of its history was primarily a management and executive role. However, he was an active software
developer in the early years, particularly on the company's programming language products. He has not officially been on a development
team since working on the TRS-80 Model 100 line, but he wrote code as late as 1989 that shipped in the company's products. On
June 15, 2006, Gates announced that he would transition out of his day-to-day role over the next two years to dedicate more time to
philanthropy. He divided his responsibilities between two successors, placing Ray Ozzie in charge of day-to-day management and Craig
Mundie in charge of long-term product strategy.
Philanthropy:
Gates began to realize the expectations others had of him when public opinion mounted that he could give more of his wealth to charity.
Gates studied the work of Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller and in 1994 sold some of his Microsoft stock to create the William
H. Gates Foundation. In 2000, Gates and his wife combined three family foundations into one to create the charitable Bill & Melinda
Gates Foundation, which is the largest transparently operated charitable foundation in the world. The foundation is setup to allow
benefactors access how its money is being spent, unlike other major charitable organizations such as the Wellcome Trust. The
generosity and extensive philanthropy of David Rockefeller has been credited as a major influence. Gates and his father have met with
Rockefeller several times and have modeled their giving in part on the Rockefeller family's philanthropic focus, namely those global
problems that are ignored by governments and other organizations.
The foundation's grants have provided funds for:
- Farming/Agriculture
- college scholarships for under-represented minorities
- AIDS prevention
- diseases prevalent in third world countries
- other causes
In 2000, the Gates Foundation endowed the University of Cambridge with $210 million for the Gates Cambridge Scholarships. The Foundation
has also pledged over $7 billion to its various causes, including $1 billion to the United Negro College Fund. According to a 2004 Forbes
magazine article, Gates gave away over $29 billion to charities from 2000 onwards. These donations are usually cited as sparking a
substantial change in attitudes towards philanthropy among the very rich, with philanthropy becoming the norm. Buffett, who was
the world's second richest person, announced on June 25, 2006 that he has pledged to give the foundation 10 million Berkshire
Hathaway Class B shares, spread over multiple years through annual contributions.
Gates announced on June 15, 2006 that he would move to a part-time role within Microsoft, leaving day-to-day operations management in
July 2008 to begin a full-time career in philanthropy, but would remain as chairman and advisor. Gates credited Buffett with
influencing his decision to commit himself to charitable causes. Days later, Buffett announced that he would begin matching
Gates's contributions to the Gates Foundation of up to $1.5 billion per year in stock. Buffett helped to guide the foundation
to give its endowment away quickly. It became one of the few charitable organizations with a lifespan, promising to spend all of its
resources and to close within 50 years of the deaths of its founders.
Both Warren Buffett and Bill Gates have been ardent supporters of Planned Parenthood,
a non-profit organization that receives financial support from the Buffet and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundations. Planned Parenthood performs
approximately 20% of all abortions in the United States. Planned Parenthood receives almost a third of its money in government grants and contracts
($336.7 million in FY 2007) with the rest coming from clinic income and donations from wealthy individuals such as Bill Gates.
Top 1-25 Billionaires,
25-50 Top Billionaires,
Warren Buffett,
Carlos Slim Helu & family,
William Gates III
References:
- Gates, Bill. Interview with David Frost. PBS. November 1995.
- Chapman, Glenn (2008-06-27). "Bill Gates Signs Off", Agence France-Presse.
- Fridson, Martin (2001), How to be a Billionaire: Proven Strategies from the Titans of Wealth, John Wiley & Sons, ISBN 0471416177
- Gates, Bill (1996), The Road Ahead, Penguin Books, ISBN 0140260404
- Lesinski, Jeanne M. (2006), Bill Gates (Biography (a & E)), A&E Television Networks, ISBN 0822570270
- Manes, Stephen (1994), Gates: How Microsoft's Mogul Reinvented an Industry and Made Himself The Richest Man in America, Touchstone Pictures, ISBN 0671880748
- Wikipedia.org
