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Paul Allen

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Paul Gardner Allen (born January 21, 1953 in Seattle, Washington) is an American entrepreneur who co-founded Microsoft with Bill Gates. Allen regularly appears on lists of the richest people in the world; as of 2007 Forbes ranks him the fifth richest American^[1], worth an estimated $18.0 billion. He is the founder and chairman of Vulcan Inc. (his private asset management company) and chairman of Charter Communications. Allen also has a multibillion dollar investment portfolio which includes large stakes in DreamWorks Animation SKG, Digeo, real estate holdings and more than 40 other technology, media and content companies.

Allen was recently invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS).

Allen also owns three professional sports teams, the Seattle Seahawks of the National Football League, the Portland Trail Blazers of the National Basketball Association, and the future Seattle soccer franchise in Major League Soccer that will begin playing in the 2009 season.

In 2007, Allen was listed among Time Magazine's 100 Most Influential People in The World.

He currently resides in Mercer Island, Washington.

[edit] Early years

Paul Gardner Allen was born in Seattle, Washington, to parents Kenneth S. Allen, an associate director of the University of Washington libraries, and Faye G. Allen, in January 21, 1953. Allen attended Lakeside School, a private school in Seattle, and befriended Gates, who was two years his junior but shared a common enthusiasm for computers. Allen was a model student in his years at Lakeside School. They used Lakeside's teletype terminal to develop their programming skills on several time-sharing computer systems. After graduation Allen attended Washington State University and was an active member in Phi Kappa Theta Fraternity. He dropped out after two years in order to work as a programmer for Honeywell in Boston, which placed him near his old friend again. There Allen later convinced Gates to drop out of Harvard University in order to create Microsoft.

[edit] Microsoft

For more information, see History of Microsoft

With Bill Gates, he co-founded Microsoft (initially "Micro-Soft") in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in 1975, and began selling a BASIC programming language interpreter. In 1980, Allen spearheaded a deal for Microsoft to buy an operating system called 86-DOS (QDOS) for $50,000. Due to IBM deadlines, Gates and Allen felt that they didn't have enough time to develop an operating system from scratch; they therefore purchased the fully functional QDOS and reworked the code to fit IBM's needs. Microsoft won a contract to supply the finished program for use as the operating system of IBM's new PC. This became a foundation of Microsoft's growth.

In 1983 Allen was diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease. Before resigning from Microsoft to pursue medical treatment, it is alleged that Allen overheard a discussion between Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer regarding Allen's health and talking about how to get Allen's shares back if he were to die.^[2] Allen himself has neither confirmed nor denied this allegation and there is no recorded evidence of the discussion. Allen's cancer was successfully treated by several months of radiation therapy and a bone marrow transplant. However, Allen did not return to Microsoft and began distancing himself from the company.

In November 2000, Allen resigned from his position on the Microsoft board but was asked to consult as a senior strategy advisor to the company's executives. He further distanced himself from Microsoft by selling 68 million shares. He still owns a reported 138 million shares.

[edit] Philanthropy

Much of Paul Allen's success has been dedicated to health and human services and toward the advancement of science and technology. The Paul G. Allen Family Foundation was established in 1986 to administer much of the giving. Through the Foundation, Allen awards approximately $30 million in grants annually. Roughly 60 percent of the Foundation's money goes to non-profit organizations in Seattle and the state of Washington and 12 percent to Portland, Oregon. The remaining 28 percent is distributed to other cities within the Pacific Northwest. Allen also contributes through other charitable projects known as "venture philanthropy". The most famous of those projects are Experience Music Project, the Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame, Allen Institute for Brain Science, located in Seattle's Fremont neighborhood at 551 N 34th Street 98102, and the Allen Telescope Array (ATA). The ATA is a partnership between the University of California, Berkeley and the SETI Institute and is the first panchromatic, wide-angle, snapshot, radio camera ever built.

Although he attended Washington State University and has donated to its music school, Allen instead chooses to mostly donate to the University of Washington. In the late 1980s, Allen donated US$18 million to build a new library named after his father, Kenneth S. Allen. In 2003 US$5 million was donated to establish the Faye G. Allen Center for Visual Arts, named after his mother. Allen also was the top private contributor (US$14 million) and namesake of the Paul G. Allen Center for Computer Science & Engineering (completed in 2004). Throughout the years, Allen has contributed millions of US dollars to the University of Washington Medical School. In 1997 the Foundation awarded US$3.2 million for prostatitis research, followed by an additional US$1.0 million grant in 2002. Most recently the Foundation contributed US$5.0 million for an early cancer-detection project by the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.

Paul Allen's total lifetime giving as of 2007 is estimated by some sources to be approximately US$900 million. Critics would point out, though, that Paul Allen is the recipient of numerous government handouts. The stadium that his Seahawks play in was paid for with US$300 million of tax payer dollars. King County (Washington state) is paying US$36 million to build a sewage treatment plant whose only customer is Paul Allen's Willows Run Golf Course. The City of Seattle is paying US$22 million to build a streetcar line to connect Paul Allen's Lake Union biotech development project to downtown Seattle. It has been reported in the media that Paul Allen's Vulcan Inc company is lobbying for road improvements in the Lake Union area that would cost Seattle as much as $200 million. If these road improvements occur, they would cause the value of Vulcan's real estate to increase, which causes critics to ask why Seattle (and not Vulcan itself) should bear the cost.

He also has a flower fly named after him for his contributions to Dipterology (see Paul Allen's flower fly).

Allen has also funded the purchase of many Jimi Hendrix artifacts (including the guitar Hendrix played at Woodstock) and ensured their public display in the Experience Music Project exhibits.

[edit] Seattle real estate investment and development efforts

Allen is a key developer and investor in the controversial development of the South Lake Union neighborhood of Seattle as a biotechnology hub and mixed-use community. Allen is the largest private landowner in South Lake Union and owns nearly 60 acres in the neighborhood. Vulcan's South Lake Union holdings have a development capacity of more than 10,000,000 square feet (930,000 m²) of new residential, office, retail and biotech research space. The South Lake Union redevelopment represents one of the largest urban revitalization projects in the country. This development has been criticized as a city-supported real estate investment for Vulcan Inc. Concerns over the loss of low-income housing are prominent. Allen has made investments estimated at US$200 million as of 2005, and has promoted for city funding of a Seattle Streetcar line from Seattle's Westlake Center to the south end of Lake Union. The Streetcar is a public and private partnership made possible because of a Local Improvement District (LID) supported by businesses and residents along the line. The Seattle Streetcar officially started operation on December 12, 2007.

[edit] Other investments

At one time, Allen's Vulcan Ventures owned TechTV, a 24-hour cable and satellite channel based in San Francisco, featuring news and shows about computers, technology, and the Internet. TechTV was eventually acquired by G4.

[edit] Sports involvement

In 1988, Allen purchased the Portland Trail Blazers NBA team from California real estate developer Larry Weinberg for $70 million, and was instrumental in the development and funding of their Rose Garden in 1993.

In 1997, Allen purchased the Seattle Seahawks NFL team when former owner Ken Behring threatened to move the Seahawks to Southern California. He played a large part in the development of the new Seahawks' stadium, Qwest Field, although it was funded largely by tax revenue. The Seahawks captured its fourth consecutive NFC West title in 2007.

Since 2006, Allen asked Portland and Oregon officials for assistance in the financing of the Blazers, which he estimated would lose $100 million over the next three years. Portland Mayor Tom Potter rebuffed the requests. On April 2, 2007 Allen announced the completion of the acquisition of the Rose Garden and at the time stated that this was a major milestone and a positive step for the franchise. “My efforts are focused on continuing to support the Trail Blazers and the long-term financial health of the franchise."

According to a 2006 issue of Forbes, the Blazers are valued at approximately $300 million.

On 27 April 2007, it was rumored that Allen may launch a takeover bid for English football club Southampton. An apparent close source said "he believes there is long term investment value in UK soccer. Southampton is a sleeping giant, a family-supported club with traditional values, and we see the value in taking the brand global."^[3] Allen has since denied those rumors and has expressed that he has no interest in making a bid for Southampton.

Allen has been confirmed as part owner of a future Major League Soccer Seattle franchise that will begin play in 2009 at Qwest Field.^[4]

Allen's new found interest in the sports world has been spotlighted by Sports Illustrated.^[5]

[edit] SpaceShipOne

Paul Allen (in sun glasses and crimson tie) and Burt Rutan (leather jacket) were presented with the Ansari X PRIZE by members of the X PRIZE Foundation in 2004.

In 2004, Allen confirmed that he was the sole investor behind Burt Rutan's Scaled Composites' SpaceShipOne suborbital commercial spacecraft. SpaceShipOne was the first privately funded effort to successfully put a civilian in suborbital space and winner of the Ansari X PRIZE competition.

[edit] Octopus

Octopus in the Beaulieu Bay in Southern France on 13 May 2005

In 2003, the launch of Paul Allen's 127 m (416 ft) Octopus secured its position as one of the world's largest yachts. Its current position is sixth in the list of motor yachts by length. Allen has two other very large yachts.

He is known for throwing huge, celebrity-studded parties on the yachts, such as a 2005 New Year's Eve party in which he and his band played Johnny Cash songs with RnB star Usher.^[6] This famous mega yacht is situated at the port of Antibes/French Côte.

[edit] Notes and references

[edit] External links

• Paul Allen
  • Paul Allen official home page
  • Vulcan Inc.
    • Vulcan website promoting South Lake Union development
  • Project Halo
  • Cinerama
  • FlipStart

• Articles
  • The World's Richest People
  • Forbes 400 listing
  • Paul Allen as senior adviser to Microsoft
  • Paul Allen and Bill Gates

• Museums
  • Experience Music Project
  • Flying Heritage Collection
  • Microcomputer Gallery
  • Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame

• Philanthropy
  • Paul G. Allen Family Foundation
  • Allen Brain Atlas A project of the Allen Institute for Brain Science

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