Microsoft
It's one of the most iconic photos in American business.
A ragtag group of bearded weirdos assembled for a family portrait in Albuquerque.
If you see it on Facebook or LinkedIn, there's usually a question above the photo: "Would you have invested?"
It's a trick question. You're supposed to answer no – because well, look at those people – but then you learn it's a company portrait of Microsoft from 1978.
Early employee Bob Greenberg, pictured in the middle, won the free portrait after calling in a radio show and guessing the name of an assassinated president. The gang reluctantly gathered together in some of their finest attire, and an American business legend was made.
We all know what happened with the two guys in the bottom left and bottom right corners -- Bill Gates, and Paul Allen. But what about the rest, many of whom became millionaires?
With Microsoft's stock hitting an all-time high after earnings on Thursday — higher than its previous peak in 1999, at the height of the dot-com boom — we thought it would be a good time to take another look back.
This is an update of a post originally written by Jay Yarow in 2011.
Bill Gates is now giving away the billions he made from MicrosoftBusiness Insider, MicrosoftWe all know what happened with this guy. Bill Gates founded and built Microsoft from nothing into the most valuable technology company in the world. Along the way he became the richest man in the world, and is now giving is fortune away to all kinds of good causes.
Andrea Lewis became a fiction writer and freelance journalistBusiness Insider, Microsoft
Andrea Lewis was the only person at the company that was from Albuquerque. She was a technical writer for Microsoft, which meant she wrote documents explaining Microsoft's software. She left Microsoft in 1983, eventually becoming a freelance journalist and fiction writer. She co-owns the Hugo House, a literary center in Seattle.
Maria Wood sued Microsoft just 2 years laterBusiness Insider, Microsoft
Maria Wood was a book keeper for Microsoft, and married to another one of the early Microsofties in the picture. She left the company just two years later, suing it for sexual discrimination. Microsoft settled the case. After that, she vanished from the public eye, raising her children and volunteering for good causes.
Paul Allen has spent his billions on sports teams, startups, and much moreBusiness Insider, Microsoft
After Bill Gates, Paul Allen is the most famous guy in the group. Allen, the other Microsoft cofounder, is the 40th richest person in the world according to Forbes. He's the owner of the Portland Trailblazers, the Seattle Seahawks, one of the biggest yachts in the world, and much more.
Bob O'Rear went on to be a cattle rancherBusiness Insider, Microsoft
Bob O'Rear was one of the oldest employees at Microsoft. He was at NASA in Mission Control when we landed on the moon. At Microsoft he was a chief mathematician, and is credited with reworking code in DOS, and getting it onto IBM PCs. He left the company in 1983, moved back to his home state of Texas, and got into cattle ranching.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider
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