Bill Gates

Bill Gates (William Henry Gates 3d), 1955-, American business executive, b. Seattle, Wash. At the age of 19, Gates founded (1974) the Microsoft Corp., a computer software firm, with Paul Allen. They began by purchasing the rights to convert an existing software package. In 1980 they agreed to produce the operating system for the personal computer being developed by International Business Machines (IBM). That system, MS-DOS (Microsoft Disk Operating System), and subsequent programs (including the Windows operating systems) made Microsoft the world's largest producer of software for microcomputers.

In 1997 the U.S. Justice Dept. accused Microsoft of violating a 1995 antitrust agreement, because the Windows 95 operating system required consumers to load Microsoft's Internet browser—thus giving Microsoft a monopolistic advantage over other browser manufacturers. In late 1999 the trial judge decided that Microsoft was a monopoly that had stifled competition, and the following June he ordered the breakup of Microsoft into two companies, a decision that Microsoft appealed. Although the appeals court overturned (2001) the breakup, it agreed that Microsoft had stifled competition and returned the case to a lower court for resolution. Subsequently the government and the company agreed to a settlement that placed some restrictions on Microsoft but would not essentially diminish the advantage its operating system monopoly gave the software giant; several states contested the settlement, but a judge approved it in 2002. In the European Union the company has also faced scrutiny over anticompetitive concerns, and there it has several times been fined hundreds of millions of euros.

Gates, who is chairman of Microsoft, is one of the wealthiest persons in the world. In 1994 he founded the William H. Gates Foundation (focusing on health issues in developing countries) and in 1997 established the Gates Library Foundation, later renamed the Gates Learning Foundation (providing education assistance). In 1999 the former was renamed the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation , and the latter was merged (2000) into it. In 2008 Gates, while remaining as company chairman, withdrew from daily participation in the running of Microsoft in order to devote more time to the foundation. He has written The Road Ahead (1995, with N. Myhrvold and P. Rinearson) and Business @ the Speed of Thought (1999).

Bibliography: See J. Wallace, Hard Drive (1992).

Gates, Bill ( William Henry) (1955– ) US businessman. In 1975 he co-founded Microsoft Corporation, which in the 1980s became the leading computer software producer. Gates is noted for his innovative thinking and aggressive business tactics. In 2000, he fought to prevent the break-up of Microsoft after the corporation was found guilty of breaking US anti-monopoly laws for the software it produced for the Internet.

Gates, William H., III (1955–), computer software developer, businessman.Born in Seattle, Washington, Bill Gates attended one of the few secondary schools in America that had access to computers at the time. He later attended Harvard College but left before graduating. Gates and his friend Paul Allen learned of the invention of the Altair Personal Computer (PC) in 1975. Recognizing the potential market for PC software, they developed the BASIC program for the Altair. Moving to Albuquerque, New Mexico, where the Altair was produced, they incorporated their firm, Microsoft. In 1979, they moved the company to Seattle. Gates married Melinda French in 1994.

Challenging the amateur tradition of software development, Gates argued that unless software authors could recover their costs, they would have no incentive to provide high‐quality software. In 1980, Microsoft won the contract to develop the operating system for the new International Business Machines (IBM) PC. Because IBM, unlike other PC manufacturers, used an open architecture in its machine, and because a number of other firms copied the IBM machine and used its operating system, this arrangement gave Microsoft a vast and elastic market. By 1990, as the dominant firm in the PC operating‐systems market, Microsoft was expanding its product line by developing or acquiring applications software. Because of its market dominance, it also influenced the design of applications packages developed by other vendors. By the end of the decade, Gates, a billionaire many times over, had become the richest person in the world. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, established in 1999 with assets of around $5.4 billion, initially focused on promoting computer and Internet access, global health, children's issues, and projects concerning the Pacific Northwest.

In 1998, the Justice Department brought an antitrust suit against Microsoft for allegedly using its control of the operating‐systems market to promote its own Internet Web browser and to prevent other companies from entering the market. In June 2000, federal district judge Penfield Jackson ruled that Microsoft had violated the antitrust laws and should be divided into two companies. Microsoft appealed, and the case continued.
See also Antitrust Legislation; Automation and Computerization; Computers; Internet and Worldwide Web; Philanthropy and Philanthropic Foundations.

Bibliography

Stephen Manes and and Paul Andrews , Gates: How Microsoft's Mogul Reinvented an Industry—and Made Himself the Richest Man in America, 1993.
Bill Gates , The Road Ahead, 1995.

Robert W. Seidel