Bill Gates quits as Microsoft CEO

Born to a middle-class family in Seattle, Washington, on the US West Coast, William Henry Gates III was already president of a school business group dealing with computers at the tender age of 14. At 19, he dropped out of Harvard University to set up Microsoft with his friend Paul Allen. They bought a micro-computer software program, rewrote it and sold it to computer giant IBM. The MS-DOS system8211;which sits at the heart of nearly all of today8217;s personal computers8211;was the success story that launched Microsoft into big-time business in 1980. Six years later, Gates successfully floated his company on the Nasdaq electronic stock exchange and promptly found himself, at age 31, the youngest self-made multi-millionaire in the industrial world.

His company, of which he owned 45 percent equity at the time, fetched 21 dollars per share in 1986 8230; and 90 dollars per share one year later. In 1985, Microsoft launched Windows, a programme which really took off five years later in its 3.0 version and revolutionized the use of personal computers.

The software was not as advanced as that of its rival, Apple8217;s Mac-OS, but Windows became an industry standard thanks to alliances forged between Gates and hardware manufacturers. Since then, Gates has been accused of behaving like a predator in his business dealings, leading rival Apple, for example, to sue for breach of copyright. Gates8217; innovative skills are matched by his managerial abilities. He has been able to gather around him able and fiercely dedicated advisors. His employees8211;dubbed quot;Microserfsquot; by company critics8211;have been known to work 80 hours a week without complaint and even accept salary cuts when deemed necessary. Gates himself is said to have taken only six days vacation between 1978 and 1984. He is known for his ability to navigate the chaos of fast-evolving technology, while anticipating market demand.

In 1994, he married one of his marketing directors, Melinda French, 10 years his junior. Gates lovingly writes software programs for his three-year-old daughter based on her favorite children8217;s TV characters. He and his wife also had a boy, Rory John, in May. The Gates family lives in a self-styled dream mansion with a swimming pool, cinema and parking for 30 vehicles built on the edge of a lake near his hometown, Seattle, at a cost of some 100 million dollars. Gates is known to have spent some 30 million dollars for a Leonardo da Vinci manuscript. Recently, he and his wife have begun giving sizable charitable donations to support vaccination programs, scholarships and research, funding their foundation with tens of billions of dollars. Today Microsoft faces a federal anti-trust suit filed by the US Justice Department and 19 US states in October 1998.