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Microsoft Corporation

Logo since 2012

Building 92 on the Microsoft Redmond campus

Formerly Microsoft Consumer Products (1980–1982)
Type Public
• Nasdaq: MSFT
• Nasdaq-100 component
• DJIA component
Traded as
• S&P 100 component
• S&P 500 component

ISIN US5949181045
• Software development
• Computer hardware
• Consumer electronics
• Social networking service
Industry • Cloud computing
• Video games
• Internet
• Corporate venture capital

Predecessor Traf-O-Data
Founded April 4, 1975; 46 years ago in Albuquerque, New Mexico, U.S.
• Bill Gates
Founders • Paul Allen

One Microsoft Way

Headquarters Redmond, Washington,
U.S.
Area served Worldwide
 • Satya Nadella (Chairman and CEO)
• Brad Smith (President)
Key people
• Bill Gates (Technical Adviser)

• List of software
• Windows
• Office
• Servers
• Skype
Products • Visual Studio
• Dynamics
• Xbox
• Surface
• Mobile

• Azure
• Bing
• LinkedIn
• Yammer
• MSDN
• Office 365
• OneDrive
• [Link]
Services
• GitHub
• TechNet
• Pay
• Microsoft Store
• Windows Update
• Xbox Game Pass
• Xbox network

Revenue US$161 billion[1] (2021)

Operating income US$70 billion[1] (2021)
Net income US$60.6 billion[1] (2021)
Total assets US$301.3 billion[1] (2020)
Total equity US$118.3 billion[1] (2020)
Number of employees 182,268[2] (Q2 2021)
Divisions Xbox Game Studios
• LinkedIn
• Skype Technologies
Subsidiaries
• GitHub

Website www

This article is part of

a series about
Bill Gates
 • Awards and honors
• Philanthropy
• Political positions
• Public image
• Residence

Companies

• Traf-O-Data
• Microsoft
• BEN
• Cascade Investment
• TerraPower
• bgC3

Charitable organizations

• Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

• Match for Africa
• The Giving Pledge
• Big History Project
• Breakthrough Energy
• Mission Innovation

Writings

• "Open Letter to Hobbyists"

• The Road Ahead
• Business @ the Speed of Thought
• How to Avoid a Climate Disaster

Related

• Bill Gates' flower fly

• Codex Leicester
• Lost on the Grand Banks
• History of Microsoft
• Timeline of Microsoft

Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation which produces

computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services. Its best known
software products are the Microsoft Windows line of operating systems, the Microsoft Office suite,
and the Internet Explorer and Edge web browsers. Its flagship hardware products are the Xbox
video game consoles and the Microsoft Surface lineup of touchscreen personal computers.
Microsoft ranked No. 21 in the 2020 Fortune 500 rankings of the largest United States corporations
by total revenue;[3] it was the world's largest software maker by revenue as of 2016.[4] It is
considered one of the Big Five companies in the U.S. information technology industry, along with
Google, Apple, Amazon, and Facebook.
Microsoft (the word being a portmanteau of "microcomputer software"[5]) was founded by Bill
Gates and Paul Allen on April 4, 1975, to develop and sell BASIC interpreters for the Altair 8800. It
rose to dominate the personal computer operating system market with MS-DOS in the mid-1980s,
followed by Microsoft Windows. The company's 1986 initial public offering (IPO), and subsequent
rise in its share price, created three billionaires and an estimated 12,000 millionaires among
Microsoft employees. Since the 1990s, it has increasingly diversified from the operating system
market and has made a number of corporate acquisitions, their largest being the acquisition of
LinkedIn for $26.2 billion in December 2016,[6] followed by their acquisition of Skype
Technologies for $8.5 billion in May 2011.[7]
As of 2015, Microsoft is market-dominant in the IBM PC compatible operating system market and
the office software suite market, although it has lost the majority of the overall operating system
market to Android.[8] The company also produces a wide range of other consumer and enterprise
software for desktops, laptops, tabs, gadgets, and servers, including Internet search (with Bing), the
digital services market (through MSN), mixed reality (HoloLens), cloud computing (Azure), and
software development (Visual Studio).
Steve Ballmer replaced Gates as CEO in 2000, and later envisioned a "devices and services"
strategy.[9] This unfolded with Microsoft acquiring Danger Inc. in 2008,[10] entering the personal
computer production market for the first time in June 2012 with the launch of the Microsoft Surface
line of tablet computers, and later forming Microsoft Mobile through the acquisition of Nokia's
devices and services division. Since Satya Nadella took over as CEO in 2014, the company has
scaled back on hardware and has instead focused on cloud computing, a move that helped the
company's shares reach its highest value since December 1999.[11][12]
Earlier dethroned by Apple in 2010, in 2018 Microsoft reclaimed its position as the most valuable
publicly traded company in the world.[13] In April 2019, Microsoft reached the trillion-dollar
market cap, becoming the third U.S. public company to be valued at over $1 trillion after Apple and
Amazon respectively.[14] As of 2020, Microsoft has the third-highest global brand valuation.[15]

Contents
• 1 History
• 1.1 1972–1985: Founding
• 1.2 1985–1994: Windows and Office
• 1.3 1995–2007: Foray into the Web, Windows 95, Windows XP, and Xbox
• 1.4 2007–2011: Microsoft Azure, Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Microsoft Stores
• 1.5 2011–2014: Windows 8/8.1, Xbox One, [Link], and Surface devices
• 1.6 2014–2020: Windows 10, Microsoft Edge, HoloLens
• 1.7 2020–present: Acquisitions, Xbox Series X/S, Windows 11
• 2 Corporate affairs
 • 2.1 Board of directors
• 2.2 Chief executives
• 2.3 Financial
• 2.4 Subsidiaries
• 2.5 Marketing
• 2.6 Layoffs
• 2.7 United States government
• 3 Corporate identity
• 3.1 Corporate culture
• 3.2 Environment
• 3.3 Headquarters
• 3.4 Flagship stores
• 3.5 Logo
• 3.6 Sponsorship
• 3.7 Philanthropy
• 4 See also
• 5 References
• 6 External links

History
Further information: History of Microsoft and Timeline of Microsoft
See also: Microsoft Windows version history

1972–1985: Founding

An Altair 8800 computer (left) with the popular Model 33 ASR Teletype as terminal, paper tape
reader, and paper tape punch.

Paul Allen and Bill Gates on October 19, 1981, after signing a pivotal contract with IBM[16]:228
Childhood friends Bill Gates and Paul Allen sought to make a business using their skills in
computer programming.[17] In 1972, they founded Traf-O-Data, which sold a rudimentary
computer to track and analyze automobile traffic data. Gates enrolled at Harvard University while
Allen pursued a degree in computer science at Washington State University, though he later
dropped out to work at Honeywell.[18] The January 1975 issue of Popular Electronics featured
Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems's (MITS) Altair 8800 microcomputer,[19] which
inspired Allen to suggest that they could program a BASIC interpreter for the device. Gates called
MITS and claimed that he had a working interpreter, and MITS requested a demonstration. Allen
worked on a simulator for the Altair while Gates developed the interpreter, and it worked flawlessly
when they demonstrated it to MITS in March 1975 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. MITS agreed to
distribute it, marketing it as Altair BASIC.[16]:108, 112–114 Gates and Allen established Microsoft
on April 4, 1975, with Gates as CEO,[20] and Allen suggested the name "Micro-Soft", short for
micro-computer software.[21][22] In August 1977, the company formed an agreement with ASCII
Magazine in Japan, resulting in its first international office of ASCII Microsoft.[23] Microsoft
moved its headquarters to Bellevue, Washington, in January 1979.[20]
Microsoft entered the operating system (OS) business in 1980 with its own version of Unix called
Xenix,[24] but it was MS-DOS that solidified the company's dominance. IBM awarded a contract to
Microsoft in November 1980 to provide a version of the CP/M OS to be used in the IBM Personal
Computer (IBM PC).[25] For this deal, Microsoft purchased a CP/M clone called 86-DOS from
Seattle Computer Products which it branded as MS-DOS, although IBM rebranded it to IBM PC
DOS. Microsoft retained ownership of MS-DOS following the release of the IBM PC in August
1981. IBM had copyrighted the IBM PC BIOS, so other companies had to reverse engineer it in
order for non-IBM hardware to run as IBM PC compatibles, but no such restriction applied to the
operating systems. Microsoft eventually became the leading PC operating systems vendor.[26]
[27]:210 The company expanded into new markets with the release of the Microsoft Mouse in 1983,
as well as with a publishing division named Microsoft Press.[16]:232 Paul Allen resigned from
Microsoft in 1983 after developing Hodgkin's disease.[28] Allen claimed in Idea Man: A Memoir
by the Co-founder of Microsoft that Gates wanted to dilute his share in the company when he was
diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease because he did not think that he was working hard enough.[29]
Allen later invested in low-tech sectors, sports teams, commercial real estate, neuroscience, private
space flight, and more.[30]

1985–1994: Windows and Office

Windows 1.0 was released on November 20, 1985, as the first version of the Microsoft Windows
line
Microsoft released Microsoft Windows on November 20, 1985, as a graphical extension for MS-
DOS,[16]:242–243, 246 despite having begun jointly developing OS/2 with IBM the previous
August.[31] Microsoft moved its headquarters from Bellevue to Redmond, Washington, on
February 26, 1986, and went public on March 13,[32] with the resulting rise in stock making an
estimated four billionaires and 12,000 millionaires from Microsoft employees.[33] Microsoft
released its version of OS/2 to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) on April 2, 1987.[16] In
1990, the Federal Trade Commission examined Microsoft for possible collusion due to the
partnership with IBM, marking the beginning of more than a decade of legal clashes with the
government.[34] :243–244 Meanwhile, the company was at work on Microsoft Windows NT,
which was heavily based on their copy of the OS/2 code. It shipped on July 21, 1993, with a new
modular kernel and the 32-bit Win32 application programming interface (API), making it easier to
port from 16-bit (MS-DOS-based) Windows. Microsoft informed IBM of Windows NT, and the
OS/2 partnership deteriorated.[35]
In 1990, Microsoft introduced the Microsoft Office suite which bundled separate applications such
as Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel.[16]:301 On May 22, Microsoft launched Windows 3.0,
featuring streamlined user interface graphics and improved protected mode capability for the Intel
386 processor,[36] and both Office and Windows became dominant in their respective areas.[37]
[38]
On July 27, 1994, the Department of Justice's Antitrust Division filed a competitive impact
statement which said: "Beginning in 1988, and continuing until July 15, 1994, Microsoft induced
many OEMs to execute anti-competitive 'per processor' licenses. Under a per-processor license, an
OEM pays Microsoft a royalty for each computer it sells containing a particular microprocessor,
whether the OEM sells the computer with a Microsoft operating system or a non-Microsoft
operating system. In effect, the royalty payment to Microsoft when no Microsoft product is being
used acts as a penalty, or tax, on the OEM's use of a competing PC operating system. Since 1988,
Microsoft's use of per processor licenses has increased."[39]

1995–2007: Foray into the Web, Windows 95, Windows XP, and Xbox

In 1996, Microsoft released Windows CE, a version of the operating system meant for personal
digital assistants and other tiny computers.
Following Bill Gates' internal "Internet Tidal Wave memo" on May 26, 1995, Microsoft began to
redefine its offerings and expand its product line into computer networking and the World Wide
Web.[40] With a few exceptions of new companies, like Netscape, Microsoft was the only major
and established company that acted fast enough to be a part of the World Wide Web practically from
the start. Other companies like Borland, WordPerfect, Novell, IBM and Lotus, being much slower
to adapt to the new situation, would give Microsoft a market dominance.[41] The company released
Windows 95 on August 24, 1995, featuring pre-emptive multitasking, a completely new user
interface with a novel start button, and 32-bit compatibility; similar to NT, it provided the Win32
API.[42][43]:20 Windows 95 came bundled with the online service MSN, which was at first
intended to be a competitor to the Internet,[dubious – discuss] and (for OEMs) Internet Explorer, a
Web browser. Internet Explorer was not bundled with the retail Windows 95 boxes, because the
boxes were printed before the team finished the Web browser, and instead was included in the
Windows 95 Plus! pack.[44] Backed by a high-profile marketing campaign[45] and what The New
York Times called "the splashiest, most frenzied, most expensive introduction of a computer product
in the industry's history,"[46] Windows 95 quickly became a success.[47] Branching out into new
markets in 1996, Microsoft and General Electric's NBC unit created a new 24/7 cable news channel,
MSNBC.[48] Microsoft created Windows CE 1.0, a new OS designed for devices with low memory
and other constraints, such as personal digital assistants.[49] In October 1997, the Justice
Department filed a motion in the Federal District Court, stating that Microsoft violated an
agreement signed in 1994 and asked the court to stop the bundling of Internet Explorer with
Windows.[16]:323–324

Microsoft released the first installment in the Xbox series of consoles in 2001. The Xbox,
graphically powerful compared to its rivals, featured a standard PC's 733 MHz Intel Pentium III
processor.
On January 13, 2000, Bill Gates handed over the CEO position to Steve Ballmer, an old college
friend of Gates and employee of the company since 1980, while creating a new position for himself
as Chief Software Architect.[16]:111, 228[20] Various companies including Microsoft formed the
Trusted Computing Platform Alliance in October 1999 to (among other things) increase security and
protect intellectual property through identifying changes in hardware and software. Critics decried
the alliance as a way to enforce indiscriminate restrictions over how consumers use software, and
over how computers behave, and as a form of digital rights management: for example the scenario
where a computer is not only secured for its owner, but also secured against its owner as well.[50]
[51] On April 3, 2000, a judgment was handed down in the case of United States v. Microsoft Corp.,
[52] calling the company an "abusive monopoly."[53] Microsoft later settled with the U.S.
Department of Justice in 2004.[32] On October 25, 2001, Microsoft released Windows XP, unifying
the mainstream and NT lines of OS under the NT codebase.[54] The company released the Xbox
later that year, entering the video game console market dominated by Sony and Nintendo.[55] In
March 2004 the European Union brought antitrust legal action against the company, citing it abused
its dominance with the Windows OS, resulting in a judgment of €497 million ($613 million) and
requiring Microsoft to produce new versions of Windows XP without Windows Media Player:
Windows XP Home Edition N and Windows XP Professional N.[56][57] In November 2005, the
company's second video game console, the Xbox 360, was released. There were two versions, a
basic version for $299.99 and a deluxe version for $399.99.[58]
Increasingly present in the hardware business following Xbox, Microsoft in 2006 released the Zune
series of digital media players, a successor of its previous software platform Portable Media Center.
These expanded on previous hardware commitments from Microsoft following its original
Microsoft Mouse in 1983; as of 2007 the company sold the best-selling wired keyboard (Natural
Ergonomic Keyboard 4000), mouse (IntelliMouse), and desktop webcam (LifeCam) in the United
States. That year the company also launched the Surface "digital table", later renamed PixelSense.
[59]

2007–2011: Microsoft Azure, Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Microsoft Stores

CEO Steve Ballmer at the MIX event in 2008. In an interview about his management style in 2005,
he mentioned that his first priority was to get the people he delegates to in order. Ballmer also
emphasized the need to continue pursuing new technologies even if initial attempts fail, citing the
original attempts with Windows as an example.[60]

Headquarters of the European Commission, which has imposed several fines on Microsoft
Released in January 2007, the next version of Windows, Vista, focused on features, security and a
redesigned user interface dubbed Aero.[61][62] Microsoft Office 2007, released at the same time,
featured a "Ribbon" user interface which was a significant departure from its predecessors.
Relatively strong sales of both products helped to produce a record profit in 2007.[63] The
European Union imposed another fine of €899 million ($1.4 billion) for Microsoft's lack of
compliance with the March 2004 judgment on February 27, 2008, saying that the company charged
rivals unreasonable prices for key information about its workgroup and backoffice servers.
Microsoft stated that it was in compliance and that "these fines are about the past issues that have
been resolved".[64] 2007 also saw the creation of a multi-core unit at Microsoft, following the steps
of server companies such as Sun and IBM.[65]
Gates retired from his role as Chief Software Architect on June 27, 2008, a decision announced in
June 2006, while retaining other positions related to the company in addition to being an advisor for
the company on key projects.[66][67] Azure Services Platform, the company's entry into the cloud
computing market for Windows, launched on October 27, 2008.[68] On February 12, 2009,
Microsoft announced its intent to open a chain of Microsoft-branded retail stores, and on October
22, 2009, the first retail Microsoft Store opened in Scottsdale, Arizona; the same day Windows 7
was officially released to the public. Windows 7's focus was on refining Vista with ease-of-use
features and performance enhancements, rather than an extensive reworking of Windows.[69][70]
[71]
As the smartphone industry boomed in the late 2000s, Microsoft had struggled to keep up with its
rivals in providing a modern smartphone operating system, falling behind Apple and Google-
sponsored Android in the United States.[72] As a result, in 2010 Microsoft revamped their aging
flagship mobile operating system, Windows Mobile, replacing it with the new Windows Phone OS
that was released in October that year. It used a new user interface design language, codenamed
"Metro", which prominently used simple shapes, typography and iconography, utilizing the concept
of minimalism. Microsoft implemented a new strategy for the software industry, providing a
consistent user experience across all smartphones using the Windows Phone OS. It launched an
alliance with Nokia in 2011 and Microsoft worked closely with the company to co-develop
Windows Phone,[73] but remained partners with long-time Windows Mobile OEM HTC.[74]
Microsoft is a founding member of the Open Networking Foundation started on March 23, 2011.
Fellow founders were Google, HP Networking, Yahoo!, Verizon Communications, Deutsche
Telekom and 17 other companies. This nonprofit organization is focused on providing support for a
cloud computing initiative called Software-Defined Networking.[75] The initiative is meant to
speed innovation through simple software changes in telecommunications networks, wireless
networks, data centers and other networking areas.[76]

2011–2014: Windows 8/8.1, Xbox One, [Link], and Surface devices

Surface Pro 3, part of the Surface series of laplets by Microsoft

Following the release of Windows Phone, Microsoft undertook a gradual rebranding of its product
range throughout 2011 and 2012, with the corporation's logos, products, services and websites
adopting the principles and concepts of the Metro design language.[77] Microsoft unveiled
Windows 8, an operating system designed to power both personal computers and tablet computers,
in Taipei in June 2011.[78] A developer preview was released on September 13, which was
subsequently replaced by a consumer preview on February 29, 2012, and released to the public in
May.[79] The Surface was unveiled on June 18, becoming the first computer in the company's
history to have its hardware made by Microsoft.[80][81] On June 25, Microsoft paid US$1.2 billion
to buy the social network Yammer.[82] On July 31, they launched the [Link] webmail service
to compete with Gmail.[83] On September 4, 2012, Microsoft released Windows Server 2012.[84]
In July 2012, Microsoft sold its 50% stake in MSNBC, which it had run as a joint venture with
NBC since 1996.[85] On October 1, Microsoft announced its intention to launch a news operation,
part of a new-look MSN, with Windows 8 later in the month.[86] On October 26, 2012, Microsoft
launched Windows 8 and the Microsoft Surface.[81][87] Three days later, Windows Phone 8 was
launched.[88] To cope with the potential for an increase in demand for products and services,
Microsoft opened a number of "holiday stores" across the U.S. to complement the increasing
number of "bricks-and-mortar" Microsoft Stores that opened in 2012.[89] On March 29, 2013,
Microsoft launched a Patent Tracker.[90]
In August 2012, the New York City Police Department announced a partnership with Microsoft for
the development of the Domain Awareness System which is used for Police surveillance in New
York City.[91]

The Xbox One console, released in 2013

The Kinect, a motion-sensing input device made by Microsoft and designed as a video game
controller, first introduced in November 2010, was upgraded for the 2013 release of the Xbox One
video game console. Kinect's capabilities were revealed in May 2013: an ultra-wide 1080p camera,
function in the dark due to an infrared sensor, higher-end processing power and new software, the
ability to distinguish between fine movements (such as a thumb movement), and determining a
user's heart rate by looking at their face.[92] Microsoft filed a patent application in 2011 that
suggests that the corporation may use the Kinect camera system to monitor the behavior of
television viewers as part of a plan to make the viewing experience more interactive. On July 19,
2013, Microsoft stocks suffered their biggest one-day percentage sell-off since the year 2000, after
its fourth-quarter report raised concerns among the investors on the poor showings of both Windows
8 and the Surface tablet. Microsoft suffered a loss of more than US$32 billion.[93]
In line with the maturing PC business, in July 2013, Microsoft announced that it would reorganize
the business into four new business divisions, namely Operating System, Apps, Cloud, and Devices.
All previous divisions will be dissolved into new divisions without any workforce cuts.[94] On
September 3, 2013, Microsoft agreed to buy Nokia's mobile unit for $7 billion,[95] following Amy
Hood taking the role of CFO.[96]

2014–2020: Windows 10, Microsoft Edge, HoloLens

Satya Nadella succeeded Steve Ballmer as the CEO of Microsoft in February 2014
On February 4, 2014, Steve Ballmer stepped down as CEO of Microsoft and was succeeded by
Satya Nadella, who previously led Microsoft's Cloud and Enterprise division.[97] On the same day,
John W. Thompson took on the role of chairman, in place of Bill Gates, who continued to
participate as a technology advisor.[98] Thompson became the second chairman in Microsoft's
history.[99] On April 25, 2014, Microsoft acquired Nokia Devices and Services for $7.2 billion.
[100] This new subsidiary was renamed Microsoft Mobile Oy.[101] On September 15, 2014,
Microsoft acquired the video game development company Mojang, best known for Minecraft, for
$2.5 billion.[102] On June 8, 2017, Microsoft acquired Hexadite, an Israeli security firm, for
$100 million.[103][104]
On January 21, 2015, Microsoft announced the release of their first Interactive whiteboard,
Microsoft Surface Hub.[105] On July 29, 2015, Windows 10 was released,[106] with its server
sibling, Windows Server 2016, released in September 2016. In Q1 2015, Microsoft was the third
largest maker of mobile phones, selling 33 million units (7.2% of all). While a large majority (at
least 75%) of them do not run any version of Windows Phone— those other phones are not
categorized as smartphones by Gartner – in the same time frame 8 million Windows smartphones
(2.5% of all smartphones) were made by all manufacturers (but mostly by Microsoft).[107]
Microsoft's share of the U.S. smartphone market in January 2016 was 2.7%.[108] During the
summer of 2015 the company lost $7.6 billion related to its mobile-phone business, firing 7,800
employees.[109]
On March 1, 2016, Microsoft announced the merger of its PC and Xbox divisions, with Phil
Spencer announcing that Universal Windows Platform (UWP) apps would be the focus for
Microsoft's gaming in the future.[110] On January 24, 2017, Microsoft showcased Intune for
Education at the BETT 2017 education technology conference in London.[111] Intune for
Education is a new cloud-based application and device management service for the education
sector.[112] In May 2016, the company announced it was laying off 1,850 workers, and taking an
impairment and restructuring charge of $950 million.[109] In June 2016, Microsoft announced a
project named Microsoft Azure Information Protection. It aims to help enterprises protect their data
as it moves between servers and devices.[113] In November 2016, Microsoft joined the Linux
Foundation as a Platinum member during Microsoft's Connect(); developer event in New York.
[114] The cost of each Platinum membership is US$500,000 per year.[115] Some analysts deemed
this unthinkable ten years prior, however, as in 2001 then-CEO Steve Ballmer called Linux
"cancer".[116] Microsoft planned to launch a preview of Intune for Education "in the coming
weeks", with general availability scheduled for spring 2017, priced at $30 per device, or through
volume licensing agreements.[117]

The Nokia Lumia 1320, the Microsoft Lumia 535 and the Nokia Lumia 530, which all run on one of
the now-discontinued Windows Phone operating systems
In January 2018, Microsoft patched Windows 10 to account for CPU problems related to Intel's
Meltdown security breach. The patch led to issues with the Microsoft Azure virtual machines reliant
on Intel's CPU architecture. On January 12, Microsoft released PowerShell Core 6.0 for the macOS
and Linux operating systems.[118] In February 2018, Microsoft killed notification support for their
Windows Phone devices which effectively ended firmware updates for the discontinued devices.
[118] In March 2018, Microsoft recalled Windows 10 S to change it to a mode for the Windows
operating system rather than a separate and unique operating system. In March the company also
established guidelines that censor users of Office 365 from using profanity in private documents.
[118] In April 2018, Microsoft released the source code for Windows File Manager under the MIT
License to celebrate the program's 20th anniversary. In April the company further expressed
willingness to embrace open source initiatives by announcing Azure Sphere as its own derivative of
the Linux operating system.[118] In May 2018, Microsoft partnered with 17 American intelligence
agencies to develop cloud computing products. The project is dubbed "Azure Government" and has
ties to the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) surveillance program.[118] On June 4,
2018, Microsoft officially announced the acquisition of GitHub for $7.5 billion, a deal that closed
on October 26, 2018.[119][120] On July 10, 2018, Microsoft revealed the Surface Go platform to
the public. Later in the month it converted Microsoft Teams to gratis.[118] In August 2018,
Microsoft released two projects called Microsoft AccountGuard and Defending Democracy. It also
unveiled Snapdragon 850 compatibility for Windows 10 on the ARM architecture.[121][122][118]

Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin using a Microsoft HoloLens mixed reality headset in September
2016
In August 2018, Toyota Tsusho began a partnership with Microsoft to create fish farming tools
using the Microsoft Azure application suite for Internet of things (IoT) technologies related to water
management. Developed in part by researchers from Kindai University, the water pump
mechanisms use artificial intelligence to count the number of fish on a conveyor belt, analyze the
number of fish, and deduce the effectiveness of water flow from the data the fish provide. The
specific computer programs used in the process fall under the Azure Machine Learning and the
Azure IoT Hub platforms.[123] In September 2018, Microsoft discontinued Skype Classic.[118] On
October 10, 2018, Microsoft joined the Open Invention Network community despite holding more
than 60,000 patents.[124] In November 2018, Microsoft agreed to supply 100,000 Microsoft
HoloLens headsets to the United States military in order to "increase lethality by enhancing the
ability to detect, decide and engage before the enemy."[125] In November 2018, Microsoft
introduced Azure Multi-Factor Authentication for Microsoft Azure.[126] In December 2018,
Microsoft announced Project Mu, an open source release of the Unified Extensible Firmware
Interface (UEFI) core used in Microsoft Surface and Hyper-V products. The project promotes the
idea of Firmware as a Service.[127] In the same month, Microsoft announced the open source
implementation of Windows Forms and the Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) which will
allow for further movement of the company toward the transparent release of key frameworks used
in developing Windows desktop applications and software. December also saw the company
discontinue the Microsoft Edge project in favor of Chromium backends for their browsers.[126]
February 20, 2019 Microsoft Corp said it will offer its cyber security service AccountGuard to 12
new markets in Europe including Germany, France and Spain, to close security gaps and protect
customers in political space from hacking.[128] In February 2019, hundreds of Microsoft
employees protested the company's war profiteering from a $480 million contract to develop virtual
reality headsets for the United States Army.[129]

2020–present: Acquisitions, Xbox Series X/S, Windows 11

On March 26, 2020, Microsoft announced it was acquiring Affirmed Networks for about
$1.35 billion.[130][131] Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Microsoft closed all of its retail stores
indefinitely due to health concerns.[132] On July 22, 2020, Microsoft announced plans to close its
Mixer service, planning to move existing partners to Facebook Gaming.[133] On July 31, 2020, it
was reported that Microsoft was in talks to acquire TikTok after the Trump administration ordered
ByteDance to divest ownership of the application to the U.S.[134] On August 3, 2020, after
speculation on the deal, Donald Trump stated that Microsoft could buy the application, however it
should be completed by September 15, 2020 and that the United States Department of the Treasury
should receive a portion if it were to go through.[135] On August 5, 2020, Microsoft stopped its
xCloud game streaming test for iOS devices. According to Microsoft, the future of xCloud on iOS
remains unclear and potentially out of Microsoft's hands. Apple has imposed a strict limit on
"remote desktop clients" that means applications are only allowed to connect to a user-owned host
device or gaming console owned by the user.[136] On September 21, 2020, Microsoft announced its
intent to acquire ZeniMax Media for about $7.5 billion, with the deal expected to be occurred in the
second half of 2021 fiscal year.[137] On March 9, 2021, the acquisition was finalized and ZeniMax
Media became part of Microsoft's Xbox Game Studios division.[138]The total price of the deal was
$8.1 billion.[139] On September 22, 2020, Microsoft announced that it had an exclusive license to
use OpenAI’s GPT-3 artificial intelligence language generator.[140] The previous version of GPT-3,
called GPT-2, made headlines for being “too dangerous to release” and had numerous capabilities,
including designing websites, prescribing medication, answering questions and penning articles.
[141] On November 10, 2020, Microsoft released the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S video game
consoles.[142]
In April 2021, Microsoft said that it will buy Nuance Communications for about $16 billion in cash.
[143] In 2021, in part due to the strong quarterly earnings spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic,
Microsoft's valuation came to near $2 trillion. The increased necessity for remote work and distance
education drove up the demand for cloud-computing services and grew the company's gaming sales.
[144][145][146]
On June 24, 2021, Microsoft announced Windows 11 during a livestream. The announcement came
with confusion after Microsoft announced Windows 10 would be the last version of the operating
system. It is set to be released in Fall 2021.[147]

Corporate affairs
See also: Criticism of Microsoft; Internet censorship in China; and Embrace, extend, and extinguish

Board of directors
The company is run by a board of directors made up of mostly company outsiders, as is customary
for publicly traded companies. Members of the board of directors as of July 2020 are Satya Nadella,
Reid Hoffman, Hugh Johnston, Teri List-Stoll, Sandi Peterson, Penny Pritzker, Charles Scharf,
Arne Sorenson, John W. Stanton, John W. Thompson, Emma Walmsley and Padmasree Warrior.
[148] Board members are elected every year at the annual shareholders' meeting using a majority
vote system. There are four committees within the board that oversee more specific matters. These
committees include the Audit Committee, which handles accounting issues with the company
including auditing and reporting; the Compensation Committee, which approves compensation for
the CEO and other employees of the company; the Governance and Nominating Committee, which
handles various corporate matters including the nomination of the board; and the Regulatory and
Public Policy Committee, which includes legal/antitrust matters, along with privacy, trade, digital
safety, artificial intelligence, and environmental sustainability.[149]
On March 13, 2020, Gates announced that he is leaving the board of directors of Microsoft and
Berkshire Hathaway in order to focus more on his philanthropic efforts. According to Aaron Tilley
of The Wall Street Journal this is "marking the biggest boardroom departure in the tech industry
since the death of longtime rival and Apple Inc. co-founder Steve Jobs."[150]

Chief executives
1. Bill Gates (1975–2000)
2. Steve Ballmer (2000–2014)
3. Satya Nadella (2014–present)

Financial

Five year history graph of Nasdaq: MSFT stock on July 17, 2013[151]
When Microsoft went public and launched its initial public offering (IPO) in 1986, the opening
stock price was $21; after the trading day, the price closed at $27.75. As of July 2010, with the
company's nine stock splits, any IPO shares would be multiplied by 288; if one were to buy the IPO
today, given the splits and other factors, it would cost about 9 cents.[16]:235–236[152][153] The
stock price peaked in 1999 at around $119 ($60.928, adjusting for splits).[154] The company began
to offer a dividend on January 16, 2003, starting at eight cents per share for the fiscal year followed
by a dividend of sixteen cents per share the subsequent year, switching from yearly to quarterly
dividends in 2005 with eight cents a share per quarter and a special one-time payout of three dollars
per share for the second quarter of the fiscal year.[154][155] Though the company had subsequent
increases in dividend payouts, the price of Microsoft's stock remained steady for years.[155][156]
Standard & Poor's and Moody's Investors Service have both given a AAA rating to Microsoft,
whose assets were valued at $41 billion as compared to only $8.5 billion in unsecured debt.
Consequently, in February 2011 Microsoft released a corporate bond amounting to $2.25 billion
with relatively low borrowing rates compared to government bonds.[157] For the first time in 20
years Apple Inc. surpassed Microsoft in Q1 2011 quarterly profits and revenues due to a slowdown
in PC sales and continuing huge losses in Microsoft's Online Services Division (which contains its
search engine Bing). Microsoft profits were $5.2 billion, while Apple Inc. profits were $6 billion,
on revenues of $14.5 billion and $24.7 billion respectively.[158] Microsoft's Online Services
Division has been continuously loss-making since 2006 and in Q1 2011 it lost $726 million. This
follows a loss of $2.5 billion for the year 2010.[159]
On July 20, 2012, Microsoft posted its first quarterly loss ever, despite earning record revenues for
the quarter and fiscal year, with a net loss of $492 million due to a writedown related to the
advertising company aQuantive, which had been acquired for $6.2 billion back in 2007.[160] As of
January 2014, Microsoft's market capitalization stood at $314B,[161] making it the 8th largest
company in the world by market capitalization.[162] On November 14, 2014, Microsoft overtook
ExxonMobil to become the second most-valuable company by market capitalization, behind only
Apple Inc. Its total market value was over $410B—with the stock price hitting $50.04 a share, the
highest since early 2000.[163] In 2015, Reuters reported that Microsoft Corp had earnings abroad of
$76.4 billion which were untaxed by the Internal Revenue Service. Under U.S. law, corporations
don't pay income tax on overseas profits until the profits are brought into the United States.[164]

Revenue Net income Total Assets

Year Employees[165]
in mil. US$[165] in mil. US$[165] in mil. US$[165]
2005 39,788 12,254 70,815 61,000
2006 44,282 12,599 69,597 71,000
2007 51,122 14,065 63,171 79,000
2008 60,420 17,681 72,793 91,000
2009 58,437 14,569 77,888 93,000
2010 62,484 18,760 86,113 89,000
2011 69,943 23,150 108,704 90,000
2012 73,723 16,978 121,271 94,000
2013 77,849 21,863 142,431 99,000
2014 86,833 22,074 172,384 128,000
2015 93,580 12,193 174,472 118,000
2016 91,154 20,539 193,468 114,000
2017 96,571 25,489 250,312 124,000
2018 110,360 16,571 258,848 131,000
2019 125,843 39,240 286,556 144,106
2020 143,015 44,281 301,311 163,000
In November 2018, the company won a $480 million military contract with the U.S. government to
bring augmented reality (AR) headset technology into the weapon repertoires of American soldiers.
The two-year contract may result in follow-on orders of more than 100,000 headsets, according to
documentation describing the bidding process. One of the contract's tag lines for the augmented
reality technology seems to be its ability to enable "25 bloodless battles before the 1st battle",
suggesting that actual combat training is going to be an essential aspect of the augmented reality
headset capabilities.[166]

Subsidiaries
Microsoft is an international business. As such, it needs subsidiaries present in whatever national
markets it chooses to harvest. An example is Microsoft Canada, which it established in 1985.[167]
Other countries have similar installations, to funnel profits back up to Redmond and to distribute the
dividends to the holders of MSFT stock.

Marketing

Windows 8 Launch Event in Akihabara, Tokyo on October 25, 2012

In 2004, Microsoft commissioned research firms to do independent studies comparing the total cost
of ownership (TCO) of Windows Server 2003 to Linux; the firms concluded that companies found
Windows easier to administrate than Linux, thus those using Windows would administrate faster
resulting in lower costs for their company (i.e. lower TCO).[168] This spurred a wave of related
studies; a study by the Yankee Group concluded that upgrading from one version of Windows
Server to another costs a fraction of the switching costs from Windows Server to Linux, although
companies surveyed noted the increased security and reliability of Linux servers and concern about
being locked into using Microsoft products.[169] Another study, released by the Open Source
Development Labs, claimed that the Microsoft studies were "simply outdated and one-sided" and
their survey concluded that the TCO of Linux was lower due to Linux administrators managing
more servers on average and other reasons.[170]
As part of the "Get the Facts" campaign, Microsoft highlighted the .NET Framework trading
platform that it had developed in partnership with Accenture for the London Stock Exchange,
claiming that it provided "five nines" reliability. After suffering extended downtime and
unreliability[171][172] the London Stock Exchange announced in 2009 that it was planning to drop
its Microsoft solution and switch to a Linux-based one in 2010.[173][174]
In 2012, Microsoft hired a political pollster named Mark Penn, whom The New York Times called
"famous for bulldozing" his political opponents[175] as Executive Vice-President, Advertising and
Strategy. Penn created a series of negative advertisements targeting one of Microsoft's chief
competitors, Google. The advertisements, called "Scroogled", attempt to make the case that Google
is "screwing" consumers with search results rigged to favor Google's paid advertisers, that Gmail
violates the privacy of its users to place ad results related to the content of their emails and shopping
results, which favor Google products. Tech publications like TechCrunch have been highly critical
of the advertising campaign,[176] while Google employees have embraced it.[177]

Layoffs
Main article: Criticism of Microsoft
In July 2014, Microsoft announced plans to lay off 18,000 employees. Microsoft employed 127,104
people as of June 5, 2014, making this about a 14 percent reduction of its workforce as the biggest
Microsoft lay off ever. This included 12,500 professional and factory personnel. Previously,
Microsoft had eliminated 5,800 jobs in 2009 in line with the Great Recession of 2008–2017.[178]
[179] In September 2014, Microsoft laid off 2,100 people, including 747 people in the Seattle–
Redmond area, where the company is headquartered. The firings came as a second wave of the
layoffs that were previously announced. This brought the total number to over 15,000 out of the
18,000 expected cuts.[180] In October 2014, Microsoft revealed that it was almost done with the
elimination of 18,000 employees, which was its largest-ever layoff sweep.[181] In July 2015,
Microsoft announced another 7,800 job cuts in the next several months.[182] In May 2016,
Microsoft announced another 1,850 job cuts mostly in its Nokia mobile phone division. As a result,
the company will record an impairment and restructuring charge of approximately $950 million, of
which approximately $200 million will relate to severance payments.[183]

United States government

Main article: Criticism of Microsoft
Microsoft provides information about reported bugs in their software to intelligence agencies of the
United States government, prior to the public release of the fix. A Microsoft spokesperson has stated
that the corporation runs several programs that facilitate the sharing of such information with the
U.S. government.[184] Following media reports about PRISM, NSA's massive electronic
surveillance program, in May 2013, several technology companies were identified as participants,
including Microsoft.[185] According to leaks of said program, Microsoft joined the PRISM
program in 2007.[186] However, in June 2013, an official statement from Microsoft flatly denied
their participation in the program:
"We provide customer data only when we receive a legally binding order or subpoena to
do so, and never on a voluntary basis. In addition we only ever comply with orders for
requests about specific accounts or identifiers. If the government has a broader
voluntary national security program to gather customer data, we don't participate in
it."[187]

During the first six months in 2013, Microsoft had received requests that affected between 15,000
and 15,999 accounts.[188] In December 2013, the company made statement to further emphasize
the fact that they take their customers' privacy and data protection very seriously, even saying that
"government snooping potentially now constitutes an 'advanced persistent threat,' alongside
sophisticated malware and cyber attacks".[189] The statement also marked the beginning of three-
part program to enhance Microsoft's encryption and transparency efforts. On July 1, 2014, as part of
this program they opened the first (of many) Microsoft Transparency Center, that provides
"participating governments with the ability to review source code for our key products, assure
themselves of their software integrity, and confirm there are no "back doors."[190] Microsoft has
also argued that the United States Congress should enact strong privacy regulations to protect
consumer data.[191]
In April 2016, the company sued the U.S. government, arguing that secrecy orders were preventing
the company from disclosing warrants to customers in violation of the company's and customers'
rights. Microsoft argued that it was unconstitutional for the government to indefinitely ban
Microsoft from informing its users that the government was requesting their emails and other
documents, and that the Fourth Amendment made it so people or businesses had the right to know if
the government searches or seizes their property. On October 23, 2017, Microsoft said it would drop
the lawsuit as a result of a policy change by the United States Department of Justice (DoJ). The DoJ
had "changed data request rules on alerting the Internet users about agencies accessing their
information."

Corporate identity
Corporate culture
Technical reference for developers and articles for various Microsoft magazines such as Microsoft
Systems Journal (MSJ) are available through the Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN). MSDN
also offers subscriptions for companies and individuals, and the more expensive subscriptions
usually offer access to pre-release beta versions of Microsoft software.[192][193] In April 2004,
Microsoft launched a community site for developers and users, titled Channel 9, that provides a
wiki and an Internet forum.[194] Another community site that provides daily videocasts and other
services, [Link], launched on March 3, 2006.[195] Free technical support is traditionally
provided through online Usenet newsgroups, and CompuServe in the past, monitored by Microsoft
employees; there can be several newsgroups for a single product. Helpful people can be elected by
peers or Microsoft employees for Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) status, which
entitles them to a sort of special social status and possibilities for awards and other benefits.[196]
Noted for its internal lexicon, the expression "eating your own dog food" is used to describe the
policy of using pre-release and beta versions of products inside Microsoft in an effort to test them in
"real-world" situations.[197] This is usually shortened to just "dog food" and is used as noun, verb,
and adjective. Another bit of jargon, FYIFV or FYIV ("Fuck You, I'm [Fully] Vested"), is used by
an employee to indicate they are financially independent and can avoid work anytime they wish.
[198]
Microsoft is an outspoken opponent of the cap on H-1B visas, which allow companies in the U.S. to
employ certain foreign workers. Bill Gates claims the cap on H1B visas makes it difficult to hire
employees for the company, stating "I'd certainly get rid of the H1B cap" in 2005.[199] Critics of
H1B visas argue that relaxing the limits would result in increased unemployment for U.S. citizens
due to H1B workers working for lower salaries.[200] The Human Rights Campaign Corporate
Equality Index, a report of how progressive the organization deems company policies towards
LGBT employees, rated Microsoft as 87% from 2002 to 2004 and as 100% from 2005 to 2010 after
they allowed gender expression.[201]
In August 2018, Microsoft implemented a policy for all companies providing subcontractors to
require 12 weeks of paid parental leave to each employee. This expands on the former requirement
from 2015 requiring 15 days of paid vacation and sick leave each year.[202] In 2015, Microsoft
established its own parental leave policy to allow 12 weeks off for parental leave with an additional
8 weeks for the parent who gave birth.[203]

Environment
In 2011, Greenpeace released a report rating the top ten big brands in cloud computing on their
sources of electricity for their data centers. At the time, data centers consumed up to 2% of all
global electricity and this amount was projected to increase. Phil Radford of Greenpeace said "we
are concerned that this new explosion in electricity use could lock us into old, polluting energy
sources instead of the clean energy available today,"[204] and called on "Amazon, Microsoft and
other leaders of the information-technology industry must embrace clean energy to power their
cloud-based data centers."[205] In 2013, Microsoft agreed to buy power generated by a Texas wind
project to power one of its data centers.[206] Microsoft is ranked on the 17th place in Greenpeace's
Guide to Greener Electronics (16th Edition) that ranks 18 electronics manufacturers according to
their policies on toxic chemicals, recycling and climate change.[207] Microsoft's timeline for
phasing out brominated flame retardant (BFRs) and phthalates in all products is 2012 but its
commitment to phasing out PVC is not clear. As of January 2011, it has no products that are
completely free from PVC and BFRs.[208]
Microsoft's main U.S. campus received a silver certification from the Leadership in Energy and
Environmental Design (LEED) program in 2008, and it installed over 2,000 solar panels on top of
its buildings at its Silicon Valley campus, generating approximately 15 percent of the total energy
needed by the facilities in April 2005.[209] Microsoft makes use of alternative forms of transit. It
created one of the world's largest private bus systems, the "Connector", to transport people from
outside the company; for on-campus transportation, the "Shuttle Connect" uses a large fleet of
hybrid cars to save fuel. The company also subsidizes regional public transport, provided by Sound
Transit and King County Metro, as an incentive.[209][210] In February 2010, however, Microsoft
took a stance against adding additional public transport and high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes to
the State Route 520 and its floating bridge connecting Redmond to Seattle; the company did not
want to delay the construction any further.[211] Microsoft was ranked number 1 in the list of the
World's Best Multinational Workplaces by the Great Place to Work Institute in 2011.[212] In
January 2020, the company promised to remove from the environment all of the carbon that it has
emitted since its foundation in 1975.[213] On October 9, 2020, Microsoft made their work from
home policy permanent.[214] In January 2021, the company announced on Twitter to join the
Climate Neutral Data Centre Pact, which engages the cloud infrastructure and data centers
industries to reach climate neutrality in Europe by 2030.
Headquarters

The west campus of the Microsoft Redmond campus

The corporate headquarters, informally known as the Microsoft Redmond campus, is located at One
Microsoft Way in Redmond, Washington. Microsoft initially moved onto the grounds of the campus
on February 26, 1986, weeks before the company went public on March 13. The headquarters has
since experienced multiple expansions since its establishment. It is estimated to encompass over
8 million ft2 (750,000 m2) of office space and 30,000–40,000 employees.[215] Additional offices
are located in Bellevue and Issaquah, Washington (90,000 employees worldwide). The company is
planning to upgrade its Mountain View, California, campus on a grand scale. The company has
occupied this campus since 1981. In 2016, the company bought the 32-acre campus, with plans to
renovate and expand it by 25%.[216] Microsoft operates an East Coast headquarters in Charlotte,
North Carolina.[217]

Flagship stores

Microsoft's Toronto flagship store

On October 26, 2015, the company opened its retail location on Fifth Avenue in New York City. The
location features a five-story glass storefront and is 22,270 square feet.[218] As per company
executives, Microsoft had been on the lookout for a flagship location since 2009.[219] The
company's retail locations are part of a greater strategy to help build a connection with its
consumers. The opening of the store coincided with the launch of the Surface Book and Surface Pro
4.[220] On November 12, 2015, Microsoft opened a second flagship store, located in Sydney's Pitt
Street Mall.[221]

Logo
Microsoft adopted the so-called "Pac-Man Logo," designed by Scott Baker, in 1987. Baker stated
"The new logo, in Helvetica italic typeface, has a slash between the o and s to emphasize the "soft"
part of the name and convey motion and speed."[222] Dave Norris ran an internal joke campaign to
save the old logo, which was green, in all uppercase, and featured a fanciful letter O, nicknamed the
blibbet, but it was discarded.[223] Microsoft's logo with the tagline "Your potential. Our
passion."—below the main corporate name—is based on a slogan Microsoft used in 2008. In 2002,
the company started using the logo in the United States and eventually started a television campaign
with the slogan, changed from the previous tagline of "Where do you want to go today?"[224][225]
[226] During the private MGX (Microsoft Global Exchange) conference in 2010, Microsoft
unveiled the company's next tagline, "Be What's Next."[227] They also had a slogan/tagline
"Making it all make sense."[228]
On August 23, 2012, Microsoft unveiled a new corporate logo at the opening of its 23rd Microsoft
store in Boston, indicating the company's shift of focus from the classic style to the tile-centric
modern interface, which it uses/will use on the Windows Phone platform, Xbox 360, Windows 8
and the upcoming Office Suites.[229] The new logo also includes four squares with the colors of the
then-current Windows logo which have been used to represent Microsoft's four major products:
Windows (blue), Office (red), Xbox (green) and Bing (yellow).[230] The logo resembles the
opening of one of the commercials for Windows 95.[231][232]
• Microsoft logo history

1975–1980: First Microsoft logo, in 1975

1980–1982: Second Microsoft logo, in 1980

1982–1987: Third Microsoft logo, in 1982

 •

1987–2012: Microsoft "Pac-Man" logo, designed by Scott Baker and used from 1987 to
2012[224][225]

2012–present: Fifth Microsoft logo, introduced on August 23, 2012[233]

Sponsorship
The company was the official jersey sponsor of Finland's national basketball team at EuroBasket
2015.[234]

Philanthropy
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Microsoft's president, Brad Smith, announced that an initial batch
of supplies, including 15,000 protection goggles, infrared thermometers, medical caps, and
protective suits, were donated to Seattle, with further aid to come soon.[235]