Microsoft Corp. Overview

Microsoft Corp.

Introduction

The Redmond, Washington, headquarters of the multinational technology company Microsoft Corporation can be found in the United States. Software for computers, consumer electronics, personal computers, and services related to them are produced by it. Some of its most well-known software products include the Windows operating system family, the Microsoft Office suite, and the Internet Explorer and Edge web browsers. Its two main hardware offerings are the Xbox gaming consoles and touchscreen personal computers in the Microsoft Surface line. As of 2019, Microsoft had the most revenue of any software company in the world; It was set at No.21 out of the 500 largest American companies by total revenue in 2020, according to the Fortune 500.

History

Bill Gates and Paul Allen, childhood friends, wanted to start a business using their computer programming skills. They launched Traf-O-Data in 1972, selling a basic computer that could track and analyze traffic data. Allen was inspired to suggest that they could program a BASIC interpreter for the Altair 8800 microcomputer that was featured in the January 1975 issue of Popular Electronics. The Altair 8800 microcomputer was manufactured by Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems (MITS).While Allen pursued a computer science degree at Washington State University, Gates enrolled at Harvard. He later quit, though, and now works for Honeywell. After Gates called and said he had a working interpreter, MITS asked for a demonstration. Allen worked on an Altair simulator while Gates worked on the interpreter. It worked perfectly when they showed it to MITS in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in March 1975.MITS agreed to distribute and market it under the name Altair BASIC. On April 4, 1975, Gates and Allen established Microsoft, with Gates serving as CEO. Allen suggested using the term “Micro-Soft,” which refers to software for microcomputers. The company established its first international office of ASCII Microsoft when it signed a contract with ASCII Magazine in Japan in August 1977.Microsoft moved its headquarters to Bellevue, Washington, in January 1979.

Microsoft released Windows on November 20, 1985, as a graphical extension for MS-DOS, despite the fact that it had begun working with IBM on OS/2 in August. Microsoft moved its headquarters from Bellevue to Redmond, Washington, on February 26, 1986.Microsoft employees became four billionaires and 12,000 millionaires when the company went public on March 13.Microsoft made its OS/2 version available to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) on April 2, 1987. In 1990, the Federal Trade Commission looked into Microsoft’s partnership with IBM for possible collusion. This marked the beginning of legal battles with the government that would last for more than a decade. The company was working on Microsoft Windows NT, which was largely based on their OS/2 code, in the interim. On July 21, 1993, it went on sale with a brand-new modular kernel and the 32-bit Win32 application programming interface (API), which made it easier to move from 16-bit (MS-DOS-based) Windows to it. Microsoft informed IBM about Windows NT, deteriorating the OS/2 partnership.

In 1990, Microsoft released the Microsoft Office suite, which included standalone applications like Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel. On May 22, Microsoft released Windows 3.0.Windows and Office quickly rose to prominence in their respective industries thanks to their simplified user interface graphics and enhanced protected mode functionality for the Intel 386 processor.

Following Bill Gates’ internal “Internet Tidal Wave memo,” Microsoft began to redefine its offerings and expand its product line in computer networking and the World Wide Web on May 26, 1995.With the exception of a few new companies like Netscape, Microsoft was the only major established company that acted quickly enough to be a part of the World Wide Web practically from the beginning. If Borland, WordPerfect, Novell, IBM, and Lotus adapted to the new situation much more slowly, Microsoft would gain market dominance. The company released Windows 95 on August 24, 1995, with 32-bit compatibility, a novel start button, a brand-new user interface, and preemptive multitasking. Similar to NT, it provided the Win32 API. Due to the fact that the Windows 95 retail boxes were printed before the Web browser was finished, Internet Explorer was included in the Windows 95 Plus!pack. The online service MSN, which was initially intended to be a competitor to the Internet [dubious – discuss], and Internet Explorer, a Web browser, were included with Windows 95.The New York Times described Windows 95 as “the splashiest, most frenzied, most expensive introduction of a computer product in the industry’s history” due to a well-known marketing campaign. MSNBC, a brand-new 24/7 cable news channel established in 1996 by Microsoft and the NBC unit of General Electric, entered new markets. Microsoft has created a brand-new operating system called Windows CE 1.0 for digital assistants and other devices with limited memory. In October 1997, the Justice Department asked the Federal District Court to stop bundled Internet Explorer with Windows and claimed that Microsoft had broken a 1994 agreement.

In 2006, Microsoft introduced the Zune line of digital media players as a replacement for its previous software platform, Portable Media Center, as it was becoming more active in the hardware market following the release of the Xbox. Microsoft made additional hardware commitments after the first mouse was released in 1983.In the United States, the company sold the Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000, the IntelliMouse, and the LifeCam desktop webcam, the most popular wired keyboards. The company also introduced the Surface “digital table,” which became PixelSense later.

On March 26, 2020, Microsoft made the acquisition of Affirmed Networks for approximately $1.35 billion. Due to safety concerns, Microsoft closed all of its retail locations for good during the COVID-19 outbreak. Microsoft announced that it would transfer its existing partners to Facebook Gaming when it shut down its Mixer service on July 22, 2020.

After the Trump administration had ordered ByteDance to hand over ownership of the app to the United States, the news that Microsoft and ByteDance were in talks to buy TikTok broke on July 31, 2020.Donald Trump said on August 3, 2020, in response to rumors about the sale, that Microsoft might buy the software, but that the work had to be done by September 15, 2020, and that the US Department of the Treasury should get a piece if it did.

On August 5, 2020, Microsoft stopped testing its xCloud game streaming service for iOS devices. Microsoft claims it has no influence over how xCloud on iOS will develop in the future. Apple strictly restricts “remote desktop clients,” which allow applications to connect only to host devices or gaming consoles owned by the user. On September 21, 2020, Microsoft declared its intention to acquire ZeniMax Media, the parent company of Bethesda Softworks, for approximately $7.5 billion. The acquisition was completed on March 9, 2021, and ZeniMax Media joined Microsoft’s Xbox Game Studios division. It is anticipated that the acquisition will take place in the second half of the fiscal year 2021.The entire transaction cost $8.1 billion.

On September 22, 2020, Microsoft made the announcement that it held the sole license to utilize OpenAI’s GPT-3 artificial intelligence language generator. The predecessor to GPT-3, GPT-2, attracted media attention because it was “too dangerous to release” and offered a variety of features, such as website design, medication prescription, question and answer functionality, and article writing. Microsoft released the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S video game consoles on November 10, 2020.

In April 2021, Microsoft made the acquisition of Nuance Communications for $16 billion public. The acquisition of Nuance was completed in March 2022.In 2021, the COVID-19 pandemic’s strong quarterly earnings contributed to Microsoft’s valuation reaching close to $2 trillion. Due to the growing significance of remote work and distance education, the demand for cloud computing increased simultaneously with the company’s gaming revenues.

Microsoft announced in October 2021 that Microsoft Teams calls would be able to use end-to-end encryption (E2EE) to protect business communication when using video conferencing software. To ensure that their calls are encrypted, users can use a security code that both parties on a call must check on their respective ends. Microsoft acquired Ally.io, a software platform that monitors businesses’ progress toward OKRs, on October 7.Ally.io will be included in Microsoft’s Viva suite of employee experience solutions.

On August 5, 2020, Microsoft stopped testing its xCloud game streaming service for iOS devices. Microsoft claims it has no influence over how xCloud on iOS will develop in the future. Apple strictly restricts “remote desktop clients,” which allow applications to connect only to host devices or gaming consoles owned by the user. On September 21, 2020, Microsoft declared its intention to acquire ZeniMax Media, the parent company of Bethesda Softworks, for approximately $7.5 billion. The acquisition was completed on March 9, 2021, and ZeniMax Media joined Microsoft’s Xbox Game Studios division. It is anticipated that the acquisition will take place in the second half of the fiscal year 2021.The entire transaction cost $8.1 billion.