Paul Allen | Owner Portland Trailblazers

Paul Allen | Owner Portland Trailblazers

Paul Allen | Owner Portland Trailblazers
Paul Allen is a man of diversified interests and talent. He was born in Seattle and became friends with Bill Gates when they attended school together in Seattle. Paul was 14 and Bill was 12 at the time. Their friendship developed primarily due to their common interest in the new-age idea of home computers. After Paul dropped out of Washington State University and he convinced Bill to leave Harvard, they created Microsoft in 1975 to develop and market computer software. Their clients included Steve Job from Apple. Bill and Paul's big computer breakthrough came in 1981 when Microsoft bought the operating system Q-DOS, which under their reinvention of the system, became known as MS-DOS. Paul resigned from Microsoft in 1983 after learning he had Hodgkin's Disease, and would have to undergo a series of radiation therapy. He was only 30, but already a billionaire from the value of his Microsoft stock holdings. Since that time, Allen has turned to other projects, all in areas toward his long-term goal of a "wired world society" where all people would be online. He invested in a multitude of communications vehicles from computers to cable to entertainment, such as Dream Works, Imagine Entertainment, Charter Communications, and Oxygen Media with Oprah Winfrey.

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Paul is a big Jimi Hendrix fan and he owns the guitar that Hendrix played at Woodstock. Paul plays rhythm guitar for the Seattle band, Grown Men. He also owns one of the largest yachts in the world at 416 feet. Having never married, according to a 60 Minutes interview, he still hopes he meets someone and still wants a family.

Paul bought the Portland Trail Blazers in 1988 for $70 million. Under his ownership, the Blazers reached the NBA Finals in both 1990 and 1992, and continued their consecutive home games sell-out streak of 814 games that ended in 1995. The 2000's started off bad for the team with legal problems including several players charged with marijuana possession, one player who was convicted of staging pit bull dog fights in his house, and another player who was suspended for seven games for threatening a referee. After several dismal seasons, the Trail Blazers made the playoffs in 2009, 2010 and 2011. Allen also purchased the Seattle Seahawks in 1997 for $194 million to keep the team in the Pacific Northwest. According to Forbes, the two teams are now worth a total of about $1.3 billion.

Paul is one of the largest charitable contributors in the United States. Since 1990, the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation has given away over $400 million.

Paul lives in a large estate-compound over 9 acres on Mercer Island in Seattle with multiple buildings including his own home at 10,680 square feet, his mother's home at 11,300 square feet, a car museum, indoor pool, gym, two indoor tennis courts, concert hall, and three guest homes.

Source: virtualglobetrotting.com