The Life And Awesomeness Of Bill Gates
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A young Bill Gates.
The reasons for Ballmer's retirement remain fuzzy, but there are indications that Ballmer and Gates thought it was time for Ballmer to move on.
A lot of people are calling for Gates to replace Ballmer as CEO. He founded Microsoft, and led it in the 1980s and '90s, creating a personal computing monopoly with Windows.
He's unlikely to return as CEO. While he remains chairman at Microsoft, he left the company in 2008 to focus on his foundation, which is doing good around the world.
In appreciation of Gates, here's a look back at his life.
Gates grew up in Seattle, son of a lawyer. He was a super smart, difficult kid.
Darren McCollester, Getty
Gates read every word of the encyclopedia growing up. His parents would pay for any book he would read. At age 11, he really "blossomed intellectually" and developed into a bit of a pain for his parents.
At 13, he went to Lakeside School in Seattle, a private school where he discovered computers.
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"Lakeside was one of the best things that ever happened to me," says Bill Gates. Lakeside had computers, and Gates and his friend Paul Allen played with the computers. "The experience and insight Paul Allen and I gained [at Lakeside] gave us the confidence to start a company based on this wild idea that nobody else agreed with—that computer chips were going to become so powerful that computers and software would become a tool that would be on every desk and in every home."
After Lakeside, Gates went to Harvard.
At Harvard, Gates met Steve Ballmer. Gates was only in Harvard for two years before dropping out to start Microsoft with Paul Allen.
Gates and Allen started Microsoft in Albuquerque, N.M.
Allen and Gates built a version of BASIC for the MITS Altair, the first personal computer. BASIC was a programming language. MITS, or Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems, was based in Albuquerque, N.M., so Microsoft started there. They moved the company to Washington in 1979. Allen would leave Microsoft in 1982 after being diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma. It was treated, but he never re-joined the company in a full-time way.
In 1980, Gates poached Steve Ballmer from Procter & Gamble.
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Ballmer was the first professional manager at the company. Gates lured him to Microsoft with a big chunk of equity.
... and in 1980, IBM hired Microsoft to make a computer operating system.
Microsoft bought an operating system called Q-DOS from a Seattle technology company, then sold (well, licensed, as a commenter notes) that operating system to IBM. The operating system became MS-DOS, and it quickly turned into the dominant PC operating system.
Steve Jobs starts to woo Gates in the early '80s.
It's hard to pin down the first time Bill Gates met Steve Jobs. However, according to Walter Isaacson's book "Steve Jobs," by the late '70s, Microsoft was making most of its money on software for Apple computers. When Jobs was developing the first Macintosh, he went to Seattle to convince Gates to develop software for the Mac. For the next few years, they had a pretty good relationship.
In 1983, Microsoft revealed plans for Windows.
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Windows was a graphical user interface, much like what Apple was doing with the Macintosh. Jobs went crazy when he found out. "You're ripping us off!" Jobs reportedly shouted at Gates, adding, "I trusted you and now you're stealing from us!" Gates mostly shrugged it off, saying Apple stole from Xerox, so it was OK for Microsoft to steal from Apple.
In 1985, Microsoft released Windows.
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At this point, Microsoft was doing $14o million in annual sales.
In 1986, Microsoft went public.
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From 1986 to 1996, Microsoft's stock increased in value by a hundredfold. The New York Times estimates it created over 10,000 millionaires. It led to Gates becoming the richest man in the world.
The reason Microsoft's stock soared was that Gates was building a software monopoly.
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In 1990, Microsoft released Office and Windows 3.0. Both went on to dominate the industry.
In 1994, Gates married Melinda French, a Microsoft employee.
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They're still married and have three children. Melinda co-founded the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation, which is giving away the bulk of the Gates fortune.
In 1995, Gates warned Microsoft of an "Internet Tidal Wave."
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You can read his full memo here. Gates said, "The Internet is the most important single development to come along since the IBM PC was introduced in 1981." He was right, but in time it would end Microsoft's dominance in technology.
Microsoft released Windows 95 (in 1995). It thrust Microsoft into the mainstream and pushed the company to its peak.
Jeff Vinnick, Reuters
You know how people line up for iPhones? People were lining up for Windows 95.
Gates built a massive house for himself in the 1990s. The taxes alone on the house are ~$1 million a year.
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In 1995, Gates became the richest man in the world. He's been the richest almost every year since.
In 1997, Microsoft invested $150 million in Apple.
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This kept Apple alive. Bill Gates announced the investment over a giant screen at Macworld, and was booed.
In 1998, Microsoft was brought to court, accused of abusing its power as a software monopoly.
Microsoft had been dealing with the government in some capacity since 1988. Eventually, a judge said Microsoft was abusing its power. Some argue that this screwed over Microsoft in the long-run and ultimately doomed the company.
At this point, it's important to note that Gates had a mixed public reputation.
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He got a bad rep because of the DOJ's case against Microsoft. Microsoft was seen as a bully. Gates wanted to snuff out the competition. He wasn't exactly beloved.
The DOJ's case against Gates burned him out.
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He stopped being Microsoft's CEO in 2000. He became Chief Software Architect, and made Ballmer the CEO. He also established his foundation.
At some point, perhaps in 2002, he joined Augusta National, the secretive, elite golf club that hosts the Masters. (He really wanted to join the club for years.)
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In 2004, he joined the board of Berkshire Hathaway, the investment company run by his friend Warren Buffet.
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In 2008, he fully stepped away from Microsoft, becoming a non-executive chairman.
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Don't let this mislead you, though. He's still involved with the company. It is his company, after all.
In the 2000s, Gates has dedicated himself to all sorts of good causes.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has been doing a lot! It's eradicating polio, reducing cases of malaria, trying to engineer a better banana, find a better toilet, fighting HIV, and much, much more.
As the Gates Foundation has done more and more good, Gates has become beloved.
AP Photo//Aftab Alam Siddiqui
Gates' days as an aggressive monopolist are in the past. He's seen as a force for good in the world.
What's next for Gates?
AP
Bill Gates
More of the same. He'll have to help pick a new CEO for Microsoft. And he'll continue to work on his foundation.
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Yours
Hiten A. Raja
Nairobi.
KENYA.
Hiten@HitenRaja.com
Most people think of success and failure as opposites, but they both are products of the same process.
Capitalism is Man Exploiting Man; Communism is just the opposite.
Money is only a tool. It will take you wherever you wish, but it will not replace you as the driver.
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