Is Bill Gates Getting Too Powerful?

Microsoft's founder is branching out from software to global telecommunications systems

Plenty of technology wizards lie awake nights anxiously wondering what Bill Gates is up to and how to grow up to be just like him. Microsoft (fiscal 1993 revenues: $3.75 billion), the company he heads, already owns the operating systems that run most of the world's personal computers. But good computers are not enough in the age of the information superhighway. As a result, many of Gates' new rivals on this front are monitoring reports of his latest ventures, wondering if Microsoft will invade their territory. Last week, in a stunning series of moves, the tousled, 38-year-old Harvard dropout treated them...

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