Microsoft

Type:	Publicly held
Industry:	Software
Founded:	1975
Founder(s):	Bill Gates Paul Allen
Headquarters:	Redmond, Washington
Country:	USA
Employees:	89,000 as of 7/30/10
Revenue:	$ 62.5 billion (2010)
Website:	www.microsoft.com
LinkedIn:	Microsoft
Key People
Steven Ballmer, CEO Peter S. Klein, Chief Financial Officer Kevin Turner, Chief Operating Officer

Microsoft Corporationis a multi-national company which develops, license, manufacture and support a wide range of products and services such as operating systems for personal computers, servers, intelligent devices, server applications for distributed computing, environments information worker productivity applications, business solutions applications, high performance computing applications, software development tools and video games.

Microsoft is trading at NYSE and NASDAQ under the ticker symbol "MSFT." Paul Allen and Bill Gates co-founded the company in 1975 and it is headquartered in Redmond, Washington and it has offices in more than 100 countries worldwide.

Mission

Microsoft's mission is to enable people and businesses worldwide to realize their full potential. The company is trying to achieve its objective by creating technology that transforms the way people work, play and communicate.

Company Values

The entire company value integrity, honesty, openness, personal excellence, constructive self-criticism, continual self-improvement and mutual respect. Microsoft is committed to its customers and partners with a passion for technology. Furhermore, the corporation takes big challenges and holds accountable to its customers, employees, partners and shareholders by honoring to its commitments and striving to provide results with the highest quality.

History

Company Beginnings

The idea of establishing Microsoft began in 1971 when Paul Allen found an article in an electronics magazine about Intel's 4004 chip, the world's first microprocessor. Allen thought that this microprocessor will become better and better. After a year, Intel came up with 8008. That gave Allen and Gates the idea on How Moore's Law really worked-each generation of microprocessor chip was twice as fast as the previous.They decided to buy the 8008 microprocessor which became the core of a special computer designed to do traffic volume count analysis and which they would to traffic departments. Allen and Gates formed Traf-O-Data, their first company.

In 1973, Allen read an article from a popular electronics magazine about Altair 8800, the world's first microcomputer kit. Allen and Gates took it as a big opportunity. They wrote Altair BASIC, a true programming language, and the first commercial Microsoft computer product. In 1975, the two persuaded MITS to sell Altair Basic. Allen and Gates signed their first contract with MITS as "Paul Allen & Bill Gates doing business as Micro-Soft. Allen and Gates shared the title General Partner. In 1977, Gates held the title president and Allen, vice-president. They decided to move the company headquarter from Albuquerque, New Mexico to Bellevue, Washington in 1979. Steven Ballmer joined the company the following year as first assistant to the president. His primary responsibility is to establish policies and procedures in the financial, organizational, and resource allocation areas.

In 1980, Paul Allen negotiated the purchase of an obscure operating system called Q-DOS from Seattle Computer. The two licensed Q-DOS to IBM which became the deal of the decade. This transaction paved the way for Microsoft to dominate the PC Software Industry. Microsoft developed a new operating system called MS-DOS (Microsoft Disk Operating System).

Microsoft Incorporation

On June 25, 1981 Microsoft was officially incorporated in Washington as a privately held corporation with Bill Gates as President and Chairman of the Board while Paul Allen as Executive Vice President. On August 12, 1981, IBM introduced its new Personal Computer using Microsoft's 16-bit computer operating system called MS-DOS 1.0.

In 1983, Paul Allen was diagnosed with Hodgkins disease and resigned as executive vice-president, but he remained member of the board. Jon Shirley became president of Microsoft and later assumed as CEO. Microsoft also introduced the Microsoft Mouse and Word for MS-DOS 1.00.

Initial Public Offering

On March 14, 1986, Microsoft went public and traded more than 3.58 million shares. The stock price was $21 per share during the opening day day and closed at $27.Co-founders Paul Allen and Bill Gates became instant millionaires during the offering.

In 1987, Microsoft's stocks reach $100 per share. Bill Gates wealth is worth USD 56 billion and he became the youngest self-made billionaire at the age of 31.

Product Development in 1990s

In 1990, Microsoft became the first microcomputer software company to record more than $1 billion sales in a single year and reported a revenue increase of 47%. In 1992, the company re-structured its organization and outline three centers of strategic focus on worldwide product development, worldwide sales and support, and worldwide operations.Bill Gates and Intel Corporation president, Andrew S. Grove partnered in developing the next wave in personal computing, called Digital Video Computing. The company released Windows 3.0 and 3.1 subsequently and sold 10 million copies during the first two years.The following year in 1993, Microsoft completed the Windows NT, a project which begun in the 1980s. The NT 3.1, a strategic business platform that supports high-end engineering and scientific programs in a 32-bit operating system. In 1995, the company launched the Windows 95 and sold 7 million copies within the first five weeks. It was followed by the release of other Microsofts products such as the Internet Explorer, Windows 98, Windows Me, Windows Media Player and numerous products.

Law Suits (1990s)

The U.S. Department of Justice started to investigate Microsoft Corp., regarding allegations of monopolistic practices in the PC software market. In 1997 and 1998,the US Department of Justice alleged that Microsoft violated a 1994 consent decree regarding the licensing of the Windows operating system to computer manufacturers, and violations of Section 1 and Section 2 of the Sherman Act for illegal business practices and for illegally protecting and extending the Windows software monopoly respectively.