Dennis Austin: PowerPoint software co-creator dies at 76

Dennis Austin, who co-created the PowerPoint presentation application, breathed his last at his home in Los Altos, California on September 1, at the age of 76.

PowerPoint co-creator Dennis Austin dies. Photo Courtesy: YouTube grab



According to The Washington Post, his son, Michael Austin, said that his father was suffering from lung cancer that had spread to his brain.

He was born in Pittsburgh on May 28, 1947.

Austin studied engineering at MIT and UC Santa Barbara and joined the software company Forethought as a software developer and co-developed PowerPoint.

According to The Washington Post, the company released the software in 1987, and Microsoft bought it after a few months for $14 million.

 Austin was PowerPoint's main developer from 1985 to 1996 when he superannuated.

PowerPoint earned huge popularity and by 1993 it generated over $100 million in sales.

Microsoft integrated PowerPoint into its suite of Office programs, including Word.

The report said more than 30 million presentations are created every day on PowerPoint.

The software is used by corporate executives, business schools, professors and military generals.

Author
Sujoy Dhar
Sujoy Dhar

Sujoy Dhar is Group Editor of India Blooms News Service (IBNS), a 24x7 news portal cum wire service. A USA Today writer from India, he was formerly with Thomson Reuters and The Washington Times. He teaches journalism in several US universities.

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