Microsoft celebrates its 40th anniversary




Photo: Microsoft i> sup>

In early 1975, the head of the company MITS (Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems) Ed Roberts concluded with two young men named Bill Gates and Paul Allen a contract for the supply of Basic language interpreter for the computer Altaire 8080. Roberts lump sum paid $ 3000 for both the creators of the interpreter for the exclusive right to sales, and pledged to pay royalties from each sold copies - from 30 to 75 dollars. To keep things more organized, Gates and Allen decided to found a company Allen & Gates Inc, but is considered more appropriate name for a law firm. As a result, stopped on a variant «Micro-soft», derived from the word microprocessors i> and software i>, which has offered Paul Allen. April 4, 1975 the company was registered in Albuquerque.

CEO of the new company became Bill Gates with a share of 64% (sometimes referred to as a round figure of 60%). Because until 1976 Paul Allen still worked in the MITS and less involved in the creation of the interpreter, its share was 36%. The first officer was the Micro-soft Monte Davidoff , created a mathematical library for the Altair Basic. In the credits of the interpreter was present line with the designation of roles of each of the founders:

Paul Allen wrote auxiliary codes. Bill Gates wrote an executable code. Monte Davidoff wrote mathematical library blockquote> By the end of 1975 Micro-soft was able to earn $ 16 000. Gates decided not to limit its cooperation with the MITS company and contracted to develop a Basic interpreter with other companies, such as General Electric. November 26, 1976 hyphen from the name of the company was gone, and she was now a world-famous name of Microsoft.

Today, Bill Gates sent to all employees of the company, including former, e-mail, in which he congratulated them with a significant anniversary and involvement in the history of the development of an entire industry, changed the world. On tweet with a screenshot of the letter drew attention to the many technical publications, including TheVerge:

Bill Gates mail to Microsoft employees on its 40th Anniversary #microsoft pic.twitter.com/Rwh95Mov64 - Amit Roy Choudhary (roychoudhary) April 3, 2015 < / a> blockquote> Gates writes:

We did a lot together over the 40 years and have given rise to countless number of companies and individuals to develop their potential. But now the most important thing is that we will do next. Thank you for what you are helping Microsoft do better now and for many decades to come. Blockquote>

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