Can a company outlive its founder? Microsoft at 51, Apple at 50 and The Auteur Theory of Business

On April 4, 1975, Bill Gates and Paul Allen founded Microsoft, a software company destined to become a tech behemoth (and key Apple frenemy).

Perhaps the most interesting thing about Microsoft and Apple is just how similar the companies were in several ways. Gates and Steve Jobs, the CEOs who came to represent the two companies, were both born in 1955. Both later dropped out of college.

Gates and Allen created Microsoft when they saw a gap in the market following the launch of the Altair 8800 kit computer. In Silicon Valley, the Altair inspired the creation of the Homebrew Computer Club, where Jobs and Steve Wozniak first showed off the Apple-1 computer.

Source: Cult of Mac

Much more was said of Jobs’ departure signaling the end of Apple than of Gates’ departure signaling the end of Microsoft. And much more was celebrated of Apple 50 than Microsoft 50. Why is that?

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