Allen, Paul Gardner

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ALLEN, PAUL GARDNER

Businessman-billionaire Paul Allen (1953–) recalled in 1995, "I remember having pizza at Shakey's in Vancouver, Washington in 1973 and talking about the fact that eventually everyone is going to be on-line and have [electronic] access to newspapers and stuff." Paul Allen realized that vision when he and his childhood friend, Bill Gates (1955–), co-founded the Microsoft Corporation in 1975. Their motto was "a computer on every desktop and Microsoft software in every computer."

Paul Allen was born in Seattle, Washington in 1953. His parents were both librarians and they helped both he and his sister Jody develop a wide variety of interests. From a young age, Paul Allen visited museums, art galleries, and concerts of every kind. Allen attended Lakeside School in Seattle, where he met Bill Gates. When a teletype terminal that was connected to a remote mainframe computer was installed in the school, Allen and a group of other high school kids became addicted to this early computer technology. Alongside Bill Gates, Allen became one of the first "computer nerds." Allen and his friends spent their free time around the computer and spent their money exploring the machine's possibilities. Allen later said, "I was just in love with the technology and wanted to understand it."

In 1971 Paul Allen and Bill Gates started their first computer business venture in Seattle, the Traf-O-Data Co. They developed a computerized way to analyze traffic volume data. When Intel Corp. introduced the 8008 microprocessor chip in 1972, Allen recognized that this chip could help them build smaller and more efficient traffic-counting computers. With that advance in technology Allen and Gates now had the idea and the tool (the microchip) to build computers for a fraction of the cost of using conventional electronics components.

Allen pursued some college during the early 1970s but became bored. He tried to convince Bill Gates to work with him in the computer business, but Gates, then a student at Harvard University, was still unconvinced of the computer's future.

Then, in 1975, the cover story of Popular Electronics magazine featured a new computer called the Altair 8800, which was to be manufactured by a company in Albuquerque, New Mexico, called MITS, and sold at a low price. This computer would be low priced. Allen and Gates recognized that anyone who bought an Altair would need one essential component: software. Without a predetermined set of commands and operations, programming the Altair would be a nightmare. Working day and night in a garage in Albuquerque, Allen and Gates adapted the application they had developed for their Traf-O-Data computers and created a new software program to operate the Altair. Their software was inexorably linked to the success of the hardware it was designed to operate, a practice that became a standard formula for success at Microsoft Corporation.

By the late 1970s Allen and Gates' new company, Microsoft Corp., was flooded with business. They moved operations to the Seattle suburb of Bellevue, Washington. At their new business location they invented the personal home computer. According to Brent Schlender in Fortune magazine (October 2, 1995) their invention "created more wealth than any business partners in the history of American capitalism."

In 1982, Paul Allen was diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease, a form of cancer. He spent two months receiving radiation therapy. Then, at age 30, he dropped out of active participation in Microsoft. The cancer caused Allen to reconsider his life. He traveled widely, spent time with his family and, instead of returning to Microsoft, he decided to pursue other business ventures. In 1997, Allen officially left Microsoft and his position as its resident "idea man." At the same time he was listed in Forbes magazine as one of the three richest men in the world. (One of the two leading him on the list was his old friend Bill Gates.)

By 1997, Allen had invested nearly two billion dollars (part of which he received upon leaving Microsoft) in broad investment allocations ranging from software companies, multi-media and electronic entertainment companies, and others. Allen hoped to use his money to pursue software development and businesses that would help "wire the world" for computers. He also invested a sizeable amount in the Seattle Seahawks football team.

In addition to his entrepreneurial pursuits, Allen also engaged in philanthropy. He helped establish a popular music museum in Seattle and created the Experience Music Project [EMP] Foundation, which funds music and arts projects in the Pacific Northwest. Other philanthropic foundations he created include organizations devoted to community service, medical research, and forest preservation.

See also: Computer Industry, Bill Gates, Microsoft Corporation