Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen dies at 65

October 15, 2018 12:00 am • Last Updated: October 15, 2018 6:47 pm

In this Oct. 9, 2003, file photo, Paul Allen, Microsoft co-founder for the dedication of the Paul G. Allen Center for Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Washington in Seattle. Allen, billionaire owner of the Trail Blazers and the Seattle Seahawks and Microsoft co-founder, died Monday, Oct. 15, 2018, at age 65. Earlier this month Allen said the cancer he was treated for in 2009, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, had returned. (AP Photo/John Froschauer, File)

SEATTLE (AP) — Paul Allen, who co-founded Microsoft with his childhood friend Bill Gates, has died. He was 65.

Allen's company Vulcan Inc. said in a statement that he died Monday. Earlier this month Allen said the cancer he was treated for in 2009, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, had returned.

Allen, who was an avid sports fan, owned the Portland Trail Blazers and the Seattle Seahawks

Allen and Gates founded Microsoft Corp. in 1975. Microsoft's big break came in 1980, when IBM Corp. decided to move into personal computers. IBM asked Microsoft to provide the operating system.

The decision thrust Microsoft onto the throne of technology and the two Seattle-natives became billionaires. Both later dedicated themselves to philanthropy.

Over the course several decades, Allen gave more than $2 billion to a wide range of interests, including ocean health, homelessness and advancing scientific research.

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