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.
US-Taiwan Business Council two organizations co-hosted conferences – called "Annual Joint Business Conferences" – which were held on alternate years in either Taiwan or the US. The conferences served as opportunities for high-level bilateral dialogue, and often brought United States Cabinet officers to Taiwan. This tradition ended in 2004. US-Taiwan Business Council The US-Taiwan Business Council (Traditional Chinese: 美台商業協會; Pinyin: "Měi Tái Shāngyè Xíehùi") is a membership-based, non-profit organization founded in 1976 to foster trade and business relations between the United States and Taiwan. Council members consist of private companies with business interests in Taiwan, and range in size from one-person consulting firms