I heard he bought MsDOS for $10,000.
IBM's lawyers told them not to own MSDOS to avoid possible liability issues if it crashes.
Actually, Microsoft paid $50,000 for MSDOS. I have never met Bill Gates personally but my wife and I have met some of the other Microsoft Founders, Steve Balmer and Paul Allen in social situations. They are smart guys obviously, but there are many smart people around. Being lucky SOBs does the most to explain their great wealth. The true innovators have typically not been the ones who become incredibly wealthy in our society.
From Wiki:
IBM awarded a contract to Microsoft in November 1980 to provide a version of the CP/M OS, which was set to be used in the upcoming IBM Personal Computer (IBM PC).[23] For this deal, Microsoft purchased a CP/M clone called 86-DOS from Seattle Computer Products, which it branded as MS-DOS, though IBM rebranded it to PC DOS.
He bought DOS for less and had Allen edit the code to run IBM PCs. They called the new DOS ‘MS-DOS’.
He and Allen used it to get an IBM contract to maintain and administer an operating system for IBM PCs. His mother introduced him, opened the door for him to meet with IBM executives to get the contract.
He and Allen actually did a good amount of work, especially Allen.
But Gates was always sneaky and untrustworthy. One had to be back in that day as all the geek punks including Jobs would steal you blind when you weren’t looking.
The problem is that all the unethical tech punks like Zuckerpunk had Wall St. wrap their paper around them to make them ‘billionaires’ without ever earning it. Then, they were controlled politically.
They are not honest, never were, never will be.
If we want honest, reasonably honest, we have to look back at the likes of Whitney, Carnegie, Edison, Tesla, Shockley, etc. and especially a whole lot of tough, independent Texans (kid you not). They spent lifetimes amassing their wealth. The punks today get wrapped up by Wall St. in less than 10 years.
Wall St. eventually goes stupid. Like Hollywood producing nauseating sequels to an original blockbuster, Wall St. finds a success story and replicates it until the public sees the bullcrap ingredients inside. That’s what we see today with the tech punks.