03-09-2007, 06:07 PM
[quote pixelzombie]his wealth is only on the paper value of microshaft stock, not in actual cash...
He used to sell about $500 million of Microsoft stock every year to keep his total number of shares fairly constant. I would bet he could write a check for $1 billion without selling any of his Microsoft shares. The Gates Foundation was started as a gigantic tax dodge and he only started giving real money to charities after people like Ted Turner gave him a bad time. Back in the 1980's Microsoft cheated thousands of people and stole all its ideas from other companies. It started with buying a license for DOS for $25,000 and then re-licensing it to IBM for much more.
He used to sell about $500 million of Microsoft stock every year to keep his total number of shares fairly constant. I would bet he could write a check for $1 billion without selling any of his Microsoft shares. The Gates Foundation was started as a gigantic tax dodge and he only started giving real money to charities after people like Ted Turner gave him a bad time. Back in the 1980's Microsoft cheated thousands of people and stole all its ideas from other companies. It started with buying a license for DOS for $25,000 and then re-licensing it to IBM for much more.