In the early history of the personal computer revolution, Dr. Edward Roberts is certainly a pivotal figure. In fact, he is considered the inventor of the PC.
Unfortunately, he died this week of pneumonia. He was 68.
Back in the mid 1970s, Roberts launched the MITS Altair computer. While it had limited capability, it still was a breakthrough.
Interestingly enough, it caught the attention of Bill Gates and Paul Allen (when they read an issue of Popular Electronics, which had a feature on the Altair). Perhaps there was an opportunity to develop software for this new machine?
So Gates and Allen moved to Albuquerque to be closer to MITS and started Microsoft (MSFT). The first product was called BASIC, which was a language to program computers.
While Roberts did well, he would sell MITS in 1977 and even agreed to stay out of the computer business for five years. He then went on to become a physician. It was actually his lifelong dream.
In appreciation of Roberts, Gates visited him last week at his death bed and also sent out a joint press release with Allen. In it, they say: "Ed was willing to take a chance on us -- two young guys interested in computers long before they were commonplace -- and we have always been grateful to him. The day our first untested software worked on his Altair was the start of a lot of great things. We will always have many fond memories of working with Ed."
Tom Taulli advises on business tax preparation and is also the author of a variety of books, including The Complete M&A Handbook. His website is at Taulli.com.
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