Fortune 1986: Inside the Deal that Made Bill Gates $350M

If you have a historian bent to you, there is a pretty fascinating original article (from 86) about the IPO of Microsoft that is being reprinted on the Fortune website, to celebrate the 25 years it has been public.  When you read articles like this, or watch movies like the original Wall Street (1987) it is almost amusing how small the dollars are relative to what is tossed around today.   Just today we have an article on Bloomberg that Groupon - which was launched in 2008 and rebuffed a takeover by Google late last year at $6B, might be going IPO near a $25 BILLION valuation.

Anyhow here is the article for those interested - vampire squid included.  (click full screen for the easy read)


Inside the deal that made Bill Gates, age 30, $350,000,000