Back Microsoft Afrikaans Microsoft ALS ማይክሮሶፍት Amharic Microsoft AN Microsoft ANG مايكروسوفت Arabic مايكروصوفت ARY مايكروسوفت ARZ Microsoft AST Microsoft Azerbaijani

Microsoft

Microsoft Corporation
Company typePublic
ISINUS5949181045
IndustryInformation technology
FoundedApril 4, 1975 (1975-04-04) in Albuquerque, New Mexico, U.S.
Founders
HeadquartersOne Microsoft Way,
Redmond, Washington
,
U.S.
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
Products
Brands
Services
RevenueIncrease US$245.1 billion (2024)
Increase US$109.4 billion (2024)
Increase US$88.1 billion (2024)
Total assetsIncrease US$512.1 billion (2024)
Total equityIncrease US$268.5 billion (2024)
Number of employees
228,000 (2024)
Divisions
Subsidiaries
ASN
Websitemicrosoft.com
Footnotes / references
Financials as of June 30, 2024[1]
Bill Gates in 2023 This article is part of
a series about
Bill Gates
Companies
Charitable organizations
Writings
Related

Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Redmond, Washington.[2] Its best-known software products are the Windows line of operating systems, the Microsoft 365 suite of productivity applications, the Azure cloud computing platform, and the Edge web browser. Its flagship hardware products are the Xbox video game consoles and the Microsoft Surface lineup of touchscreen personal computers. Microsoft ranked No. 14 in the 2022 Fortune 500 rankings of the largest United States corporations by total revenue;[3] and it was the world's largest software maker by revenue in 2022 according to Forbes Global 2000. It is considered one of the Big Five American information technology companies, alongside Alphabet (parent company of Google), Amazon, Apple, and Meta (parent company of Facebook).

Microsoft was founded in 1975 by Bill Gates and Paul Allen 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 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 several corporate acquisitions, the largest being the acquisition of Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion in October 2023,[4] followed by its acquisition of LinkedIn for $26.2 billion in December 2016,[5] Nuance Communications for $16 billion in March 2022,[6] and 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 market for the first time in June 2012 with the launch of the Microsoft Surface, 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 instead focused on cloud computing, a move that helped the company's shares reach their highest value since December 1999.[11][12] Under Nadella's direction, the company has also heavily expanded its gaming business to support the Xbox brand, establishing the Microsoft Gaming division in 2022, dedicated to operating Xbox in addition to its three subsidiaries (publishers). Microsoft Gaming is the third-largest gaming company in the world by revenue as of 2024.[13]

In 2018, Microsoft became the most valuable publicly traded company in the world,[14] a position it has repeatedly traded with Apple in the years since.[15] In April 2019, Microsoft reached a trillion-dollar market cap, becoming the third U.S. public company to be valued at over $1 trillion after Apple and Amazon, respectively. As of 2024, Microsoft has the third-highest global brand valuation.

Microsoft has been criticized for its monopolistic practices and the company's software has been criticized for problems with ease of use, robustness, and security.[citation needed]

Microsoft is one of only two U.S.-based companies that have a prime credit rating of AAA.[16]

Microsoft recognizes seven trade unions[α] representing 1,750 workers in the United States at its video game subsidiaries Activision Blizzard and ZeniMax Media.[17] U.S. workers have been vocal in opposing military and law-enforcement contracts with Microsoft.[18] Bethesda Game Studios is unionized in Canada.[19] Microsoft South Korea recognizes its union since 2017.[20][21] German employees have elected works councils since 1998.[22]

  1. ^ "Microsoft Corporation Form 10-K". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. July 30, 2024. pp. 8, 56, 58.
  2. ^ "Microsoft Investor Relations - FAQs". Microsoft.
  3. ^ "Fortune 500 Companies 2019: Who Made the List". Fortune. Retrieved July 1, 2022.
  4. ^ Warren, Tom (October 13, 2023). "Microsoft completes Activision Blizzard acquisition, Call of Duty now part of Xbox". The Verge. Retrieved November 1, 2023.
  5. ^ "U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission – Linkedin". US SEC. December 8, 2016. Archived from the original on October 18, 2017. Retrieved April 29, 2018. As a result of the Merger, a change in control of [Linkedin] occurred and [Linkedin] became a wholly-owned subsidiary of [Microsoft]. The transaction resulted in the payment of approximately $26.4 billion in cash merger consideration.
  6. ^ Chapman, Michelle (March 4, 2022). "Microsoft closes on $16 billion acquisition of Nuance". Associated Press.
  7. ^ "Microsoft confirms takeover of Skype". BBC. May 10, 2011. Archived from the original on June 20, 2018. Retrieved April 29, 2018.
  8. ^ Keizer, Gregg (July 14, 2014). "Microsoft gets real, admits its device share is just 14%". Computerworld. International Data Group. Archived from the original on August 21, 2016. [Microsoft's chief operating officer] Turner's 14% came from a new forecast released last week by Gartner, which estimated Windows' share of the shipped device market last year was 14% and would decrease slightly to 13.7% in 2014. [..] Android will dominate, Gartner said, with a 48% share this year
  9. ^ Blodget, Henry (August 23, 2013). "And Microsoft Is Giving Up On The Software Business!". Business Insider Australia. Archived from the original on August 2, 2017. Retrieved August 2, 2017.
  10. ^ "Notify The Next Of Kin". InformationWeek. June 30, 2010. Archived from the original on April 24, 2014. Retrieved April 24, 2014.
  11. ^ "Microsoft sees shares hit record high". BBC. October 21, 2016. Archived from the original on October 16, 2017. Retrieved October 7, 2017.
  12. ^ "Microsoft's cloud focus could mean yet more layoffs". Engadget. July 3, 2017. Archived from the original on August 2, 2017. Retrieved October 7, 2017.
  13. ^ "Microsoft to begin "doubling down" on games following acquisition of Activision, CEO says". Catherine Lewis. TechRadar. October 24, 2023. Retrieved November 17, 2022.
  14. ^ "How did Microsoft just overtake Apple as the world's most valuable company?". NBC News. Archived from the original on November 29, 2018. Retrieved November 28, 2018.
  15. ^ Marino-Nachison, David (June 12, 2024). "Apple, Microsoft Battle to Be Most Valuable U.S. Company". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved September 24, 2024.
  16. ^ "Looking to Bet On Perfect AAA Credit Ratings? Play These ETFs". Yahoo Finance. August 3, 2023.
  17. ^ Eidelson, Josh (July 24, 2024). "Microsoft's 'World of Warcraft' Gaming Staff Votes to Unionize". Bloomberg.com. Retrieved July 24, 2024.
  18. ^ Birnbaum, Emily (June 10, 2020). "Microsoft employees are pushing for change. Will it matter?". Protocol (news). Archived from the original on October 2, 2023. Retrieved June 26, 2022.
  19. ^ "Bethesda Game Studios Workers Win Labour Board Certification, Officially Join CWA Canada". CWA Canada. August 16, 2024. Archived from the original on August 16, 2024. Retrieved August 19, 2024.
  20. ^ "Microsoft Korea Workers' Union votes to strike over wages and disregard for workers' sacrifice during pandemic". UNI Global Union. Retrieved June 26, 2022.
  21. ^ Kim, Jiseon (October 17, 2017). "South Korea Oracle Establishes Its First Labor Union". ETNEWS. Retrieved June 26, 2022.
  22. ^ Richter, Isabel (September 1, 2014). "Microsoft Deutschland führt "Vertrauensarbeitsort" ein" [Microsoft Germany introduces "trusted workplace]. Microsoft Germany (in German). Retrieved September 22, 2023.


Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-greek> tags on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-greek}} template (see the help page).

Developed by StudentB