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WEDDINGS

Bill Gates attends Swedish nuptials of pal Charles Simonyi

By John Cook on November 24, 2008 at 12:02 PM PST

Comments (10) | Permalink

Bill Gates | Microsoft Office | Microsoft

Space Adventures Ltd.

What do you do after developing Microsoft Word, traveling to outer space and living the bachelor lifestyle for 60 years? If you are Charles Simonyi, you get married.

The Medina billionaire wed 28-year-old Swedish socialite Lisa Persdotter in a ceremony in Gothenberg, Sweden this past weekend. Among the guests: Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and Rolling Stones front man Mick Jagger. (Sounds like quite the party.)

The Local provides some details on the pre-festivities, noting that security was tight at the church where the couple were to be married. It also says that Gates served as an usher, perhaps a prerequisite given that Simonyi oversaw the development of some of Microsoft's most profitable products.

Simonyi and Persdotter got engaged in St. Tropez on 08/08/08, according to the PSBJ's Patti Payne.

Simonyi had been romantically connected to Martha Stewart for years, with Payne writing that the "domestic diva" could be "singing the blues" given Simonyi's new companion.

At the very least, maybe Martha could have provided some party-planning tips.

[Via Huffington Post]

mathew said:

on November 24, 2008 at 3:19 PM

i like how billg apparently flew commercial rather than private to sweden - otherwise he wouldn't have been walking through kastrup.

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jj said:

on November 24, 2008 at 3:29 PM

I believe that Bill travels NetJets... he's in their ads now with Warren B.

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misha said:

on November 24, 2008 at 3:52 PM

Gross. Dirty old fart. She married a fat wallet.

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right place at the right time said:

on November 24, 2008 at 4:08 PM

Simonyi's a smart guy but his involvement in Office is overstated in Wikipedia.

He was the main architect behind the DOS versions of MS-Word and Multiplan, the forerunners, or more accurately distant ancestors, of what's now in Office.

Simonyi was not actively involved in making Office successful.

He was a smart guy from Xerox PARC who arguably kickstarted Microsoft's application business and was handsomely rewarded in stock options.

The father of Microsoft Office he is not.

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Mike Koss said:

on November 24, 2008 at 4:49 PM

I think Charles deserves the "father of Office" title. He lead the application development group from the earliest days and was involved in DOS (yes), Mac, and Windows versions before moving into his true passion - software engineering tools (http://go2.me/8g).

Certainly, he did not write the most code in the GUI projects - but he was a contributing developer and manager through the late 80's.

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Simonnyj (just kidding) said:

on November 24, 2008 at 7:16 PM

Check my new wife Lisa Persdotter. She is only 28 years old and looks pretty: http://pics.livejournal.com/drugoi/pic/00kbd9wp.jpg

I am still taller though when wearing my Timberlands boots.

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haggered said:

on November 25, 2008 at 11:26 AM

better him marrying her than the old used wallet he used to date

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bubulina said:

on December 7, 2008 at 6:08 AM

Quite on the contrary: it's deeply sad and contemptible that, after "using" for years his ex-girl-friend, he now dismisses her. It's very immoral!

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TheTruth said:

on December 20, 2008 at 11:37 AM

"Very" immoral? Do you mean more immoral than illegal insider trading? More immoral than treating your employees like sh!#? Maybe even more immoral than hubristic egoism?

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TheTruth said:

on December 20, 2008 at 11:37 AM

"Very" immoral? Do you mean more immoral than illegal insider trading? More immoral than treating your employees like sh!#? Maybe even more immoral than hubristic egoism?

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