$ cat ./records/microsoft-buys-qdos-for-about-50-000-the-bargain-that-became-ms-d-1981.txt
Microsoft Buys QDOS for About $50,000 — the Bargain That Became MS-DOS
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One of the most consequential bargains in business history underpins Microsoft's empire. When IBM needed an operating system for its 1981 PC, Microsoft — which had none of its own — quietly bought 86-DOS (nicknamed QDOS, for 'Quick and Dirty Operating System') from Seattle Computer Products, reportedly for around $50,000, then licensed it to IBM as MS-DOS while keeping the rights to sell it to other PC makers. That arrangement, driven by Bill Gates, turned MS-DOS into the standard for IBM-compatible PCs and made Microsoft's fortune. Seattle Computer Products later sued, alleging it had been misled about the IBM deal, and the two sides settled.
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Related Accomplishments
2026
Gates Foundation Trust Sells Off the Last of Its Microsoft Stock
In the first quarter of 2026, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust sold its remaining Microsoft shares, fully exiting a position in the very company that created Gates's fortune — capping a long, deliberate diversification away from the stock. The endowment that funds Gates's philanthropy, managed separately from its grant-making through Cascade, is now anchored instead by Berkshire Hathaway, Waste Management, railroads, and heavy-equipment makers. The sale underscored how thoroughly Gates's giving had decoupled from Microsoft's day-to-day fortunes.
2026
Gates's Charitable Endowment Is Now Led by Berkshire, Not Microsoft
By 2026, the publicly disclosed stock portfolio of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust — the endowment that funds Gates's philanthropy — was led not by Microsoft but by Berkshire Hathaway, Waste Management, Canadian National Railway, Caterpillar, and Deere. Decades of diversification, plus Warren Buffett's stock gifts, left it concentrated in railroads, waste, heavy equipment, and Buffett's conglomerate, while Microsoft — the source of the original fortune — had largely been sold down. The unglamorous, value-oriented mix reflects the long stewardship of Gates's money manager, Michael Larson, through Cascade Investment.
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