You know, it seems rather, "coincidental," to me, that during the 90's, Gates was called onto the carpet by the feds for taxes, or monopolistic tendencies, or some such thing. Anyway, the point is, what were they really up to? Considering that windows was pretty much on every computer in the world, it seems to me that whatever they accused him of, true or not, was merely a ploy to put the screws to him to gain his undivided attention and cooperation.
Something smells fishy about the whole thing to me. I suspect he was given an offer he couldn't refuse.