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NEW YORK: Microsoft Corp co-founder Paul Allen, the man who persuaded school-friend Bill Gates to drop out of Harvard to start what became the world's biggest software company, died on Monday at the age of 65, his family said.
Allen left Microsoft in 1983, before the company became a corporate juggernaut, following a dispute with Gates, but his share of their original partnership allowed him to spend the rest of his life and billions of dollars on yachts, art, rock music, sports teams, brain research and real estate.
Allen died from complications of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, a type of cancer, the Allen family said in a statement.
In early October, Allen had revealed he was being treated for the non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, which he also was treated for in 2009. He had an earlier brush with Hodgkin's lymphoma, another cancer, in the early 1980s before leaving Microsoft. Music-lover Allen had a list of high-profile friends in the entertainment business but preferred to avoid the limelight. (REUTERS)
