Following his tragic death in 2018, admirers have been asking what Paul Allen’s net worth was before his sad passing. Everyone knew that the late businessman was a billionaire but the fuss is about how many billions he amassed during his lifetime. A very industrious person who had the foresight and chased after success like it was the very air he breathed, Paul Allen was an American businessman who co-founded Microsoft alongside Bill Gates, another American business magnate in 1975.
During his lifetime, Paul Allen was involved in the creation of several business ventures and raked in so much money through the years, becoming one of the wealthiest men in the world. Apart from his businesses and investments, the mogul was also a researcher, humanitarian, and philanthropist, loved for his humanity. Allow us to tell you all about this great man and his many exploits as a businessman.
Who Was Paul Allen?
Born on January 21, 1953, Paul Allen’s full name is Paul Gardner Allen. The businessman was born in Seattle, a city in Washington, in the USA, to a father identified as Kenneth Sam Allen and a mother called Edna Faye Allen. He has a sister identified as Jody Allen, with whom he spent his early days in Seattle.
Growing up, Paul attended Lakeside School, a private school located in his hometown of Seattle. While at Lakeside School, Paul met Bill Gates and became very good friends with him after finding out that they had a mutual love and enthusiasm for computers. They immediately started researching to develop their programming skills.
According to reports, Paul and Bill used their school’s Teletype terminal to experiment and develop their programming skills on several time-sharing computer systems. A very adventurous pair, the friends also went dumpster-diving for computer program code and were so focused that no one could talk them out of the act. They were also known for using the laboratory of the Computer Science Department of the University of Washington to do some personal research on computers and try out computer programming.
After graduating from school, Paul Allen gained admission to Washington State University, after obtaining a perfect SAT score of 1600, while Bill Gates went to Harvard. However, Paul dropped out after two years in the university and Bill Gates also dropped out of Harvard. They met and continued to research on computers. Finally, in 1975, the duo co-founded Microsoft which has now become the biggest PC software company in the world. The incredible success of Microsoft made both men very rich.
Paul Allen’s Net Worth?
Paul Allen made a lot of money during his lifetime. The success of Microsoft which he co-founded with Bill Gates made him incredibly wealthy and he used the money he made to invest in other businesses which further helped to increase his wealth. So, what was Paul Allen’s net worth?
According to a report by Forbes, Paul Allen had a net worth of $20.3 billion at the time of his sad death in 2018.
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All His Businesses and Investments Over the Years
Like we have mentioned earlier on, Paul Allen invested in other businesses apart from Microsoft. In 1986, the businessman founded Vulcan Inc., a private company that is now headquartered in Seattle. The company supervises the other business activities and philanthropic efforts of Paul Allen’s estate.
During his lifetime, Paul Allen also ventured into investing in sports. In fact, he was the owner of pro sports franchises, including The Seattle Seahawks and the Portland Trail Blazers. The businessman also co-owned the Seattle Sounders soccer team.
Paul also ventured into the film production business. In fact, he had his own film production company called Vulcan Productions. The company is responsible for the production of many movies, including Far From Heaven in 2002, Girl Rising in 2013, This Emotional Life in 2013, and Unseen Enemy in 2017, among many others.
The businessman was also the founder of Stratolaunch, an American space transportation venture which was created to make it easier for people to get into space. Paul Allen founded the company in 2011 and shortly after, he was part of the team that launched SpaceShipOne, the first privately-owned craft to enter suborbital space.
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Paul Allen also ventured into real estate during his lifetime; his company now owns a multi-billion dollar real estate portfolio with properties scattered around the USA. He also invested in different companies including Flipkart, Spotify, Redfin, Uber, TrueCar, Waterpik, and others.
Apart from his businesses, Paul Allen was also into philanthropy and spent a large chunk of his money on causes that made life easier for people in less privileged countries. In fact, according to Forbes, Paul gave out a whopping $2.6 billion of his fortune to charities over his lifetime.
