Premiere 40 years agoThe steep rise and sudden fall of the IBM PC
40 years ago, IBM launched a new era in the history of technology with its first personal computer. The IBM PC 5150 was neither the first nor the best computer. But no other computer had as much influence on the industry as the first IBM PC.
...Gates: After the leading software developer Gary Kildall from Digital Research did not take IBM's offer seriously, Gates seized the opportunity of a lifetime. Microsoft did not even have a suitable product in 1980. But Gates and his partner Paul Allen immediately recognized the prospects that an IBM contract would open up for them. Gates bought the core for a system software from a developer in the neighborhood for a paltry 25,000 dollars and licensed the conglomerate to IBM as PC-DOS 1.0. The experienced IBM managers even let Gates buy the rights to DOS and thus ensured that Microsoft was able to develop into a global software giant.
The triumphal march began.