Bill Gates is the founder of the great Microsoft empire. Bill Gates - just interesting facts from the biography of the richest man in the world Bill Gates is famous for

Simple guy Bill Gates, or William Henry Gates III ( full name), is the richest man in the world, computer tycoon, founder and owner of Microsoft Corporation. Born on October 28, 1955 in Seattle, Washington, USA, he is the son of corporate lawyer William Henry Gates II and board member of First Interstate Bank, Pacific Northwest Bell and the national board of United Way Mary Maxwell Gates.

Young Bill Gates, biography which, of course, did not end at one birth :), received primary education in municipal elementary school, and at age 12 he was transferred to the most exclusive school in Seattle, where he was able to develop his programming skills on the school minicomputer. Gates did not excel in grammar, civics, and other subjects he considered trivial, but did achieve top marks in mathematics. This modest, even shy, and slightly awkward child dreamed of becoming a mathematics professor and was not at all like his father - a tall, handsome man and a successful lawyer. So, despite unique abilities in mathematics and logic, Bill Gates did not show the leadership abilities characteristic of his parents.

A year later, Bill created the first computer program. This was the time of giant computers that occupied entire rooms and were “subject to” the minds of only scientists in white laboratory coats. In college, Bill Gates founded the company Traf-O-Data, which employed classmates of the future tycoon. They developed computer systems for local authorities and calculated city transport schedules. He was 15 years old when he wrote a program to regulate traffic and earned $20,000 from the project. And at 17, he received an offer to write a software package for the distribution of energy at the Bonneville Dam.

In 1973, following family tradition, Gates entered his freshman year at Harvard University, planning to become a lawyer, like his father. But he was still just as withdrawn and uncommunicative, which was absolutely not suitable for his chosen profession. At Harvard he lived on the same floor as Steve Ballmer, with whom he became friends and who currently heads Microsoft.

In December 1974, Bill Gates saw a $397 computer that his friend Paul Allen said anyone could build. The only thing the car was missing was software. Bill Gates and Paul Allen contacted representatives of the company M.I.T.S, offering them software (BASIC version) for their Altair 8800 computer. This option suited the managers, who invited young people to work on writing programming languages. The couple left for New Mexico, where the history of Micro-soft began (they removed the dash later).

Firmly convinced that a personal computer would become indispensable in every workplace and in every home, they began to develop software for personal computers. Bill Gates' foresight regarding the development of personal computers was a key factor in the success of Microsoft and the software industry as a whole (in 1986 Microsoft was transformed into joint stock company open type and in the same year Bill Gates became a billionaire, then he was 31 years old).

The first five Microsoft customers went bankrupt, but the guys did not despair and returned to Seattle in 1979. That same year, Bill Gates was expelled from the university for absenteeism and poor academic performance. But this fact did not greatly upset the unfortunate student, since he received an offer from IBM to create an operating system for the world's first personal computer.

Then Bill Gates purchased the QDOS (Quick and Dirty Operating System) system for $50,000 and changed the name to MS-DOS and sold the license to IBM. The proceeds allowed Microsoft to operate for several years. The presentation of a new IBM computer with Microsoft software created a real sensation in the market. Many companies began to approach Microsoft for a license.

In releasing the applications Microsoft Word And Microsoft Excel , the company has gained an even stronger foothold in the global market. Thanks to the Corbis company, which became part of the Microsoft corporation, Bill Gates received a huge photo file of Bettman and other photographers. Photos were used for electronic distribution.

The following year, Microsoft introduced the first version of Windows to the market. And already in 1993, the total monthly sales of Windows exceeded one million. In 1995, Windows 95 arrived and sold seven million copies in two weeks.

Microsoft software became so widely used that the company came to the attention of the American antitrust committee, which several times tried to initiate a case to force the division of Bill Gates' monopoly.

Problems with the US Antitrust Committee arose again in 1999, when a district court declared Microsoft Corporation a monopoly. In April 2000, the US Department of Justice proposed breaking Microsoft into two separate corporations: one would deal with Microsoft Office and Internet Explorer, while the other would exclusively deal with Windows (by the way, this operating system is used in more than 85% of the world's computers). Bill Gates' objections are based on the fact that it is technically impossible to separate Windows from other Microsoft applications. As Bill Gates says, we are calling for the fairest court possible - the court of history.

In 1995, Microsoft's policy was radically changed - the main emphasis began to be placed on the Internet. In the same year, 1995, Bill Gates wrote the book “The Road Ahead”, in which he outlined his views on the direction in which society is moving in connection with the development of information technology. In 1996, when Microsoft was refocused on Internet technologies, Gates made significant adjustments to the book. The book was co-written by Nathan Myhrvold, vice president of Microsoft, and journalist Peter Rinearson.

On January 1, 1994, Bill Gates married Melinda French, a Microsoft manager, with whom he had three children - a daughter, Jennifer Katharine, in 1996, a son, Rory John, in 1999, and another daughter, Phoebe Adele. Interestingly, under the terms of the marriage contract, Bill Gates undertakes to pay $10 million for each child they have together.

With the advent of his family, Bill Gates began to pay more attention to charity. One billion dollars was invested in scholarships that Microsoft provides to talented but disadvantaged students (Gates Millennium Scholarship Program), Bill Gates invested $750,000 in a program to develop vaccinations (Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization). In 1994, Gates acquired Codex Leicester, a collection of works by Leonardo da Vinci. Since 2003 it has been on display at the Seattle Art Museum.

From elastic Bill and Melinda Gates founded charitable foundation and contributed more than $17 billion to support philanthropic initiatives in health and education. To date, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has given more than $300 million to healthcare organizations and more than $300 million to improve education, including the Gates Library Initiative. , which will allow low-income people in the United States and Canada to use personal computers and the Internet in public libraries. More than $54 million awarded to community projects across the Northwest Coast Pacific Ocean and more than $29 million for other special projects and annual giving campaigns.

In 1999, Bill Gates wrote the book Business @ the Speed ​​of Thought, which shows how information technology can solve business problems in a completely new way. This book, co-authored with Collins Hemingway, has been released in 25 languages ​​and sold in more than 60 countries. Business at the Speed ​​of Thought received critical acclaim and was listed on the New York Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, and Amazon.com bestseller lists.

In addition to his passion for computer technology, Gates also develops the aforementioned company Corbis, which is developing the largest source of visual information in the world - a comprehensive digital archive of works of art and photographs from public and private collections stored in different countries.

1 December 4, 2004 Bill Gates joined the board of Berkshire Hathaway, thus formalizing his relationship with Warren Buffett. Berkshire Hathaway is a conglomerate that includes Geico (auto insurance), Benjamin Moore (paints), and Fruit of the Loom (textiles). Gates sits on the board of directors of Icos, a Bothell biotechnology company. Bill Gates has also invested in the company Teledesic, which is working on an ambitious project to launch into low orbit around globe several hundred satellites. The mission of these satellites is to provide worldwide two-way broadband telecommunications.

On 2 March 2005, the UK Foreign Office announced that Gates would receive the title of Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire for his contributions to UK businesses and his efforts to reduce global poverty. At the end of 2005, Bill Gates and his wife Melinda Gates were named People of the Year by the American Time magazine. On June 7, 2007, Bill Gates began to be considered a graduate of Harvard University. The decision to award Gates a diploma was made by the university administration.

In 1998, Gates resigned as president of Microsoft Corporation, and in 2000 he left the post of chief executive officer. Steve Ballmer received both positions. On January 7, 2008, Bill Gates announced his intentions to step down as the head of Microsoft Corporation in July 2008. On June 15, 2008, Bill Gates announced his intention to resign as Chairman of the Board of Directors of Microsoft effective July 2008. After leaving his post, he intends to devote himself entirely to managing the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Day June 27, 2008 became Bill Gates' last as head of Microsoft. Despite this, he does not break with the company for good; Gates remains Chairman of the Board of Directors (but without executive powers). He is also involved in special projects and remains the largest (8.7% of Microsoft shares) shareholder of the corporation, which employs more than 61,000 people in its branches located in 102 countries.

At the end of October 2008, in the city of Kirkland (Washington State, USA), Bill Gates registered his third company called “bgC3”. Unverified sources claim that "bgC3" stands for Bill Gates Company Three. It was announced that this will be a research center whose tasks will include the provision of scientific and technological services, work in the field of analytics and research, as well as the creation and development of software and hardware.

IN free time Bill Gates reads a lot and also enjoys playing golf and bridge. More detailed information about the activities of Bill Gates, as well as materials from his speeches and essays can be found on the web server http://www.microsoft.com/billgates/ (English language).

Bill Gates was born on October 28, 1955 into an intelligent, educated family. His parents are respected people in Seattle. Father - William Henry Gates II - corporate lawyer, philanthropist and writer, mother - Mary Maxwell Gates - businesswoman, the first woman to head the United Way society, as well as the first woman to serve on the national executive committee of the United Way and the board of directors of First Interstate Bank of Washington. Bill's ancestors were also quite famous people in his field - his great-grandfather served as mayor and senator, and his grandfather was vice-president of the National Bank. Bill grew up surrounded by two sisters - the older Christy and the younger Libby. Bill's family nickname is Trey.

Where it all began

The parents of the future billionaire sent the boy to the elite Lakeside school, where the boy’s basic skills were developed. It is easy to guess that Bill was interested in mathematics much more than in the humanities, in which, by the way, he almost always received unsatisfactory grades. The parents could not help but worry about this and once they even sent their son to a psychiatrist, but over time it became clear that grammar and civics were not the most important subjects in Bill’s life.

Already in primary school programming becomes a real passion for the young man. At the age of 13, he wrote a Tic Tac Toe program in the BASIC programming language. The program itself, although it was quite simple, was the “starting point” for Gates as a programmer.

The acquaintance with Paul Anders, who would later become Gates' partner, occurred in high school and became fateful. Bill is an eighth grade student, Paul is a tenth grade student. They are united by a love of programming; together they test Digital Equipment Corporation computers and have fun hacking computer programs. No one is thinking about creating innovative ideas and developing a unique strategy yet.

One day, newly made friends and a couple of the same “hackers” - Rick Wayland and Kent Evans - are caught in yet another hack and are deprived of the opportunity to work on computers throughout the summer. The guys who “served” their punishment return to their favorite business by the fall, finding new errors in the software of the leader in the computer market at that time - Computer Center Corporation, on whose initiative they were punished. Young entrepreneurs put forward a proposal to management - searching for errors for the opportunity to work on the company's PC. The management readily agrees. The cooperation was short-term - the end was the bankruptcy of the company in 1970.

Everything changes when the guys become the founders of Traf-O-Data in 1972. The young people who created unique meters, on the basis of which they not only read road traffic, but also compiled reports for road engineers, replenished their total account by $794.31 over 10 years of sales of the invention.

At the end of 1972, the guys received an invitation to work at TRW, which was expected to work on a huge project for the Bonneville Power Administration using the PDP-10.

Studying at Harvard and the beginning of the Microsoft era

Having entered Harvard University in 1973, Bill looked forward to developing the skills and abilities he already had. His desire to create unique software is so great that the theoretical part of training weighs on him more and more every day. After two years of study, student Bill Gates is expelled from the university. For so much short time During his studies, Bill managed to meet many interesting and important further development his business people. One of them is Gates' future partner, Stephen Ballmer.

Before running their own company, Paul and Bill worked for large companies in the IT industry. One of them was Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems, which in 1975 released a fundamentally new computer, the Altair 8800.

He manages to get a job with the company through cunning and arrogance - Gates calls the director of the company and says that they are already working at full capacity on creating a POG for their car. And although this is far from true, they still manage to become MITS partners. Microsoft appeared as an independent entity in November 1976.

Cooperation with MITS does not last long - the company does not pass the test of the financial crisis and declares bankruptcy. Microsoft, on the contrary, is gaining momentum, mastering more and more new industries in this area. One of the company's innovations, introduced almost immediately after its creation - licenses for Microsoft software - becomes a real discovery. It was the licenses that made it possible to integrate new operating systems and programming languages ​​into computers, which also significantly increased Microsoft’s fortunes.

A new stage in the Microsoft era

Work on finding new partners continues and is quite successful: Apple Corporation, Commodore, computer developer Radio Shack - they all want to get the software of the innovative manufacturer.

It begins for the company new stage– planning and development of the existing structure in the long term. Gates is responsible for handling paperwork, developing public relations, and finding new lucrative contracts, while Allen focuses on the technical side of the issue.

1977 – The Microsoft Fortran operating system is presented to the world. It was a completely new OS that competed with the “monopolist” of those times - the CP/M system.

But the company's crazy success is just ahead. In 1980, Microsoft entered into a deal with IBM Corporation, a giant in the computer business. Microsoft offers IBM an innovative solution - a system for their new computer. IBM, who have worked with Digital Research systems for a long time, sensing the fundamental difference between the products, become Microsoft partners on for many years. That Gates' mother was in good relations with the leaders of IBM, it was no secret to anyone, which subsequently gave rise to a lot of judgments about how everything was decided in advance.

But, be that as it may, the fact remains a fact. MS-DOS, proposed by Microsoft, became a completely new product on the market and for a long time established itself as the “leader” of the OS for Intel-based computers existing at that time.

In 1985, a completely new Windows system appeared. It is distinguished by its graphic design, and it is with it that the era of Windows begins, and already in 1993, with the advent of Windows 3.1, a real breakthrough occurs.

The long road to becoming the richest man in the world

Microsoft, which went public in 1986, makes Gates a billionaire in just a couple of months. Shares, constantly growing in price, strengthen the company's position and already in 1988 Microsoft was officially recognized as the largest software manufacturer in the world.

In 1998, Gates, being the richest person, announced his resignation from the corporation. Refusing his position, he plunges headlong into programming. Until 2006, he takes part in the life of his brainchild - he is responsible for the production strategy, but he also refuses these obligations, choosing charity.

The country's leading philanthropist

In 1994, the businessman organized the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (originally the William Gates Foundation), which has been one of the largest foundations in the world for almost half a century. The main focus of the organization's work is improving the healthcare system and finding ways to avoid hunger in poor countries. The fund's funds are used to combat many diseases, including HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, etc. In the USA, the foundation mainly works to improve the level of education and the system itself as a whole. For this purpose, $12.9 million was donated in 2009 alone. That fall, the foundation awarded a $25 million grant to modernize more than a thousand public libraries.

Personal life

Gates met his future wife Melinda in 1987. Interestingly, she was an employee of his own company. The couple married in 1994 and had three children together: daughter Jennifer Katharine, son Rory John and daughter Phoebe Adele. The couple have repeatedly received awards for their philanthropy, and in 2005 they were named couple of the year (Time magazine).

Bill Gates is a famous entrepreneur, public figure and one of the founders of Microsoft. The authoritative publication Forbes named him the richest man in the world 16 times.

As of 2016, his capital exceeded $90 billion, while he regularly and seriously engages in charity work. Gates has his own fund, in which he has already invested more than $30 billion.

After that, Bill and Paul worked for some time at large companies Information Sciences and TRW. They still wrote programs, studying a lot of software codes.

Having reached the age of 18, Gates enters Harvard University, where he meets his future partner Steve Ballmer. After studying for 2 years, he was expelled for poor academic performance and frequent absenteeism.

Ultimately, Bill decided to devote himself to creating computer control programs, since only this work brought him pleasure and aroused real interest.

Microsoft Company

In 1975, Paul and Bill learned that Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems had begun selling new Altair 8800 computers. Without thinking twice, Gates decides to call its owner, Ed Roberts.

During the conversation, the guy confidently says that he and his friend are writing programs specifically for their PC, although this was absolutely untrue. However, he so confidently and boldly told Roberts about this that he believed Bill and even agreed to collaborate with the young programmers.

Delighted by this success, the friends began to come up with a name for their enterprise. At the very beginning, they wanted to call him by their last names, but then changed their minds.

Then Gates and Allen paid attention to the name of the company with which they were to collaborate. As a result, they selected two words from it and then combined them. Thus, in 1976, a new brand called “Microsoft” appeared.

That same year, Bill Gates and Paul introduced licenses for the right to use their software. This allowed them to legally build their own operating systems into computers.

They were the first to start working according to this scheme. In the near future, this led to a significant increase in the organization's income.

Over time, the MITS company went bankrupt, but Microsoft managed to find new partners for further cooperation.

For example, Gates entered into a contract with the Apple corporation, which he owned. However, there were other companies that were happy to work with Microsoft.

Bill Gates and Steve Jobs

An interesting fact is that Bill Gates and Paul already at the very beginning of their joint collaboration discussed how their company would develop.

Allen was studying technical issues, and was the owner of only one-third of Microsoft shares. In turn, Gates was responsible for the development of the company and product advertising.

Their first serious project was the Microsoft Fortran operating system, developed in 1977. After that, they continued to successfully modernize their software, taking a leadership position in this area.

Soon, Bill Gates introduced a new MS-DOS system for Intel-based PCs. In 1985, the legendary Windows system was developed, which was radically different from other systems with its unique interface. Every year, Windows has been modernized, gaining unprecedented popularity.

Bill Gates' company developed so rapidly that already in 1986 its capital exceeded $1 billion. In 1998, Gates became the richest person on the planet.

Soon he publicly makes a sensational statement that he is leaving Microsoft. However, he remained responsible for the company's productivity strategy.

According to the billionaire himself, leaving the business was associated with charity, to which he decided to pay maximum attention.

Other companies

In 1989, Bill Gates founded Corbis. Its main goal was to license any multimedia material, for example, photos and videos.

The idea was that in the future people would become interested not in original paintings, but in digital reproductions of them.

Today Corbis owns the rights to use images of works of art in many museums around the world.

One of Gates' hobbies can be called collecting rare works of the great (see).

In 2008, a new event took place in the biography of Bill Gates: he founded the company “bgC3”, engaged in research and analytical activities.

As mentioned earlier, Bill Gates is seriously involved in charity work.

He opened the world's largest Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which provides support to poor people.

First of all, the billionaire seeks to improve the healthcare system, as well as solve the problem of hunger in the Third World countries.

Personal life

When Bill turned 22, he met Melinda French, who worked in his company. In 1994, after 7 years of close friendship, they decided to get married.

In this marriage they had a son, Rory John, and two daughters, Phoebe Adele and Jennifer Katharine.

Bill Gates with his wife and children

In 2005, Gates and his wife were named People of the Year for their enormous contribution to charity. After this, Bill was awarded the title of Knight of the British Empire.

Bill Gates net worth

Many people are interested in the question of how much Bill Gates' net worth is estimated. So, as of 2016, Forbes estimated his fortune at $90 billion.

Thanks to such a colossal fortune, he is considered the richest person on the planet. Moreover, experts predict an increase in its capital in the future.

Bill Gates today

On at the moment Bill Gates' family lives on the shores of Lake Washington. Their home, covering an area of ​​12,000 km², is equipped with a huge amount of electronics that control the entire mansion.

The businessman often gives lectures at various educational institutions, traveling around the world. He not only shares his experience, but also discusses with students global problems humanity.

Books by Bill Gates

Bill Gates has written two books about how he achieved success. Both books were translated into and became bestsellers.

Interestingly, all funds received from their sales were transferred to organizations whose activities are aimed at developing technology and education.

Surely Bill Gates will repeatedly surprise humanity with his new projects. Well, let's wait!

If you liked biography of Bill Gates, - share this article on social networks and subscribe to the site. It's always interesting with us!

Did you like the post? Press any button.

Bill Gates is one of the most famous businessmen and representatives of the IT industry, the founder of Microsoft, a dollar billionaire who is on the list of the richest people on the planet. This is his short biography.

The Bill Gates Story

The future billionaire had successful relatives: his great-grandfather was a mayor, his grandfather was a vice-president of a national bank, and his father was a sought-after lawyer. It was probably this kind of pedigree that endowed Bill with the necessary personal qualities. Although as a child he was not sociable, did not play with friends in the yard, showed shyness, and did not pretend to be a leader in anything.

The boy's strengths were logical thinking and ability for mathematics. He quickly became bored at a regular school, and his parents sent their son to a private school.

The first program is the first step to success

An inquisitive mind and developed logical thinking led to the fact that at the age of 15 Bill was able to create a computer program designed to regulate traffic, and received 20 thousand dollars for it. The young man’s success did not go unnoticed, and at the age of 17 he was approached with a proposal to develop a program for distributing the dam’s energy.

Friendship, education and work

Like his father, Bill entered the prestigious Harvard University. He was supposed to get a law degree and become a lawyer. However, a lawyer's career did not attract him, and he did not have the qualities necessary for a future lawyer.

Bill and his old friend Paul Allen were planning to open their own company specializing in computers. But Gates could not decide to quit studying at the university. Everything changed with the purchase of the January issue of Popular Electronics (1975), on the cover of which was printed an image of the first mass-produced computer, the Altair-8800.

The friends realized that they were at the very beginning of the computer market, and understood that the demand for software would only grow. At that moment, Bill Gates decided to take a big risk for the first time in his life. He called MITS, the manufacturer of the Altair, and suggested that they use the BASIC language on their computers. MITS became interested in this proposal.

In fact, aspiring entrepreneurs didn't have anything ready yet, so they had to write code in a hurry. To test it they used computer equipment other manufacturers, which led to concerns about possible incompatibility between BASIC and Altair.

Fortunately, everything worked out and ended successfully, and MITS bought the rights to the program. It was the date of this transaction that Bill Gates subsequently recognized as the date of birth of the market software products(“software”). At the same time, Microsoft appeared. But in those days, the name of this company was still written with a hyphen (Micro-soft), which the company’s founders removed from its name later.

Cunning, risk and success - the birth of Windows

At first, things were not going well for the company. In 1979, Bill was expelled from Harvard for poor academic performance and numerous absenteeism. But all the negativity was smoothed over by a job offer from IBM. Microsoft had to develop an operating system for the first personal computer.

Bill did not write program code, but took a different path. He bought the QDOS operating system from one of his acquaintances, renamed it MS-DOS and introduced it to IBM. IBM bought a license for MS-DOS. This money was subsequently enough for Microsoft to exist and develop quietly for several years. After the successful presentation of the IBM personal computer based on operating system MS-DOS, the number of Microsoft customers has increased dramatically. After the release of Word and Excel, Microsoft's share of the global market increased even more.

In 1986 Microsoft issued shares. The demand for them was so great that Bill Gates suddenly became rich. The Windows operating system was released in 1987. It sold over a million copies in its first month of sales. In 1995, Windows 95 was introduced to the world. Within two weeks, sales of the new OS exceeded seven million.

Personal life

In 1994, Gates married a Microsoft employee, Melinda French (she was a manager). She bore Bill three children: two daughters (Jennifer Katharine and Phoebe Adele) and a son (Rory John). The children's father has said more than once that he does not intend to inherit his entire fortune to his children. He decided to limit himself to amounts of $10 million. The rest, in his opinion, the children should achieve themselves.

Bill Gates' net worth and philanthropy

The famous billionaire has topped the Forbes list many times. How much money does Bill Gates have? His fortune exceeds 60 billion dollars. It is clear that for one person and his family this is a lot of money that they could not spend in their entire life. That's why Bill Gates started doing charity work. In particular, in 2010, they, together with Warren Buffett, launched a campaign calling on the richest people in the United States to donate half of their wealth to those in need. Bill and his wife established a charitable foundation, which the billionaire has been involved in recently.

• Bill Gates made his first big money at the age of 15. He developed a program for regulating traffic.
• First Windows version sold a million copies in its first month.
• Despite the fact that Gates was expelled from the university for poor academic performance and absenteeism, in the end, the Harvard administration still recognized him as a graduate and issued a diploma.
• One of Bill's favorite pastimes is swinging.
  Bill and Melinda's wedding took place on a rented island (in Hawaii).
  Gates became a billionaire at age 31.
• How much does Bill Gates earn? Approximately 6.5 thousand dollars per minute!
• In 1998, during an official meeting in Brussels, Bill had a cake thrown in his face by a hooligan named Noel Godin. Gates declined to pursue the case.