Dennis Austin, one of the co-creators of PowerPoint, a popular presentation software, passed away on September 1st at his home at the age of 76 due to lung cancer.
PowerPoint was first introduced in 1987 by Forethought, the company where Austin worked. He collaborated with Robert Gaskins, another credited co-founder, in developing the program. The software aimed to replace the use of transparent slides for content presentation through projectors, by utilizing computers for smoother data presentation. The initial version of the program was designed for Macintosh operating systems.
Within a few months, Microsoft acquired Forethought for a whopping $14 million, marking it as the company’s first major acquisition. Microsoft then released a Windows version of PowerPoint, which became a part of the Microsoft Office software suite. Since then, PowerPoint has been regarded as one of the fundamental programs in Office.
Austin led the development team for PowerPoint at Microsoft until 1996, before retiring from his role.
TLDR: Dennis Austin, co-creator of PowerPoint, a popular presentation software, passed away at the age of 76. PowerPoint was first developed by Forethought, with Austin and Robert Gaskins working together on its creation. Microsoft later acquired Forethought and integrated PowerPoint into its Office suite. Austin oversaw PowerPoint’s development at Microsoft until 1996 before retiring.
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