Well, 3 decades later it’s easy to summarize the influence that Microsoft PowerPoint has had. In fact, many were wondering if the huge investment would be worth it. Putting things into the perspective, Microsoft wasn’t a major player at the time, and PowerPoint 1.0 didn’t help much either. PowerPoint was a unicorn and it was Microsoft’s first big acquisition.īill Gates’ company wasn’t a huge player at the time – in fact, it generated just under $200m in revenue in 1986, compared to Apple’s $1.9 billion and IBM’s staggering $51.25 billion. When Microsoft acquired PowerPoint in 1987 for $14 million in cash(or around $35.63M current money), it was considered a bold move. The name of the initial company made by Gaskins and Austin was Forethought Inc. Interestingly, it was made to work on Macintosh, and some of the initial funding came from no one but Microsoft’s arch-rival Apple.

Initially named “Presented”, trademark issues led to the team picking the name “PowerPoint”.

That’s why he deeply believed personal computers would change the game. Robert Gaskins was clear that the multi-billion presentation industry was dated, and it needed a change. While the initial idea of the software came up in 1984, the program was launched 3 years later by Robert Gaskins and Dennis Austin. Source: IEEE SpectrumĮvery major application has 2 moments that are remembered – the day when it’s launched and the year it goes viral. Robert Gaskins, Co-Founder of PowerPoint.

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