Bill Gates - Chmn, CEO of Microsoft Corp - The Power Players

Discount Store News, Dec 4, 1995 by Pete Hisey

At Comdex in mid-November, a precursor of this technology was introduced. A new "information appliance" from a company called ViewCall Europe, a $250 set-top box with a builtin Web browser and simple remote control operation, could meet many of the needs of light computer users.

Recent articles, like the Nov. 5 cover story in The New York Times Magazine that portrayed Microsoft as an 800-lb. gorilla, indicate that competitors would love to see such a development, which would level the playing field. Competitors complain that Microsoft makes specifications available first to its own in-house developers, then to the competition. The most recent complaint is that Windows 95 disables competing connections to on-line services and the Internet.

So far, Microsoft has withstood Justice Department investigations, and Gates has noted that being successful does not mean that Microsoft has engaged in anticompetitive behavior.

Gates himself is a cipher, even to people who know him. His only real hobby appears to be reading e-mail and surfing the Net. He's currently building his first mansion outside Seattle, and at 40, recently married for the first time to a Microsoft vice president.