Paul Allen is still very . fun.
Bill Gates and his wife Melinda appeared on Time magazine's cover as typical figures of the year. Gates founded Microsoft with another character who later became a billionaire but he did not appear regularly on Time.
Unlike Gates with a familiar face comparable to Tiger Woods or Tom Cruise, the other co-founder could walk around without fear of being harassed by the paparazzi. In fact, he would be "disturbed" a bit, if he appeared at a conference involving computers.
That's Paul Allen, who owns assets worth $ 21 billion, bigger than Rupert Murdoch, the boss of many major newspapers, and Australian media magnate Kerry Packer combined. He is the third richest person in the United States (investor Warren Buffett has stepped between Allen and his friend, Bill Gates, among the billionaires of the country).
At the age of 14, Allen met Gates at Lakewood School in Seattle at the age of 12 and shared his passion for computers. When Allen worked for Honeywell and Gates studied at Harvard, both decided to set up Micro-soft and officially entered the "computer" world. Thanks to innovative software, some wise exchanges and "one thousand years" contracts with IBM plus assertiveness, both made the whole world tilt.
Microsoft began marketing the PC operating system with MS-DOS (Allen still joked that he deserved to be blamed for adding a backslash after DOS commands) and then "scanning" the world with Windows.
Born: January 21 , 1953 in Seattle (USA)
Marital status: Single
Property value: 21 billion USD, the 7th richest in the world, according to Forbes.
1975: Microsoft co-founder
1983: Having cancer and leaving Microsoft
1985: Establishment of Asymetrix
1987: Establishment of Paul G.Allen Family Charity Association
1987: Established Vulcan Ventures, now Vulcan
2000: Withdrawal from Microsoft management
Interests: playing rock guitar, sports, especially basketball, Gates astronomy and the birth of Microsoft have been repeated many times but Allen is not always playing a prominent role in the sentences. that. Perhaps Allen did not really affect Gates as early as he was so gentle. In Hard Drive, author James Wallace and Jim Erickson claim that Allen is pleasant, patient. While Gates has a "hot temper and workaholic" section, Allen still has a life outside of work. He is interested in technology, rock music and science fiction.
In 1983, while on a business trip to Paris, Allen felt tired and left the meeting room soon. He flew back to Seattle and discovered he had cancer. Allen was gone, but since then, everything has changed. He left Microsoft but still accounted for a large share of the company.
When Microsoft officially listed on the stock market in 1985, Allen held a 28% stake in the value of $ 150 million and Gates was 49%. In just one year, stock prices rose sharply and Gates became a billionaire, and Allen also followed the software company chairman on Forbes' list of the richest. Allen then sold out gradually but still has more than $ 3 billion in Microsoft.
Allen lives with his mother, sister and unmarried, but has a close relationship with the former Miss USA and tennis player Monica Seles. He is one of the most generous people in the United States, contributing $ 800 million, though still a "drop of water" compared to the $ 29 billion Gates spent on setting up his own charity. Perhaps due to cancer, Allen built a brain science research institute named after him in Seattle (Allen Institute for Brain Science).
With so many assets, Allen became a collector with many high-speed cars, airplanes, a private boat believed to be the world's largest and a studio. Most impressive is the list of memorabilia of Jimi Hendrix, the legendary guitarist also born in Seattle: songs, performance clothes, flocks (including intact or broken) . He also collected some things related to Bob Dylan, the "early" electric guitar series and a small collection of modern pop music like Britney Spears' red jumpsuits.
In the next few months, Allen will first launch his "works", rumored to be worth hundreds of millions of dollars. In it, he has a set of laser guns that appear in the fictional films, Darth Vader's sword and Captain Kirk's 60s shirt and chair in the Star Trek television series.
As a businessman, Allen proved himself not to be Bill Gates. He lost money to cable TV Charter Communications and Internet service provider RCN as well as pursuing his own ideas. Last year, BusinessWeek estimated that he had lost $ 12 billion in five years. Many of his technology intentions did not go anywhere, sometimes because he was ahead of his time too soon. However, he also made admirable decisions. He invested very early in AOL and was one of the first to support the studio Dreamwork, the producer of Shrek. In the early 90s, Seattle announced a Commons plan to build a park stretching from the commercial area to Lake Union. Allen immediately spent $ 20 million to buy 4 hectares of land here. However, the project was twice denied investment in 1995 and 1996. Allen decided to develop the area himself and continued to buy 24 hectares of land for $ 200 million. He plans to turn it into a biotechnology center with a lakeside park. Although it belongs to Allen, the city council always supports the project and promises to invest a large amount of money for parks and roads.
When asked about the generosity of Seattle, he simply said: "The purpose of all these actions is to be financially independent." And Christine Lea, a city resident, said. "People often refer to him when talking about Microsoft 's early days. But things have changed. He is now a' boy 'who likes toys."
Hai Nguyen
