Business Leaders

Paul Allen

Birthday : 01/21/1953
Place of birth : Seattle (Washington) - USA
Country of residence : USA
Linked companies : Microsoft Corporation

Co-founder of Microsoft with Bill Gates, Paul Allen has a passion for computing and sports. At the head of the group Venture Productions, he brilliantly multiplies his investments in information technology companies, new technology and sports. Three areas he controls and which enabled him to haul up to the 57th place of Forbes ranking in 2011 with a personal fortune of 13 billion of dollars.

It is on the benches of the school that Paul Allen and Bill Gates meet. Motivated by a passion for programming, they fiddle with all programs and computer games.

Paul Allen learns at the University of Washington the secrets of computer programming. After two years, he considers knowing enough things to start working. He is hired by a home automation company in Boston. But the company is a too small playground for this informatics bulimic.

He does not hesitate when his childhood friend Bill Gates asked him to associate with him in order to sell programming to others. Together, they found Microsoft and develop the first language MS DOS which they sell from 1981 to IBM.

Compensation by IBM of $ 35 for each copy allows Microsoft to build a small gold mine and make its IPO in 1986. Three years before, Paul Allen leaves the technical direction and preserves his position on the board of directors where he stays until 2000.

In 1997, Paul Allen founded Vulcan Productions, a film production company. At the same time, he invested heavily in high technology, media and sport.

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