Bill Gates. Steve Jobs. FedEx's Fred Smith. The image of the entrepreneur as whiz kid has serious currency in American business lore. But according to a new study from the Kauffman Foundation, a Kansas City think tank that studies entrepreneurship, that image is a myth.
Worldwide trade will plummet by nearly 10% this year, and output will fall by 2.9%, the World Bank predicted in a report released Monday.
It's certainly a unique father-son relationship. The man who created one of the largest fortunes in history, now in his second career as a philanthropist, has his dad working for him as co-chair of the world's largest charitable organization -- the $27.5 billion Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Actually, this is a second act for both men. Bill Gates, 53, stepped down from day-to-day work at Microsoft last June, while his father, Bill Gates Sr., 83, retired from the prominent Seattle law firm Preston Gates & Ellis (now known as K&L Gates), in 1998. These days both men give counsel to each other, but for years, of course, Dad doled out indispensable advice to his son. I recently sat down with this unlikely buddy act in the famed Leonard Bernstein suite at the Hôtel de Crillon on Paris's Place de la Concorde to ask them about the best advice they ever got.
Billionaire Bill Gates has urged industrialized nations to honor aid pledges to developing nations despite the recession.
Billionaire Bill Gates and rock musician Bob Geldof have accused Italy and France of failing to follow up on promises to give more support to Africa.
In the early days of Microsoft's success, when my son's name was starting to become known to the world at large, everybody from reporters at Fortune to the checkout person at the local grocery store would ask me, "How do you raise a kid like that? What's the secret?" At those moments I was generally thinking to myself, "Oh, it's a secret all right ... because I don't get it either!"
Microsoft founder Bill Gates told CNN on Wednesday that he hopes President-elect Barack Obama and Congress immediately craft a wide-ranging stimulus package, to help jump-start the nation's sputtering economy, and double the United States' commitment to foreign aid.
When Bill Gates gets worked up about something, his body language changes. He suspends his habit of rocking forward and back in his chair and sits a little straighter. His voice rises in pitch. Today the subject is America's schools.
As Bill Gates retires from Microsoft, Josh Quittner examines the legacy of the man who made Windows, but missed the Web
Let me tell you about Bill Gates. He is different from you and me. First off, the billionaire co-founder of Microsoft has always been something of a utopian. In his mind, even the world's knottiest problems can be solved if you apply enough IQ. Accordingly, Gates, who has been spotted on Seattle freeways reading a book while driving himself to the office, covets knowledge. It's as if he's still trying to make up for dropping out of Harvard, as he spends just about any spare waking minute reading, studying science texts, or watching university courses on DVD.
Bill Gates. Steve Jobs. FedEx's Fred Smith. The image of the entrepreneur as whiz kid has serious currency in American business lore. But according to a new study from the Kauffman Foundation, a Kansas City think tank that studies entrepreneurship, that image is a myth.
Worldwide trade will plummet by nearly 10% this year, and output will fall by 2.9%, the World Bank predicted in a report released Monday.
It's certainly a unique father-son relationship. The man who created one of the largest fortunes in history, now in his second career as a philanthropist, has his dad working for him as co-chair of the world's largest charitable organization -- the $27.5 billion Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Actually, this is a second act for both men. Bill Gates, 53, stepped down from day-to-day work at Microsoft last June, while his father, Bill Gates Sr., 83, retired from the prominent Seattle law firm Preston Gates & Ellis (now known as K&L Gates), in 1998. These days both men give counsel to each other, but for years, of course, Dad doled out indispensable advice to his son. I recently sat down with this unlikely buddy act in the famed Leonard Bernstein suite at the Hôtel de Crillon on Paris's Place de la Concorde to ask them about the best advice they ever got.
Billionaire Bill Gates has urged industrialized nations to honor aid pledges to developing nations despite the recession.
Billionaire Bill Gates and rock musician Bob Geldof have accused Italy and France of failing to follow up on promises to give more support to Africa.
In the early days of Microsoft's success, when my son's name was starting to become known to the world at large, everybody from reporters at Fortune to the checkout person at the local grocery store would ask me, "How do you raise a kid like that? What's the secret?" At those moments I was generally thinking to myself, "Oh, it's a secret all right ... because I don't get it either!"
Microsoft founder Bill Gates told CNN on Wednesday that he hopes President-elect Barack Obama and Congress immediately craft a wide-ranging stimulus package, to help jump-start the nation's sputtering economy, and double the United States' commitment to foreign aid.
When Bill Gates gets worked up about something, his body language changes. He suspends his habit of rocking forward and back in his chair and sits a little straighter. His voice rises in pitch. Today the subject is America's schools.
As Bill Gates retires from Microsoft, Josh Quittner examines the legacy of the man who made Windows, but missed the Web
Let me tell you about Bill Gates. He is different from you and me. First off, the billionaire co-founder of Microsoft has always been something of a utopian. In his mind, even the world's knottiest problems can be solved if you apply enough IQ. Accordingly, Gates, who has been spotted on Seattle freeways reading a book while driving himself to the office, covets knowledge. It's as if he's still trying to make up for dropping out of Harvard, as he spends just about any spare waking minute reading, studying science texts, or watching university courses on DVD.
Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates, traveling through Asia, met Tuesday with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak and championed his vision of the future of high tech and the Internet
Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates announced a new direction Friday as he pledged $306 million in grants to develop farming in poor countries, leading the charge for corporate responsibility at a major meeting of business chiefs.
"In many crucial areas, the world is getting better...but it's not getting better fast enough, and it's not getting better for everyone," Bill Gates said in Davos on Thursday as he called for a more concerted global drive toward what he calls "Creative Capitalism." He said that companies, especially the biggest ones, can improve the lot of the world's least privileged by better aligning their self-interest with the good of society.
Could Bill Gates become the Sexiest Geek Alive? With a little help from Matthew McConaughey, it may just be possible! The Microsoft chairman and CEO got a little workout help from the onetime PEOPLE Sexiest Man Alive in a video showing Gates's "last day at the office" before retiring to focus on his humanitarian efforts with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
In mid-October, Bill Gates unveiled Microsoft's own unified communications products aimed at corporate customers. He contends this technology will revolutionize the office as profoundly as the PC itself, and he may be right.
Mr. Bill Gates! Mr. Bill Gates!" a young woman shrieks as the black car pulls up. A pallid student in a nylon windbreaker pushes his way through the security line and hands the world's richest man a small envelope with a floral design. "It's very important," he pants.
Harvard's most famous dropout returns for his diploma, 30 years late. His final exam: Can he save the world?
Bill Gates and Eli Broad two of the most generous philanthropists in the world are joining forces in a multi-million dollar project aimed at improving America's public schools and pushing education higher on the agenda of the 2008 presidential race.
Imagine if the baseball season had begun this week without such foreign-born stars as Albert Pujols, David Ortiz, Justin Morneau and the latest Japanese import, pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka and his mysterious "gyroball."
Microsoft chairman and co-founder Bill Gates boasted to CNN that Vista, Microsoft's widely anticipated new version of its Windows operating system, will make the personal computer the "place where it all comes together" for multimedia applications such as photos, music and videos.
So you're not Warren Buffett or Bill Gates. There's no reason you still can't give like a billionaire. Donor-advised funds - investment accounts that let you deposit assets for an upfront tax deduc...
Bill Gates' investment vehicle Cascade Investment LLC is expected to announce a joint venture with utility and energy company PNM Resources Inc. on Friday, increasing its investment in the energy sector, according to a report published Friday.
During the 25 years of the AIDS epidemic, much of the focus has been on developing a vaccine or treatment, and prevention has sometimes seemed to take a back seat. But this week at the 16th International AIDS Conference in Toronto, the tables are turning.
Microsoft founder Bill Gates and former U.S. President Bill Clinton, leaders in worldwide anti-AIDS efforts, had praise Monday for President Bush's initiative, the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, known as PEPFAR, on the first full day of the 16th International AIDS Conference in Toronto.
Everywhere you look these days, tech and business world luminaries - like Richard Branson, Paul Allen, Steve Case, Vinod Khosla, John Doerr, and Bill Gates - are laying down big bets on ethanol, a substitute for gasoline that's already finding its way into pumps.
Bill Gates is leaving his day-to-day role at Microsoft, ending an epoch in American business. And now people think CEO Steve Ballmer should go, too?
Now that Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates has started his two-year goodbye from a day-to-day role at the company, it's time for CEO Steve Ballmer to set a resignation date, too.
Microsoft announced Thursday that chairman and co-founder Bill Gates will transition out of a day-to-day role at the company, effective July 2008, to spend more time working on his charitable foundation.
Last week at Davos, Bill Gates suggested giving the world's poor cellphones--not PCs--to connect them to the Internet. But why limit the plan to the poor?
Eric Pooley reports: If a session at Davos isn't absolutely great I start to wish I was up on the mountain instead of down in the Congress Center. Right now all thoughts of skiing have been banished: Bill Gates, Eric Schmidt, John Chambers and Niklas Zennstrom are talking about the next phase in the tech revolution, and how they're making it pay.
An old tech rivalry, predictable car stats and more about the coal mine tragedy has my attention this morning ...
Bill Gates aims to take over your living room and late Wednesday he unveiled a new music service and new software to do it.
Bill Gates may be the richest man in the world, but the Microsoft co-founder is no longer considered America's top giver, according to an annual ranking of the top U.S. philanthropists published Thursday.
The chairman of Microsoft is predicting a "sea change" for his industry and is urging his managers to act decisively to stay ahead of the competition, according to a leaked company e-mail.
It's the Friday before the University of Nebraska's Big 12 Conference opener in football-mad Lincoln, but the Cornhuskers game isn't the only hot ticket in town. On a beautiful late September after...
On a shelf in Bill Gates' austere office at Microsoft in Redmond, Wash., sits a crystal ball. It was an apt accouterment for the conversation FORTUNE's David Kirkpatrick had there last month with G...
When the first President Bush addressed an annual meeting of the Society of American Business Editors and Writers some years back, he answered questions posed directly by members in the audience. So did all the other high-ranking government officials and corporate executives who have spoken to the group over the 41 years of its existence. But Microsoft chairman Bill Gates refused to do so here this week.
When it comes to talking business, Americans said they would want Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates as a seatmate during a cross-country flight, according to the results of a recent survey of people flying during the holiday travel season.
Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, the world's richest man, got a modest pay raise over the last year, according to a company filing.
It may just be pocket change for the richest man in the world, but Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates has been fined $800,000 by the federal government for violating an antitrust rule.
How do you measure Bill Gates' success?
Is Bill Gates still the world's wealthiest person?
Microsoft co-founder and chairman Bill Gates will be awarded an honorary knighthood by Britain's Queen Elizabeth for an outstanding contribution to enterprise, officials said Monday.
The first Comdex since last year's bankruptcy will be a test of the tech expo's repositioning as a smaller but more focused business-to-business IT showcase (see "Worst in Show," What Works, Septem...
While Microsoft's chairman and co-founder is no longer CEO, he remains the world's richest man (estimated net worth: well over $30 billion)--and as chief software architect, he wields enormous powe...
Microsoft's CEO has faced down more villains than Austin Powers. That antitrust suit? Looks as if it might go Gates' way after all. Oracle CEO Larry Ellison? His wealth disappeared faster than an e...
As far as the information technology industry was concerned, the 1990s were "The Bill and Andy Show." The kingpins of Wintel not only dictated the bits, bytes, and business models of computing but ...
You won't find many beakers and Bunsen burners in J. Craig Venter's labs, where 50 scientists recently sequenced 3.12 billion letters of the human genetic code. Instead, Celera Genomics, with its S...
The Justice Department scored a resounding victory earlier this month when U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson ordered that Microsoft be split into two companies. Still, questions rem...
I came across an Internet service the other day that played down the fact that it was on the Internet. This wasn't because the Internet has lost some cachet with Nasdaq's gyrations. The company was...
Listen up, Bill Gates. Goldman Sachs is about to unveil a special online trading site for Net-savvy billionaires just like you. While the investment bank's front-office types are being rather secre...
So you're way past the minimum wage and probably haven't even thought about calculating your hourly wage for a while. But have you ever figured out what you earn in a second? If you look at the inc...
Even if we weren't all half-convinced that the world's computers will lock up on Jan. 1, we would have to regard the coming turn of the calendar with a certain awe. It's the close of a boom year at...
Bill Gates has a lot on his plate. As Microsoft's chairman and CEO, he's managing a galloping company that sees no bounds to its growth. There's also the pesky distraction of the company's ongoing ...
Bill Gates has decided to open up his wallet. As FORTUNE went to press, we learned that Microsoft's CEO had just given his two charitable foundations a combined gift of some $3.35 billion. Whoa! Th...
Sometimes a meaningless statistic can call attention to an important problem. What is an economist to do? Point out the statistic's emptiness or be grateful that the problem is getting some attenti...
Here in the hinterlands of Oregon, in the middle of a wind-swept wheat field, twirls a crazed dervish of a man in cutoff jeans and a tie-dyed T-shirt. It's Steve Jobs, ecstatically "conducting" the...
We know that he can't cash out of his $51 billion in Microsoft stock all at once, but let's say that it were possible. Gates could then:
Finding examples of Microsoft executives sounding warlike has to be one of the easiest tasks a government antitrust lawyer could hope for. Here's a choice specimen, uttered by Paul Maritz, Microsof...
By sheer coincidence, National Book Award winner Ron Chernow's biography of the leading industrialist of the Gilded Age, John D. Rockefeller, was published on the eve of the Justice Department's Ma...
I said to my lawyers, "Just, just...is there anything we can do to get past this stupid thing?" --Bill Gates
Betting with Bill Gates seems like a clever investing strategy. The richest man in America put $1 billion into Comcast, the fourth largest cable-television firm, in June 1997. Since that vote of co...
For a fellow with a net worth of $42 billion, Bill Gates stays awfully hungry. Every year he makes a point of visiting China at least once. He makes grueling, whistle-stop tours, like the one in In...
Has the world's largest personal fortune become so large as to be incomprehensible, hence invisible? When billions reach a certain point, do they become jillions, beyond the comprehension of anyone...
Leave it to the Web to remind you exactly how much richer Bill Gates is than you are at any given moment. Microsoft stock just ticked up a buck? The Uber-nerd is $141 million richer! Check at the B...
Unless Bill Gates and Rupert Murdoch are dead wrong--but would you bet against them?--prospects for the once-embattled cable TV industry are bright again. The second week in June was an amazing one...
In building a lakefront estate estimated to cost $50 million just outside Seattle, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates is violating a classic real estate rule of thumb: Never own the biggest house on the...
There he is again, Bill Gates, on the cover of our magazine. Truth is, the man is simply too important, too smart, too aggressive, and--yes--too rich to stay off the cover of FORTUNE for very long ...
In his new book, The Road Ahead (Viking, $29.95), Bill Gates is in fine form at what he does best--looking out a couple of years to see what's coming for technology and society. The view of Microso...
LIKE MANY OF TODAY'S MOGULS, Bill Gates is betting that content is king. What separates Microsoft's CEO from the crowd is his will to dominate--first in operating and application software and now, ...
PUBLISHING
In hindsight, the most astonishing aspect of Microsoft's recent purchase of Intuit, the upstart maker of the popular Quicken line of personal finance PC software, isn't the rich, $1.5 billion price...
Armed with his billion-dollar checkbook and a keen vision of the oncoming digital age, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates began courting the world's major museums in 1989. But when he asked for the digi...
Renowned computer whiz Bill Gates, 37, has made Microsoft the world's leading producer of software for personal computers, with estimated revenues of nearly $3.8 billion for the fiscal year that en...
Let's face it: A billion dollars is not a lot of money. It is A LOT OF MONEY. So much so that the owners can enjoy the finer things of life in multiples. They can experience the exotic not once but...
Engendering dismay among his libertarian friends, your servant has occasionally entertained the case for increased cigarette taxes. Now risking additional fuming (mainly metaphorical) at the Cato I...
So you think Bill Gates's Microsoft stumbled into the extraordinary good fortune of being chosen by IBM to provide the operating system software for its first PC because it had the right technology...
As businesses focus more on service and on quality tracking, and get by with fewer layers of management, there's a lot of recognition that data can be a competitive tool. The goal for the 1990s is ...
ARE YOU sure you want a billion? Before you answer, consider H. Ross Perot. He has nearly three of them. He also has an original of the Magna Carta, some Remington and Charlie Russell bronzes, and ...
SUPERLATIVES are always hard to prove, but apparently no one ever made more money at an earlier age than William H. Gates III. Chief executive and a co- founder of Microsoft, a suburban Seattle sof...
SUPERLATIVES are always hard to prove, but apparently no one ever made more money at an earlier age than William H. Gates III. Chief executive and a co- founder of Microsoft, a suburban Seattle sof...
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