Paul Allen - Biography

Last Editor: lovemy2pac				Paul Allen Biography -   Name : Paul Allen Profession : Entrepreneur Birth Details : born January 21, 1953

Paul Allen Trivia -

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Paul Allen Detailed Biography -

Paul Gardner Allen (born January 21, 1953) is an entrepreneur who established himself by co-founding Microsoft Corporation with Bill Gates. He regularly appears on lists of the richest people in the world; as of 2005 he is ranked by Forbes magazine as the seventh richest, worth an estimated $21 billion, of which $5 billion is in Microsoft stock. He is the Chairman of Charter Communications and is a shareholder in Dreamworks Animation. He was recently invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). Allen also owns two professional sports teams: The Seattle Seahawks of the National Football League and the Portland Trail Blazers of the National Basketball Association. He currently resides on Mercer Island, WA. Paul Gardner Allen was born in Seattle, Washington, to Kenneth S. Allen, an associate director of the University of Washington libraries, and Faye G. Allen. Allen attended Lakeside School, a prestigious private school in Seattle, and befriended Bill Gates, two years his junior but shared a common enthusiasm for computers. Together they monopolized the use of Lakeside School's single minicomputer. In need of more computing power, Allen and Gates snuck into the University of Washington computer labs. They were caught but struck an agreement with lab administrators by providing free computer help to students. After graduation, Allen attended Washington State University, though he dropped out after two years to pursue his dream of writing software commercially for the new "personal computers". He later convinced Bill Gates to drop out of Harvard College to found Microsoft. For more information, see History of Microsoft With Bill Gates, he co-founded Microsoft (initially "Micro-Soft") in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in 1975, and began selling a BASIC interpreter. In 1980, Allen spearheaded a deal for Microsoft to buy an operating system called QDOS for $59,000. Microsoft won a contract to supply it for use as the operating system of IBM's new PC. This became a foundation of Microsoft's remarkable growth. Allen resigned from Microsoft in 1983 after being diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease which was successfully treated by several months of radiation therapy and a bone marrow transplant. In November 2000, Allen resigned from his position on the Microsoft board but was asked to consult as a senior strategy advisor to Microsoft executives.