Gates, William Henry (Bill), III (1955- )

US businessman and computer scientist. He is Chief Executive Officer of Microsoft Corporation which he co-founded 1975 with Paul Allen. Gates was responsible for supplying the operating system that IBM chose to use in the IBM PC. At the time that the deal was struck, Microsoft did not actually have an operating system, but Gates bought one from another company, renamed it MS-DOS, and modified it to suit IBM's new computer. Microsoft also retained the right to sell MS-DOS to other computer manufacturers, and because the IBM PC was not only successful but easily copied by other manufacturers, MS-DOS found its way onto the vast majority of PCs. The revenue from MS-DOS allowed Microsoft to expand into other areas of software, guided by Gates. To many people, Gates is Microsoft: most of the company's successes have been his ideas (as have the occasional failures). His life revolves around the company and he expects similar dedication from his staff. In 1994, Gates was successful in fending off both US and European investigations into anti-competitive practices which could have see Microsoft broken up into smaller companies. In 1994 he invested $10 million into a biotechnology company, Darwin Molecular, with Paul Allen.