Nationality USA Name Patrick McGovern | Role Businessman | |
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Full Name Patrick Joseph McGovern, Jr. Alma mater Massachusetts Institute of Technology (B.S., Biophysics, 1959) Occupation businessman, publisher, entrepreneur Known for founding Computerworld magazine, large donation to MIT to found the McGovern Institute for Brain Research Died March 19, 2014, Palo Alto, California, United States Education Massachusetts Institute of Technology Organizations founded International Data Group, McGovern Institute for Brain Research, International Data Corporation | ||
Patrick Joseph McGovern, Jr. (August 11, 1937 – March 19, 2014) was an American businessman, known for being chairman and co-founder of International Data Group (IDG), a company that includes subsidiaries in technology publishing, research, event management and venture capital.
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He was listed on the Forbes 400 list of the richest Americans in September, 2013 as having a net worth of $5.1 billion.
Biography
Forbes magazine claims he earned a scholarship by designing an unbeatable tic-tac-toe program in the 1950s. He worked at the MIT student newspaper The Tech on the features staff during his sophomore year. McGovern received a degree in course 7, or biology/life sciences, from MIT, in 1959.
After university, his first job was a writer for Computers & Automation magazine; the first computer magazine, founded, published and edited by Edmund C. Berkeley. McGovern started International Data Corporation (IDC) in 1964, which produced a computer industry database (based on a customer list purloined from IBM) and published a newsletter, EDP Industry & Market Report (based on a newsletter, "ADP Newsletter, published by The Diebold Group. After three years, the company was losing money and McGovern contemplated liquidating it, until he hit on the idea of making the newsletter into a weekly newspaper Computerworld, in 1967. Subsequently, after failing to wrest control of "Computer and Automation" from his friend and mentor, Ed Berkeley, he started "PC World".
In 1980 he created one of the first American-Chinese joint ventures, and in 1997 Forbes estimated that "Pat McGovern has more readers in China than the People's Daily does." In 1991 his company published "DOS For Dummies", the first of the very popular "For Dummies" series of books explaining various subjects to the lay person. Bloomberg News reported that IDG had 280 million regular readers of its publications, and annual revenues of $3.6 billion.
Personal life
Although born in Queens, New York, his family moved when he was a child to Philadelphia, where he delivered newspapers at the age of eight. He has been divorced once, has four children, and divided his time between Hillsborough, California and Hollis, New Hampshire. He and his second wife Lore Harp McGovern gave MIT $350 million to found the McGovern Institute for Brain Research. He was a trustee of MIT and of MIT's Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research. He also served on Society for Science & the Public's board of trustees.
At the time of his death, surviving family members included his wife, Lore Harp McGovern, a son, Patrick McGovern, daughter Elizabeth McGovern, two stepdaughters, Michelle Bethel and Dina Jackson, and nine grandchildren.
Death
In May 2012, Patrick McGovern had open heart surgery at the Cleveland Clinic. He died on March 19, 2014, aged 76.
IDG legacy
After his death, the ownership of IDG was transferred to the McGovern Foundation; in 2016, the foundation retained Goldman Sachs to explore a sale. On March 29, China Oceanwide Holdings Group announced the close of the acquisition of International Data Group, Inc. (“IDG”).