William H. Gates Hall UW campus. The state funded the construction with $44.2 million of money from bond sales and $1.5 million of funds directly from the state, while $34.3 million came from private donations. The University of Washington stated that it was "an exceptionally large share for a public building." The state bond money would be repaid by the university's Metropolitan Tract revenues, instead of tax-supported bonds. More than 160 donors contributed to the building. William H. Gates, Sr.'s son, William Henry "Bill" Gates III, and his wife Melinda Gates, under the Gates Foundation, donated $12 million to the UW School of Law.
The Road Ahead (Bill Gates book) a "very expensive marketing technique" where a book is placed on sale in multiple countries on the same day (November 24, in this case), giving the book "an almost sure shot at the No. 1 spot on best-seller lists." "The Road Ahead" got a first printing of 850,000 books in North America and several hundred thousand overseas. It was early enough in the history of the World Wide Web that "The New York Times" thought it newsworthy to report that Gates was going to "conduct on-line forums to promote the book" and Penguin had created a "Bill Gates web site