The Gilded Age ushered in new technologies and a transformation from an agrarian economy to an industrial one, and in the process the economic titans who transformed the American landscape like J. P. Morgan, Andrew Carnegie, and John D. Rockefeller. Likewise, new technologies and the transformation from the industrial age to the information age enabled entrepreneurs like William H. Gates, III, to surpass all other entrepreneur’s of the 20th century:
Only one man has directed a company to publicly traded worth of about half a trillion dollars—when compares to nations, his company boasts the ninth largest economy in the world. At 44, he may be the richest man in history, worth approximately $77 billion. He’s also created more millionaires than anyone in the history of business.
This analysis will discuss the methods and style of Bill Gates that have enabled him to become the most successful entrepreneur of the millenium. Also included will be a comparison of Gates to other notable millenium “tycoons”, the anti-trust suit filed against Microsoft Corporation by the Federal government, and Gates’ views and contributions to philanthropy.
Begun twenty-five years ago between twenty-something partners Bill Gates and Paul Allan, Microsoft Corporation, with Bill Gates now alone at the helm, has become the most successful and largest computer company in the world. At the age of 25, Gates was working for IBM when he developed what was known as a DOS operating system. The company had hired Gates to make the operating system for something called a personal computer. When the nerdy-looking software developer was through, IBM executives made what may in retrospect become known as one of the most costly and short-sighted business decisions ever “Thinking the program would be quickly replaced anyway, IBM agreed to pay for a license to use it rather than purchase it outright. Now Microsoft software operates 90 percent of th...