Mic - ro - soft
Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology enterprise headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Among Microsoft's most well-known software products are the Edge web browser, the Windows operating system family, and the Microsoft 365 productivity application suite. Its two main hardware offerings are the Xbox video game consoles and the Microsoft Surface line of touchscreen PCs. In terms of revenue in 2022, Microsoft ranked as the world's leading software manufacturer, according to Forbes Global 2000. In the Fortune 500 list of the biggest American companies by total sales, it came in at number 14. It's considered one of the Big Five American IT companies, along with Amazon, Apple, Alphabet (the parent company of Google), and Meta (the parent company of Facebook).
In 2018, Microsoft surpassed Apple to become the most valuable publicly traded company globally; the two have been in alternating positions ever since. The market capitalization of Microsoft exceeded one trillion dollars in April 2019, making it the third publicly traded company in the US to be valued at more than $1 trillion, following Apple and Amazon. As of 2024, Microsoft is the third-ranked brand in the world.
In addition to problems with software stability, security, and usability, Microsoft has come under fire for its monopolistic practices.
Since they were young friends, Bill Gates and Paul Allen had always intended to start a business using their programming abilities. Although Allen eventually left Washington State University to seek a job with Honeywell, he continued his studies in computer science there. Gates became a student at Harvard. The Altair 8800 microprocessor was presented by Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems in the January 1975 issue of Popular Electronics. Allen suggested that they create a BASIC interpreter for it.
Gates contacted and reported having a working interpreter; MITS then wanted a demonstration. When they demonstrated it to MITS in March 1975 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, it worked flawlessly. Gates was working on the interpreter, and Allen was working on an Altair emulator.
1985-1994: Windows and Office
Although IBM and Microsoft had begun collaborating on the development of OS/2 in August, the program was initially released by Microsoft on November 20, 1985, as a graphical add-on for MS-DOS. Microsoft moved its corporate headquarters from Bellevue to Redmond, Washington, on February 26, 1986. The company went public on March 13; as a result, Microsoft employees became an estimated 12,000 millionaires and four billionaires through increases in stock value. Microsoft released their OS/2 version to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) on April 2, 1987.
The Federal Trade Commission's 1990 investigation into Microsoft for possible collusion stemming from its relationship with IBM marked the start of 10 years of legal fights with the government.: 243–244 Concurrently, the company was working on Microsoft Windows NT, primarily with their copy of the OS/2 code.
1995-2007: Foray into the Web, Windows 95, Windows XO, and Xbox
On May 26, 1995, Bill Gates released his "Internet Tidal Wave memo" internally, which caused Microsoft to reconsider its offerings and broaden its scope to encompass computer networking and the World Wide Web. With a few noteworthy exceptions, namely startup companies like Netscape, Microsoft was the only major, well-established company that moved rapidly enough to get involved in the World Wide Web nearly from the outset.
With Windows 95, the company released 32-bit compatibility, a fully revamped user interface featuring a unique start button, and preemptive multitasking on August 24, 1995. The Win32 API was also included. Although Internet Explorer was preinstalled on Windows 95 Plus, retail boxes did not contain Internet Explorer since the boxes were printed before the Web browser's development team had finished!
2007-2011:Microsoft Azure, Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Microsoft Stores
The following iteration of Windows, Vista, was released in January 2007 and prioritized security, features, and an Aero-themed user interface. Simultaneously launched Microsoft Office 2007 included a "Ribbon" user interface, a major upgrade over its predecessors. Both items saw relatively good sales in 2007, which contributed to the record profit. On February 27, 2008, the European Union levied an additional fine of €899 million ($1.4 billion) for Microsoft's noncompliance with the March 2004 ruling. The EU claimed that Microsoft had paid rivals exorbitant fees for crucial data regarding its workgroup and back office servers. Microsoft declared that "these fines are about the past issues that have been resolved" and that it was in compliance.
2014-2020: Windows 10, Microsoft Edge, and HoloLens
Satya Nadella, who had headed Microsoft's Cloud and Enterprise division, succeeded Steve Ballmer as CEO of the company on February 4, 2014. That same day, Bill Gates stepped down as chairman and was replaced by John W. Thompson, who was still involved as a technological advisor. Thompson was appointed as Microsoft's second-ever chairman. Microsoft paid $7.2 billion to acquire Nokia Devices and Services on April 25, 2014. Microsoft Mobile Oy was the new name for this new subsidiary. For $2.5 billion, Microsoft purchased Mojang, the developer behind the popular computer game Minecraft, on September 15, 2014. Microsoft paid $100 million to acquire Israeli security company Hexadite on June 8, 2017.
2020-present: Acquisitions, Xbox Series X/S, and Windows 11
Microsoft withdrew the xCloud game streaming beta program for iOS devices on August 5, 2020. It's unknown, and possibly out of Microsoft's control, what will happen to xCloud on iOS, the company claims. Application connections to "remote desktop clients" are restricted by Apple to user-owned host devices or gaming consoles. Microsoft announced on September 21, 2020, that it intended to pay approximately $7.5 billion to acquire Bethesda Softworks' parent business, ZeniMax Media, a video game firm. The transaction was anticipated to close in the second part of the fiscal year 2021.ZeniMax Media was officially acquired by Microsoft's Xbox Game Studios division on March 9, 2021. $8.1 billion was the deal's total cost.
Director's Board
As is common for publicly traded firms, the company is controlled by a board of directors composed primarily of outsiders. Satya Nadella, Reid Hoffman, Hugh Johnston, Teri List, Sandi Peterson, Penny Pritzker, Carlos Rodriguez, Charles Scharf, John W. Stanton, John W. Thompson, and Padmasree Warrior are among the board of directors members as of December 2023.
Every year at the annual shareholders' meeting, board members are chosen by a majority vote procedure. The board has four committees that are in charge of more specialized issues. The committees in charge of various corporate matters, such as board nominations, are the Governance and Nominating Committee; the Regulatory and Public Policy Committee deals with legal and antitrust issues, as well as
privacy, trade, digital safety, artificial intelligence, and environmental sustainability.
Financials
Subsidies
Microsoft is a global company. Because of this, it requires subsidiaries to be active in any national markets it choose to pursue. Microsoft Canada, which was founded in 1985, is one such. Similar installations exist in other nations, with the purpose of distributing dividends to MSFT stockholders and rerouting money back to Redmond.
Marketing
Microsoft hired independent research firms in 2004 to conduct studies comparing the total cost of ownership (TCO) of Windows Server 2003 to Linux. The firms found that businesses found Windows to be easier to administer than Linux, which led to faster administration times and lower costs for Windows-using businesses.
This sparked a wave of related research; the Yankee Group found that the cost of upgrading from one Windows Server version to another is significantly lower than the cost of switching from Windows Server to Linux, despite the fact that the surveyed companies noted Linux servers' increased security and dependability and expressed concern about being forced to use Microsoft products.
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