Chairman, Vulcan Northwest (last year No. 11) NET WORTH $21
billion AGE 45 ADDRESSwww.paulallen.com BIO Paul Allen knows
what he likes, and he buys it. A 150-ft. yacht, an Impressionist
art collection, the Seattle Seahawks. But when it comes to tech,
Allen's particular taste really gets him places. After co-founding
Microsoft in 1975 and engineering such breakthrough products as
MS-DOS and Word, Allen left the company in 1983 to battle Hodgkin's
disease. Since then he has practiced an investment strategy based
on his vision of a "wired world," linking entertainment with
technology. 1998 POWER PLAY These days, like Gates, Allen is
betting on the potential of cable in the years ahead. In April
he gobbled up Marcus Cable, the nation's 10th largest cable company,
for $2.8 billion--his biggest investment to date. Also this year Allen
grabbed a stake of the Internet video-sales market with his purchase
of Hollywood Entertainment. And he took another software group
public. This time it's Asymetrix Learning Systems, maker of
products for online classes. PLACE YOUR BETS You can't invest in
Vulcan Northwest, but you can invest in Allen's ideas. His
investment strategies are already proving as prescient as his
work on a little program called Windows back in 1983. Get your
own stake in some of his picks such as reel.com, U.S. Satellite
Broadcasting and wireless-networking company Metricom.
