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I learned from this (surprisingly interesting MSFT history) that Bill & Paul didn't formalize even a simple partnership between the two of them, let alone incorporate for about the first 2 years, during which time MSFT was operating and bringing in revenue.

http://www.thocp.net/companies/microsoft/microsoft_company.h...

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Maybe this is why Paul got screwed. ;-)

Net worth ▲US$13.5 billion (2010)[1]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Allen

So it'd be more like $20B if Microsoft had split the equity 50/50 instead of of 66/33. Ironically, Bill Gates's reasoning for the split was the Paul had taken a part-time job at MITS to pay the bills, but then Bill went and took a part-time job at MITS too after they formed the agreement.

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