ClassicPicsIn 1980, Bill Gates had dropped out of Harvard and was leading a tiny company called Microsoft that was trying to worm its way into the nascent personal computer industry.
He — and the company — soon got a giant break, in the form of IBM.
Big Blue wanted to bring a cheap personal computer to market fast. It contracted Microsoft to provide the operating system. At the time, it didn't have one to sell, but soon cobbled one together.