Microsoft company's shares reach its highest value since December 1999. In 2018, Microsoft surpassed Apple as the most valuable publicly traded company in the world after being dethroned by the tech giant in 2010. Childhood friends Bill Gates and Paul Allen sought to make a business utilizing their shared skills in computer programming. In 1972 they founded their first company, named Traf-O-Data, which sold a rudimentary computer to track and analyze automobile traffic data. While Gates enrolled at Harvard, Allen pursued a degree in computer science at Washington State University, though he later dropped out of school to work at Honeywell.
Gates Millennium Scholars Program Gates Millennium Scholars Program The Gates Millennium Scholars (GMS) Program is an academic scholarship award and program for higher education, available to high-achieving ethnic minority students in the United States. It was established in 1999 and funded by Microsoft founder Bill Gates through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Gates Millennium Scholars are provided with a full financial scholarship to attend any U.S. college or university, and are provided with leadership development opportunities, mentoring, as well as academic, financial and social support. The scholarship was started in 1999 as a result of a $1 billion grant from Microsoft founder Bill