Paul Gardner Allen (born January 21, 1953) is an American business magnate, investor and philanthropist. He is best known as the co-founder of Microsoft, alongside Bill Gates. As of August 2016, he was estimated to be the 40th richest person in the world, with an estimated net worth of $18.6 billion.
Allen is the founder and Chairman of Vulcan Inc., which manages his various business and philanthropic efforts. Allen also has a multibillion-dollar investment portfolio including technology and media companies, real estate holdings, and stakes in other companies. He owns two professional sports teams: the Seattle Seahawks of the National Football League and the Portland Trail Blazers of the National Basketball Association. He is also part-owner of the Seattle Sounders FC, which joined Major League Soccer in 2009.
He is also the founder of Allen Institute for Brain Science, Institute for Artificial Intelligence, Institute for Cell Science, and Vulcan Aerospace.
Early life and education
Paul Allen was born on January 21, 1953 in Seattle, Washington to Kenneth Sam Allen and Edna Faye (née Gardner) Allen. Allen attended Lakeside School, a private school in Seattle, where he befriended Bill Gates, three years younger, with whom he shared an enthusiasm for computers. They used Lakeside’s Teletype terminal to develop their programming skills on several time-sharing computer systems. After graduation, Allen went to Washington State University, where he joined Phi Kappa Theta fraternity, but dropped out after two years in order to work as a programmer for Honeywell in Boston, near where Bill Gates had ended up as well. Allen later convinced Gates to drop out of Harvard University in order to create Microsoft. Gates explained his official status with Harvard that, “…if things [Microsoft] hadn’t worked out, I could always go back to school. I was officially on [a] leave [of absence].”
Paul Allen net worth: Paul Allen was an American industrialist, investor, musician, sports team owner and philanthropist who had a net worth of $20 billion at the time of his death in 2018. Paul Allen earned the majority of his personal fortune by being the co-founder of Microsoft. Allen co-founded the software company with his childhood friend Bill Gates. Allen met Bill Gates while they were both attending the Lakeside School in Seattle. He went on to attend Washington State University but dropped out after two years. As computer industry was slowly forming, Allen convinced Gates to drop out of Harvard in order to found a software company. They set up shop in Albuquerque, New Mexico in 1975. It was Allen who eventually dubbed their venture “Micro-Soft”. They trademarked the shortened version “Microsoft” on November 26, 1976. The company IPOd on March 13, 1986. After the first day of trading, Allen’s 25% stake was worth $195 million. He was 33 years old. As you know by now, over the next few decades Microsoft became one of the most valuable companies in the world and made its founders extraordinarily rich.
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