Microsoft Corp. co-founder Paul Allen says Bill Gates, his onetime business partner, was a"mercenary" opportunist who schemed to lessen Allen's stake in the software company. Allen, now a venture capitalist in Seattle, says in his book " Idea Man : A Memoir by the Co-Founder of Microsoft" that he learned of the plot while listening in on a conversation between Gates and Steve Ballmerin 1982, after he had been diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease. Gates is currently Microsoft chairman and Ballmer is chief executive. Allen left Microsoft in 1983.
Vanity Fair magazine on Wednesday published an excerpt of the upcoming memoir, which goes on sale April 19.
"I heard Bill and Steve speaking heatedly in Bill's office and paused outside to listen
