$ cat ./records/pen-computing-pioneer-go-corp-accused-microsoft-of-stealing-its-t-1994.txt
Pen-Computing Pioneer GO Corp. Accused Microsoft of Stealing Its Technology
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GO Corporation, founded in 1987 by Jerry Kaplan, was an early pen-computing pioneer whose PenPoint operating system collapsed amid competition from Microsoft's rival Pen Windows. In his memoir 'Startup' and in a later lawsuit, Kaplan alleged that Microsoft had obtained GO's confidential technology under the guise of a partnership and used it to build its competing product, helping doom the company. Kaplan filed an antitrust suit against Microsoft in 2005; Microsoft denied wrongdoing, and the courts ultimately dismissed the case as barred by the statute of limitations, a ruling affirmed by the Fourth Circuit in 2007. The dispute remains a frequently cited account of how Microsoft was accused of crushing smaller innovators during Gates's tenure.
Source: https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-4th-circuit/1480859.html
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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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