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By Ron Coates, 27 September 2004 17:00

NEWS Colourful EDS founder Ross Perot is to become chairman emeritus of Perot Systems, as his son Ross Perot Jr takes over as chairman.

But Perot Sr will still take part in the business. Perot Jr said in a statement: "As our number one salesperson and an inspiration to our entire team, my father remains one of our company's most valuable assets."

Perot founded EDS in 1962 after a dispute with his then-employer IBM over commission payments that Big Blue had capped. He borrowed $1,000 from his wife and went on to build EDS into a major company which he sold to General Motors for $2.5bn in 1984, when he joined its board.

After Perot allegedly quarrelled with GM's president and the rest of the board whilst criticising the quality of the company's cars, the car giant bought out Perot's remaining stock for $700m in 1986.

But the action that really brought Perot to the attention of the American public was the revelation that in 1979 he had financed and organised a 10,000-strong jailbreak from the main jail in Teheran when the country was in the throes of revolution.

Two EDS employees were held in the prison and Perot hired a retired Special Forces Colonel to get them out. They bribed a mob to storm the prison, resulting in the release of all 10,000 prisoners, including the two EDS men.

Ken Follett wrote the book On Wings of Eagles about the exploit.

Perot went on to found Perot Systems which now has a turnover of $1.5bn and 15,000 employees. In 1995, he founded the Independence Party and the following year accepted the Reform Party nomination for US president, taking 8 per cent of the vote in the 1996 election.

He was a serious opponent of George Bush Sr. This is said to date from the time that he discovered Bush, the son of a senator from Connecticut, maintained his Texas residency simply by renting a hotel suite in Houston.

In 1984, Perot bought a copy of the Magna Carta and loaned it to the National Archives in Washington. It is the only copy that has ever been allowed to be taken permanently out of the UK.