Final answer:
While the precise words of Bill Gates are not provided, Microsoft's history suggests Bill Gates might believe in survival through innovation, strategic business moves, and legal navigation.
Step-by-step explanation:
The specifics of what Bill Gates said in 1980 regarding how a company survives are not provided in the question or the reference material. However, looking at the history and practices of Microsoft, it can be inferred that Bill Gates believed that a company survives through innovation, adaptation, and sometimes aggressive business strategies. Microsoft's history includes a significant legal challenge in April 2000 when the federal court deemed Microsoft's behavior as unfair competition and initially suggested that the company be split into two. After the penalty was overturned, the company agreed to end restrictive practices in November 2002. These actions demonstrate how companies must navigate legal and ethical boundaries while pursuing growth and survival. Competition and the need to adapt were further highlighted by the development of open-source operating systems like Linux, which posed a challenge to companies like Microsoft that depended on proprietary software for revenue. The emergence of Linux changed the high-tech economic landscape by providing freely available, customizable alternatives to commercial software, thereby increasing competition and pushing companies to innovate and adapt their business models.