Inside The Deal That Made Bill Gates $350 Million (1986)
On the 25th anniversary of the company’s IPO, Fortune presents the inside story of Microsoft’s stock issue. For six months, writer Uttal followed around a young Bill Gates, whom he dubbed the “rabid rabbit” as he prepared himself and his company for the public markets.
The King of Home Equity Fraud
Tobechi Onwuhara specialized in hitting home equity lines of credit (HELOCs), the reservoirs of cash that banks make available to homeowners. Once Onwuhara gained access to a HELOC, he could siphon out vast sums in seconds. His weapon was persuasion. It got him enough money to start building a colonnaded fortress in Nigeria; enough to gamble at the high-stakes tables in Vegas casinos all night. Even his accomplices appear not to have known how much he was really pulling down — not even his beautiful fiancée, Precious Matthews.
Mark Zuckerberg: The Temptation of Facebook’s CEO
If not for founder Mark Zuckerberg’s stubborn streak, social-media pioneer Facebook might be just another part of a giant media or tech outfit today. Instead it’s a giant on its own, with close to 500 million users, some $20 billion in market value, and millions of investors eagerly awaiting an IPO. For his new book, “The Facebook Effect: the Inside Story of the Company That Is Connecting the World,” Fortune contributor David Kirkpatrick gained unprecedented access to the company and Zuckerberg, who turns 26 this month. In this adapted excerpt, Kirkpatrick reveals Zuckerberg’s turmoil as he resisted takeover offers from a parade of moguls.
The auto bailout: How we did it
The man who led the effort gives an inside look at the bankruptcies that shook America.
