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Paul Allen

 
Paul Allen

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Paul Allen



 
 
Paul Gardner Allen (born January 21, 1953) is an American computer programmer and entrepreneur who co-founded Microsoft
Microsoft

Microsoft Corporation is a multinational corporation computer technology corporation that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of computer software products for computing devices....
 with Bill Gates
Bill Gates

William Henry "Bill" Gates III is an United States business magnate, philanthropist, author, the List of the 100 wealthiest people , and chairman of the board of Microsoft, the software company he founded with Paul Allen....
. Allen regularly appears on lists of the richest people in the world. In March 2008, Forbes
Forbes

Forbes is an United States publishing and mass media company. Its flagship publication, Forbes magazine, is published bi-weekly. Its primary competitors in the national business magazine category are Fortune , which is also published bi-weekly, and Business Week....
 ranked him as the 41st richest man in the world while in September 2008, the magazine placed him 12th on its list of the richest Americans with a net worth estimated at $16 billion.

He is the founder and chairman of Vulcan Inc.
Vulcan Inc.

Vulcan Inc. is a investment company and project management company founded in 1986 by Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft, to manage his investments....
, which is his private asset management company, and is chairman of Charter Communications
Charter Communications

Charter Communications is an American company providing cable television, high-speed Internet, and telephone services to more than 5.7 million customers in 29 states....
.






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Encyclopedia


Paul Gardner Allen (born January 21, 1953) is an American computer programmer and entrepreneur who co-founded Microsoft
Microsoft

Microsoft Corporation is a multinational corporation computer technology corporation that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of computer software products for computing devices....
 with Bill Gates
Bill Gates

William Henry "Bill" Gates III is an United States business magnate, philanthropist, author, the List of the 100 wealthiest people , and chairman of the board of Microsoft, the software company he founded with Paul Allen....
. Allen regularly appears on lists of the richest people in the world. In March 2008, Forbes
Forbes

Forbes is an United States publishing and mass media company. Its flagship publication, Forbes magazine, is published bi-weekly. Its primary competitors in the national business magazine category are Fortune , which is also published bi-weekly, and Business Week....
 ranked him as the 41st richest man in the world while in September 2008, the magazine placed him 12th on its list of the richest Americans with a net worth estimated at $16 billion.

He is the founder and chairman of Vulcan Inc.
Vulcan Inc.

Vulcan Inc. is a investment company and project management company founded in 1986 by Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft, to manage his investments....
, which is his private asset management company, and is chairman of Charter Communications
Charter Communications

Charter Communications is an American company providing cable television, high-speed Internet, and telephone services to more than 5.7 million customers in 29 states....
. Allen also has a multibillion dollar investment portfolio which includes stakes in Digeo, real estate holdings, and more than 40 other technology, media, and content companies. Allen also owns three professional sports teams: the Seattle Seahawks
Seattle Seahawks

The Seattle Seahawks are a professional American football team based in Seattle, Washington, USA. They are currently members of the NFC West of the National Football Conference in the National Football League ....
 of the National Football League
National Football League

The National Football League is the Major North American professional sports leagues American football Sports league in the United States. It is an unincorporated 501#501.28c.29.286.29 association controlled by its members....
, the Portland Trail Blazers
Portland Trail Blazers

The Portland Trail Blazers, commonly known as the Blazers, are an American professional basketball team based in Portland, Oregon, Oregon....
 of the National Basketball Association
National Basketball Association

The National Basketball Association is North America's premier professional men's basketball league, composed of thirty teams: twenty-nine in the United States and one in Canada....
, and the Seattle Sounders FC
Seattle Sounders FC

Seattle Sounders FC is a professional football club based in Seattle, Washington that will begin play in Major League Soccer in 2009. The team will play its home games at Qwest Field....
 franchise in Major League Soccer
Major League Soccer

Major League Soccer is the top-flight professional soccer league based in the United States, overseen by the United States Soccer Federation. The league is comprised of 15 teams, 14 in the U.S....
 that will begin playing in the 2009 season.

Biography


Early years

Paul Gardner Allen was born in Seattle, Washington
Seattle, Washington

Seattle is the most populous city in the US state of Washington and the Northwestern United States. The encompassing Seattle metropolitan area is the 15th largest in the United States, and the largest in the Pacific Northwest....
, to parents Kenneth S. Allen, an associate director of the University of Washington
University of Washington

University of Washington, founded in 1861, is a public research university in Seattle, Washington, Washington, United States. Also known as Washington and locally as UW or the U, it is the largest university in the northwestern United States and the oldest public university on the west coast....
 libraries, and Faye G. Allen, in January 21, 1953. Allen attended Lakeside School
Lakeside School

The Lakeside School is a private school in Seattle, Washington, USA, for grades 5?12.Lakeside regularly sends approximately 25% of its graduating class to Ivy League schools, and 99% to college....
, a private school in Seattle, and befriended Bill Gates
Bill Gates

William Henry "Bill" Gates III is an United States business magnate, philanthropist, author, the List of the 100 wealthiest people , and chairman of the board of Microsoft, the software company he founded with Paul Allen....
, who was two years his junior but shared a common enthusiasm for computers. They used Lakeside's teletype terminal to develop their programming skills on several time-sharing
Time-sharing

Time-sharing refers to sharing a computing resource among many users by Computer multitasking. Its introduction in the 1960s, and emergence as the prominent model of computing in the 1970s, represents a major historical shift in the history of computing....
 computer systems. After graduation Allen attended Washington State University
Washington State University

Washington State University is an American public school research university in Pullman, Washington, Washington. WSU is the state's largest Land-grant university university and offers more than 200 fields of study....
 and was an active member in Phi Kappa Theta
Phi Kappa Theta

Phi Kappa Theta is a national social Fraternities and sororities with over 50 chapters and colonies at university across the United States. "Phi Kaps", as they are commonly referred to colloquially, are known for Multiculturalism among their brothers and a dedication to Community service....
 Fraternity. He dropped out after two years in order to work as a programmer for Honeywell
Honeywell

Honeywell is a major United States multinational corporation list of conglomerates company that produces a variety of consumer products, engineering services, and aerospace systems for a wide variety of customers, from private consumers to major corporations and governments....
 in Boston
Boston, Massachusetts

Boston is the State capital and largest city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is considered the economic and cultural center of the region, and is sometimes regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England." Boston city proper had a 2007 est...
, which placed him near his old friend again. Allen later convinced Gates to drop out of Harvard University
Harvard University

Harvard University is a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Massachusetts, United States, and a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1636 by the colonial Massachusetts legislature, Harvard is the Colonial Colleges institution of higher learning in the United States....
 in order to create Microsoft.

Microsoft

Allen co-founded Microsoft (initially "Micro-Soft") with Bill Gates
Bill Gates

William Henry "Bill" Gates III is an United States business magnate, philanthropist, author, the List of the 100 wealthiest people , and chairman of the board of Microsoft, the software company he founded with Paul Allen....
 in Albuquerque, New Mexico
Albuquerque, New Mexico

Albuquerque is the largest List of cities in the United States in the US state of New Mexico, United States. It is the county seat of Bernalillo County, New Mexico and is situated in the central part of the state, straddling the Rio Grande....
, in 1975, and began marketing a BASIC
BASIC

In computer programming, BASIC is a family of high-level programming languages. The Dartmouth BASIC was designed in 1964 by John George Kemeny and Thomas Eugene Kurtz at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, United States to provide computer access to non-science students....
 programming language interpreter. In 1980, after promising to deliver IBM
IBM

International Business Machines Corporation, abbreviated IBM and nicknamed "Big Blue" , is a multinational corporation computer technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, New York, United States....
 a Disc Operating System (DOS
DOS

DOS, short for "Disk Operating System", is a shorthand term for several closely related operating systems that dominated the IBM PC compatible market between 1981 and 1995, or until about 2000 if one includes the partially DOS-based Microsoft Windows versions Windows 95, Windows 98, and Windows Me....
) they had not yet developed for the Intel 8086-based IBM PC
IBM PC

The IBM Personal Computer, commonly known as the IBM PC, is the original version and progenitor of the IBM PC compatible hardware platform ....
, Allen spearheaded a deal for Microsoft to purchase a Quick and Dirty Operating System (QDOS) written by Tim Paterson
Tim Paterson

Tim Paterson is an United States computer programmer, best known as the original author of MS-DOS, the most widely used operating system in the 1980s....
 who, at the time, was employed at Seattle Computer Products
Seattle Computer Products

Seattle Computer Products was a Seattle, Washington computer hardware company which was one of the first manufacturers of computer systems based on the Intel Intel 8086 Central processing unit....
. As a result of this transaction, Microsoft was able to secure a contract to supply the DOS that would eventually run on IBM's PC line. This contract with Big Blue
IBM

International Business Machines Corporation, abbreviated IBM and nicknamed "Big Blue" , is a multinational corporation computer technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, New York, United States....
 was the watershed in Microsoft history that led to Allen and Gates's fabulous wealth.

Allen was diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease
Hodgkin's lymphoma

Hodgkin's lymphoma, also known as Hodgkin's disease is a type of lymphoma . It was named after Thomas Hodgkin, who first described abnormalities in the lymph system in 1832....
 in 1983. His cancer was successfully treated by several months of radiation therapy
Radiation therapy

Radiation therapy is the medicine use of ionizing radiation as part of cancer oncology to control malignant cell s . Radiotherapy may be used for curative or Adjuvant chemotherapy cancer treatment....
 and a bone marrow transplant
Bone marrow transplant

Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation is the transplantation of Pluripotential hemopoietic stem cell derived from the bone marrow or blood. Stem cell transplantation is a medical procedure in the fields of hematology and oncology, most often performed for people with diseases of the blood, bone marrow, or certain types of cancer....
. However, he did not return to Microsoft and began distancing himself from the company. Allen officially resigned from his position on the Microsoft board in November 2000 but was asked to consult as a senior strategy advisor to the company's executives. He sold 68 million shares of Microsoft stock that year, but still owns a reported 138 million shares.

Recognition

In 2007 and 2008, Allen was listed among Time Magazine's 100 Most Influential People in The World
Time 100

The Time 100 is an annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world, as assembled by Time . Developed as a result of a debate among several academics, the list has developed into an annual event....
.

Paul Allen had received awards and honorary degrees from several universities. In May 1999, Washington State University bestowed its highest honor, the Regents' Distinguished Alumnus Award, upon Allen. He received a "Docteur honoris causa" from the Ecole Polytechnique D-Washington, and Seattle Seahawks CEO Tod Leiweke spoke at the event honoring Allen.

Philanthropy

Paul Allen has made significant contributions to organizations related to health and human services, and toward the advancement of science and technology. The Paul G. Allen Family Foundation
Paul G. Allen Family Foundation

The Paul G. Allen Family Foundation is a Private sector Foundation located at in Seattle, Washington. Their mission is to transform individual lives and strengthen communities by fostering innovation, creating knowledge, and promoting social progress....
 was established in 1986 to administer most of his contributions. Through the Foundation, Allen awards approximately $30 million in grants annually. Roughly 60% of the Foundation's money goes to non-profit organization
Non-profit organization

A nonprofit organization is any organization that does not aim to make a profit, and which is not a public body....
s in Seattle and the state of Washington, and 12%to Portland, Oregon
Portland, Oregon

Portland is a city located in the Northwestern United States United States, near the confluence of the Willamette River and Columbia River rivers in the state of Oregon....
. The remaining 28% is distributed to other cities within the Pacific Northwest
Pacific Northwest

The Pacific Northwest is a region in the northwest of North America . There are several partially overlapping definitions but the term Pacific Northwest should not be confused with the Northwest Territory or the Northwest Territories of Canada....
. Allen has donated US$900 million of his money, as of 2007. Allen also contributes through other charitable projects known as "venture philanthropy". The most famous of these projects are Experience Music Project
Experience Music Project

The Experience Music Project and Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame is a museum dedicated to the history and exploration of both popular music and science fiction located in Seattle, Washington....
, the Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame, the Flying Heritage Collection
Flying Heritage Collection

The Flying Heritage Collection is Paul Allen's private collection of 20th century military aviation. It is housed on the grounds of Arlington, Washington's municipal airport....
 (airworthy vintage military aircraft) and the Allen Telescope Array
Allen Telescope Array

The Allen Telescope Array , formerly known as the One Hectare Telescope , is a joint effort by the SETI Institute and the Radio Astronomy Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley to construct a radio interferometer that is dedicated to astronomical observations and a simultaneous SETI....
 (ATA). The ATA is a partnership between the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley

The University of California, Berkeley is a public university research university located in Berkeley, California, California, United States. The oldest of the ten major campuses affiliated with the University of California, Berkeley offers some 300 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in a wide range of disciplines....
 and the SETI Institute
SETI Institute

The SETI Institute is a not-for-profit organization researching the possibilities of life beyond Earth, a scientific discipline known as astrobiology....
. Allen has a flower fly named after him for his contributions to Dipterology, called Paul Allen's flower fly
Paul Allen's flower fly

Paul Allen's flower fly is a Hoverfly found only in Costa Rican forest. It was named after Paul Allen. Another fly was also named after Allen's associate Bill Gates, Bill Gates' flower fly ....
. Allen has also funded the purchase of many Jimi Hendrix
Jimi Hendrix

James Marshall Hendrix was an American guitarist, singer and songwriter whose guitar playing continues to be a considerable influence on rock music....
 artifacts, including the guitar Hendrix played at Woodstock
Woodstock Festival

Woodstock was a music festival, billed as An Aquarian Exposition, held at Max Yasgur's 600 acre dairy farm in the rural town of Bethel, New York from August 15 to August 18, 1969....
, and ensured their public display in the Experience Music Project
Experience Music Project

The Experience Music Project and Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame is a museum dedicated to the history and exploration of both popular music and science fiction located in Seattle, Washington....
 exhibits.

Although he attended Washington State University
Washington State University

Washington State University is an American public school research university in Pullman, Washington, Washington. WSU is the state's largest Land-grant university university and offers more than 200 fields of study....
 and has given money to its music school, Allen has donated more money to the University of Washington
University of Washington

University of Washington, founded in 1861, is a public research university in Seattle, Washington, Washington, United States. Also known as Washington and locally as UW or the U, it is the largest university in the northwestern United States and the oldest public university on the west coast....
. In the late 1980s, Allen donated US$18 million to build a new library named after his father, Kenneth S. Allen. US$5 million was donated in 2003 to establish the Faye G. Allen Center for Visual Arts, named after his mother. Allen was also the top private contributor, with US$14 million in donations, and namesake, of the "Paul G. Allen Center for Computer Science & Engineering", which was completed in 2003. Throughout the years, Allen has contributed millions of US dollars to the University of Washington Medical School
University of Washington Medical Center

The University of Washington Medical Center is a nationally renowned hospital located along the Montlake Cut and Portage Bay in the University District, Seattle, Washington of Seattle, Washington, USA....
. The Foundation awarded US$3.2 million for prostatitis
Prostatitis

Prostatitis is an inflammation of the prostate gland, in men. A prostatitis diagnosis is assigned at 8% of all urologist and 1% of all primary care physician visits in the United States....
 research in 1997, followed by an additional US$1.0 million grant in 2002. More recently, the Foundation contributed US$5.0 million for an early cancer-detection project by the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.

Allen founded the Allen Institute for Brain Science
Allen Institute for Brain Science

The Allen Institute for Brain Science is a Seattle-based non-profit organization that was established in 2003 with a $100 million seed donation from philanthropist and former Microsoft executive Paul Allen....
 in 2003 with Jo Allen Patton as a nonprofit corporation (501(c) (3)) and medical research organization. Utilizing the mouse model system (given its great similarity to human DNA), 20,000 genes in the adult mouse brain were mapped to a cellular level for the Allen Brain Atlas
Allen Brain Atlas

The Allen Brain Atlas is a project within the Allen Institute for Brain Science which seeks to combine genomics with neuroanatomy by creating gene expression maps for the mouse brain....
. The data generated from this effort is contained in the free and publicly available Allen Brain Atlas application located at . In 2008, the Institute also launched the Allen Spinal Cord Atlas project. All of these scientific findings will prove invaluable to international researchers working on cures for neurological and nervous system illnesses and injuries.

On July 16, 2008, Allen launched a $ 41 million online "Allen Spinal Cord
Spinal cord

The spinal cord is a long, thin, tubular bundle of neuron and glia that extends from the brain. The brain and spinal cord together make up the central nervous system....
 Atlas" mouse
Mouse

A mouse is a small animal that belongs to one of numerous species of rodents. The best known mouse species is the House Mouse . It is also a popular pet....
 gene
Gene

A gene is the basic unit of heredity in a living organism. All living things depend on genes. Genes hold the information to build and maintain their cell and pass genetic trait to offspring....
 map. Allan Jones
Allan Jones

Allan Jones was an United States actor and singer. For many years he was married to actor Irene Hervey; their son is American pop singer Jack Jones ....
, chief scientific officer, said: "The Allen Spinal Cord Atlas offers profound potential for researchers to unlock the mysteries of the spinal cord and how it is altered during disease or injury." The spinal cord atlas is set up like the Allen Institute's earlier atlas of the mouse brain. The Map could reveal new treatments for human neurological disorders. The map points researchers toward places where genes are active

On November 19, 2008, Allen appeared at the Experience Music Project/Science Fiction Hall of Fame to present the second annual Founder's Award for musical achievement. The award was presented to Robbie Robertson, a founding member of the seminal 1960s band The Band and a noted composer of film scores. Allen founded the museum in 2000. The award was presented as part of a gala benefit for EMP. The finale was a four-song set with all the evening's musicians on stage, including Allen and Robertson on guitar.

Assets

Ansari X Prize Check
Allen has made several investments since becoming a billionaire. He confirmed that he was the sole investor behind Burt Rutan
Burt Rutan

Elbert Leander "Burt" Rutan is an United States aerospace engineering noted for his originality in designing light, strong, unusual-looking, energy-efficient aircraft....
's Scaled Composites
Scaled Composites

Scaled Composites , formerly the Rutan Aircraft Factory, is an aerospace Aerospace manufacturer currently owned by Northrop Grumman that is located at the Mojave Spaceport, Mojave, California, United States and is headed by aircraft designer Burt Rutan....
' SpaceShipOne
SpaceShipOne

SpaceShipOne is a spaceplane that completed the first privately funded human spaceflight on June 21, 2004. It was developed by Scaled Composites....
 suborbital commercial spacecraft on October 4, 2004. SpaceShipOne climbed to an altitude of and was the first privately funded effort to successfully put a civilian in suborbital space. It won the Ansari X Prize
Ansari X Prize

The Ansari X PRIZE was a space competition in which the X PRIZE Foundation offered a United States dollar10,000,000 prize for the first Non-governmental organization to launch a reusable manned spaceflight into outer space twice within two weeks....
 competition and received the $10 million prize.

Real estate

Allen was a key developer and investor in the development of the South Lake Union neighborhood of Seattle as a biotechnology
Biotechnology

Biotechnology is technology based on biology, especially when used in agriculture, food science, and medicine. United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity defines biotechnology as:...
 hub and mixed-use community. He was also the largest private landowner in South Lake Union and owns nearly in the neighborhood. His holdings company has a development capacity of more than of new residential, office, retail and biotech research space. The South Lake Union redevelopment represents one of the largest urban revitalization projects in the country. Allen has made investments estimated at US$200 million as of 2005, and promoted for city funding of the Seattle Streetcar line known as South Lake Union Streetcar
South Lake Union Streetcar

The South Lake Union Streetcar is a streetcar line connecting the South Lake Union, Seattle, Washington neighborhood to Downtown Seattle, United States....
, which runs from Seattle's Westlake Center
Westlake Center

Westlake Center is a four-story shopping center and twenty-five story office tower in Downtown, Seattle, Washington, Washington, USA. The southern terminus of the Seattle Center Monorail, it is located across Pine Street from Westlake Park , between 4th and 5th Avenues....
 to the south end of Lake Union
Lake Union

Lake Union is a freshwater lake entirely within the Seattle, Washington city limits....
. The Streetcar is a public and private partnership made possible because of a Local Improvement District (LID) supported by businesses and residents along the line; it officially started operation on December 12, 2007. This development has been criticized as a city-supported real estate investment for Vulcan Inc.
Vulcan Inc.

Vulcan Inc. is a investment company and project management company founded in 1986 by Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft, to manage his investments....
, and concerns over the loss of low-income housing have been expressed.

Sports

Allen purchased the Portland Trail Blazers
Portland Trail Blazers

The Portland Trail Blazers, commonly known as the Blazers, are an American professional basketball team based in Portland, Oregon, Oregon....
 NBA
National Basketball Association

The National Basketball Association is North America's premier professional men's basketball league, composed of thirty teams: twenty-nine in the United States and one in Canada....
 team in 1988 from California real estate developer Larry Weinberg
Larry Weinberg (businessman)

Larry Weinberg is an American real estate developer who was one of the founders of the NBA's Portland Trail Blazers.In 1970, Weinberg, Herman Sarkowsky, and Robert Schmertz paid $3.7 million to secure an NBA expansion team for Portland....
 for $70 million. He was also instrumental in the development and funding of their Rose Garden in 1993. The Blazers are valued at approximately $300 million according to a 2006 issue of Forbes
Forbes

Forbes is an United States publishing and mass media company. Its flagship publication, Forbes magazine, is published bi-weekly. Its primary competitors in the national business magazine category are Fortune , which is also published bi-weekly, and Business Week....
. Allen has been asking Portland
Portland, Oregon

Portland is a city located in the Northwestern United States United States, near the confluence of the Willamette River and Columbia River rivers in the state of Oregon....
 and Oregon
Oregon

Oregon is a U.S. state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. The area was inhabited by many indigenous tribes before the arrival of traders, explorers and settlers....
 officials for assistance in the financing of the Blazers since 2006, which he estimated would lose $100 million over the next three years. Portland Mayor Tom Potter
Tom Potter

Tom Potter is the former List of mayors of Portland, Oregon of the city of Portland, Oregon, Oregon in the United States. He was elected in 2004, and left office in January 2009....
 rebuffed the requests. Allen announced the completion of the acquisition of the Rose Garden on April 2, 2007, and stated that this was a major milestone and a positive step for the franchise. He said “My efforts are focused on continuing to support the Trail Blazers and the long-term financial health of the franchise."

Allen purchased the Seattle Seahawks
Seattle Seahawks

The Seattle Seahawks are a professional American football team based in Seattle, Washington, USA. They are currently members of the NFC West of the National Football Conference in the National Football League ....
 NFL
National Football League

The National Football League is the Major North American professional sports leagues American football Sports league in the United States. It is an unincorporated 501#501.28c.29.286.29 association controlled by its members....
 team in 1997 when former owner Ken Behring
Ken Behring

Kenneth Eugene Behring is a real-estate developer, former owner of the Seattle Seahawks football team, and philanthropist....
 threatened to move the Seahawks to Southern California. Allen was allowed to buy the team despite owning the NBA's TrailBlazers since Portland, Oregon
Portland, Oregon

Portland is a city located in the Northwestern United States United States, near the confluence of the Willamette River and Columbia River rivers in the state of Oregon....
 doesn't have an NFL team. (NFL rules prohibit team owners from either outright ownership or a majority share of another sports team outside its home market if they play in the same city as another NFL team.) He played a large part in the development of the new Seahawks' stadium, Qwest Field
Qwest Field

Qwest Field is a multipurpose stadium located in Seattle, Washington, USA. It serves as the home field for the National Football League's Seattle Seahawks, and Major League Soccer's Seattle Sounders FC....
, although it was funded largely by tax revenue.

Allen has been confirmed as part owner of the Seattle Sounders FC
Seattle Sounders FC

Seattle Sounders FC is a professional football club based in Seattle, Washington that will begin play in Major League Soccer in 2009. The team will play its home games at Qwest Field....
 a future Major League Soccer
Major League Soccer

Major League Soccer is the top-flight professional soccer league based in the United States, overseen by the United States Soccer Federation. The league is comprised of 15 teams, 14 in the U.S....
 franchise that will begin play in 2009 at Qwest Field
Qwest Field

Qwest Field is a multipurpose stadium located in Seattle, Washington, USA. It serves as the home field for the National Football League's Seattle Seahawks, and Major League Soccer's Seattle Sounders FC....
, a stadium also owned by Allen. Allen has been continuously linked with the purchase of English Championship team Southampton FC.

The launch of Paul Allen's Octopus
Octopus (yacht)

Octopus is currently the world's List of motor yachts by length superyacht, owned by Paul Allen, the co-founder of Microsoft, to whom it was delivered in 2003....
 yacht secured its position as one of the world's largest yachts in 2003. Its current position is eighth in the list of motor yachts by length
List of motor yachts by length

This is a list of the world's longest motor luxury yachts in order of their length. While length closely correlates with other measures of size such as tonnage , or accommodation area, or displacement , the correspondence is not exact, and the rankings should not be taken as a definitive ranking of size....
. The yacht is equipped with its own music studio and basketball court
Basketball court

File:Timberwolves game.jpgIn basketball, the basketball court is the playing surface, consisting of a rectangular floor with baskets at either end....
.

Allen is known for throwing huge, celebrity-studded parties on his yacht, such as a 2005 New Year's Eve party in which he and his band played Johnny Cash
Johnny Cash

Johnny Cash was a Grammy Award-winning American singer-songwriter and one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century. Primarily a country music artist, his songs and sound spanned many other genres including rockabilly and rock and roll , as well as blues, folk music and Gospel music....
 songs with R&B star Usher
Usher (entertainer)

Usher Raymond IV , known simply as Usher, is an American contemporary R&B-pop music singer-songwriter and actor. He rose to fame in the 1990s, releasing the multi-platinum album My Way and 8701 ....
. His band also played at another party he hosted during the Cannes film festival
Cannes Film Festival

The Cannes Film Festival , founded in 1946, is one of the world's oldest, most influential and prestigious film festivals alongside Venice Film Festival and Berlin Film Festival....
 with Dave Stewart
Dave Stewart

Dave Stewart may refer to:* David A. Stewart , English musician and record producer best known for his work with Eurythmics* Dave Stewart , keyboardist with Egg, Hatfield & The North, National Health and Bruford....
.

External links

  • entry from the Oregon Encyclopedia