Okay, okay... if you want to prove it, visit
http://www.msn.com, and check out Apple's stock history for 1997 (Symbol AAPL, 10-year view). I believe that the announcement was made late in the year, when Apple's stock was around $3-5. At this rate, with only $150 million dollars, they could only have purchased a small percentage of Apple's 130 million stocks, (according to their 1998 SEC filings available on Apple's website) At $4.75 per share, they could have only purchased 31.5 million shares, meaning that they owned 24%ish, if they were even voting shares. At $3 per share, they would have owned 50 million shares. Still not half.
While they may have been the majority stock holder, Gates never owned 51% of Apple. I hope these rumors are put to bed now.