We grow up hearing, “If you’re so smart, why ain’t you rich?” And the corollary is, if you are that rich, you must be that smart. People want the hugely successful to deserve their wealth; it’s not in the American grain to believe in accidental zillionaires. But Paul Allen, the little-known billionaire and cofounder of Microsoft (net worth about $3.3 billion, No. 11 on the Forbes 400), may be just that.
\n\nIn the last year or so, Allen has been making sexy, high-profile investments in the infobahn/multimedia/digital-convergence marketplace. He’s this year’s (and maybe next’s) golden boy; he’s the object of a flurry of gee-whiz, behold-our-latest-captain-of-industry media attention. He's being touted as the high-tech investor cat to watch.
\n\nBut this impression of Allen may stem more from the quantities of money he holds than from the qualities he’s demonstrated as an investor. Because Allen has so much money, he contaminates technology markets, where he tends to do much of his investing.
\n\nPeople in a position to understand Allen’s investments either have deals with him, want to have deals with him, or are part of a deal he is also part of. It’s natural to be drawn to glamour, and the reflected…
Original source: https://www.wired.com/