Business Notes Stocks

During the record-smashing Wall Street rally that started last fall, even the long-moribund technology stocks have come back to life. Since October, according to the California Technology Stock Letter, shares in its index of 30 high-tech companies have climbed about 22%. Cashing in on that market strength, Microsoft, the second-largest independent manufacturer of computer software (1985 revenues: $163 million), announced last week that it will make an initial public offering of 2.5 million shares in March. The Bellevue, Wash., company hopes to garner $16 to $19 for each share. Microsoft may serve as a bellwether of the high-tech recovery. Says Michael Murphy, editor of the California letter: "If Microsoft can successfully go public, it will probably open up the window for a lot of technology companies."

The offering will enrich Chairman William Gates, 30, the boy wonder who dropped his undergraduate studies at Harvard in 1975 to help start Microsoft, which produces best-selling business software for IBM and Apple personal computers as well as the popular computer game Flight Simulator. If the stock goes for $19, his 45% holding in Microsoft will be worth $211 million.