What would you do if you feel slighted by a company that gave you the riches and comfort most mortals can only dream of?

Loads upon loads of ink and pixels have been spent over the years to give a clear glimpse of how one of the world’s most successful organizations came to be. But Paul Allen, one of Microsoft’s multi-billionaires, touted to be the “Accidental Billionaire” after much of the credit was given to Bill Gates, appears to have more to his story after all.

Robert Cringely recently wrote about bits and pieces of the relationship of the brass in once-most-successful-company-in-the-universe, and believes pulled the rug from under his friend when Allen contracted Hodgkins Disease, citing one of those golden dilemmas when one feels cheated by a company that “brung” you mountains of success.

“There are hundreds of Microsoft millionaires (and even a few Microsoft billionaires) in the suburbs of Seattle. There was a time when Paul Allen, not Bill Gates, was the boss at Microsoft…”

“During one of those last long nights working to deliver DOS 2.0 in early 1983, I am told that Paul Allen heard Gates and Ballmer discussing his health and talking about how to get his Microsoft shares back if Allen were to die.

Maybe that’s just the sort of fiduciary discussion board members have to have, but it didn’t go over well with Paul Allen, who never returned to Microsoft, and over the next eight years, made huge efforts to secure his wealth from the fate of Microsoft. He sold large blocks of shares on a regular basis no matter whether the price was high or low. Then in October and November of 2000, just as he was finally leaving the Microsoft board, Allen did a series of financial transactions involving derivative securities called “collars,” that are a combination of a right to buy and a right to sell the stock at different prices such that both his upside and downside financial potential are limited. By the end of 2000, though Allen technically still owned 136 million Microsoft shares, his wealth was for practical purposes separate from that of Gates, Ballmer, and the rest of Microsoft.”

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