History of Microsoft Wikipedia

In December 2022, Microsoft announced a new 10-year deal with the London Stock Exchange for products including Microsoft Azure; Microsoft acquired ~4% of the latter company as part of the deal. On January 18, 2022, Microsoft announced the acquisition of American video game developer and holding company Activision Blizzard in an all-cash deal worth $68.7 billion. In October 2021, Microsoft announced that it began rolling out end-to-end encryption (E2EE) support for Microsoft Teams calls in order to secure business communication while using video conferencing software. On September 21, 2020, Microsoft announced its intent to acquire video game company ZeniMax Media, the parent company of Bethesda Softworks, for about $7.5 billion, with the deal expected to occur in the second half of 2021 fiscal year. On February 17, Microsoft released an update to its business line of software in Windows 2000. In March 1992, Microsoft released Windows 3.1 along with its first promotional campaign on TV; the software sold over three million copies in its first two months on the market.

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Finally, a great deal of controversy took place when a set of internal memos from the company were leaked on the Internet. Microsoft launched its Indian headquarters as well, which would eventually become the company’s second largest after its U.S. headquarters. Windows CE 2.0, the handheld version of Windows, was released this year, including a host of bug fixes and new features designed to make it more appealing to corporate customers. In November 1996, Microsoft Office 97 was released, which is the first version to include Office Assistant.

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

• (Earlier magazine on-disk distributions included Robert Uiterwyk’s BASIC in the May 1977 issue of Information Age.) However, Xenix was never sold to end users directly although it was licensed to many software OEMs for resale.
• Microsoft also released a new version of its Office suite, called Microsoft Office 2007, alongside Windows Vista.
• By then Forrester Research considered Microsoft, Ashton-Tate, Lotus Development, and Borland the “Big Four” of personal computer software.
• In an attempt to extend its reach in the consumer market, the company acquired WebTV, which enabled consumers to access the Web from their televisions.
• The operating system was the first to require Microsoft Product Activation, an anti-piracy mechanism that requires users to activate the software with Microsoft within 30 days.
• On April 12, 2010, Microsoft launched their Kin phone line, a result of their acquisition of Danger Incorporated in 2008.

On December 19, 2007, Microsoft signed a five-year, $500 million (~$727 million in 2024) contract with Viacom that included content sharing and advertisements. Windows Server 2008 and Visual Studio 2008, the next versions of the company’s server operating system and development suite, respectively, were released on February 27, 2008. Formerly codenamed “Longhorn” in the early development stages, Windows Vista was released to consumers on January 30, 2007. On June 15, 2006, Bill Gates announced his plans for a two-year transition period out of a day-to-day role with Microsoft until July 31, 2008. Activity grew quickly as developers from around the world began to participate, and by early 2007 commercial open source companies, such as Aras Corp. began to offer enterprise open source software exclusively on the Microsoft platform. In guise of competing with other Internet Companies such as the search service Google, in 2005 Microsoft announced a new version of its MSN search service.

In June 2016, Microsoft announced a project named Microsoft Azure Information Protection. On March 1, 2016, Microsoft announced the merge of its PC and Xbox divisions, with Phil Spencer announcing that Universal Windows Platform (UWP) apps would be the chikan road focus for Microsoft’s gaming in the future. The successor to Windows Phone 8.1, Windows 10 Mobile, was released November 20, 2015. On July 29, 2015, Microsoft released the next version of the Windows operating system, Windows 10.

While Microsoft largely failed to participate in the rise of the Internet in the early 1990s, some of the key technologies in which the company had invested to enter the Internet market started to pay off by the mid-90s. Microsoft entered the personal digital assistant (PDA) market in November with Windows CE 1.0, a new built-from-scratch version of their flagship operating system, designed to run on low-memory, low-performance machines, such as handhelds and other small computers. In an attempt to extend its reach in the consumer market, the company acquired WebTV, which enabled consumers to access the Web from their televisions.

In 1980, Microsoft formed a partnership with IBM to bundle Microsoft’s operating system with IBM computers; with that deal, IBM paid Microsoft a royalty for every sale.

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Microsoft also launched Slate, an online magazine edited by Michael Kinsley, which offered political and social commentary along with the cartoon Doonesbury. The station was launched on July 15, 1996, to compete with similar news outlets such as CNN. The company continued to branch out into new markets in 1996, starting with a joint venture with NBC to create a new 24-hour cable news television station, MSNBC. MSN became an umbrella service for Microsoft’s online services, using Microsoft Passport (now called a Microsoft account) as a universal login system for all of its web sites.

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It employs higher-end processing power and new software, can distinguish between fine movements (such as a thumb movements), and can determine a user’s heart rate by looking at his/her face. The Kinect, a motion-sensing input device made by Microsoft and designed as a video game controller, was first introduced in November 2010, and was upgraded for the 2013 release of the eighth-generation Xbox One video game console. 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. On October 1, Microsoft announced its intention to launch a news operation, part of a new-look MSN, at the time of the Windows 8 launch that was later in the month. On July 31, 2012, Microsoft launched the Outlook.com webmail service beta to compete with Gmail.

On 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. In January 2019, Microsoft announced that support for Windows 10 Mobile would end on December 10, 2019, and that Windows 10 Mobile users should migrate to iOS or Android phones. December also saw the company rebuilding Microsoft Edge as a Chromium-based browser; it was publicly released on January 15, 2020. On June 8, 2017, Microsoft acquired Hexadite, an Israeli security firm, for $100 million (~$125 million in 2024). Microsoft will launch a preview of Intune for Education “in the coming weeks”, with general availability scheduled for spring 2017, priced at $30 (~$38.00 in 2024) per device, or through volume licensing agreements. The server sibling to Windows 10, Windows Server 2016, was released in September 2016.

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InfoWorld stated in 1984 that Microsoft, with $55 million (~$140 million in 2024) in 1983 sales, When the IBM PC debuted, Microsoft was the only company that offered operating system, programming language, and application software for the new computer. Due to potential copyright infringement problems with CP/M, IBM marketed both CP/M and PC DOS for US$240 and US$40, respectively, with PC DOS eventually becoming the standard because of its lower price. IBM first approached Gates and Allen about Microsoft’s upcoming IBM Personal Computer (IBM PC) in July 1980, shortly after Gates’s mother began working on United Way’s executive board with IBM CEO John Opel. By the mid-1980s Microsoft had gotten out of the Unix business, except for its ownership stake in SCO.

Many in the industry were skeptical; Chris Pratley of Microsoft recalled in 2004 that “Windows was still considered a joke. Betting the company on it was a big, big bet”. Unlike the model of Microsoft Works, Microsoft Office was a bundle of separate office productivity applications, such as Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel and so forth. On August 8, 1989, Microsoft introduced its most successful office product, Microsoft Office. Microsoft Works would later be sold with other Microsoft products including Microsoft Word and Microsoft Bookshelf, a reference collection introduced in 1987 that was the company’s first CD-ROM product.

This effectively ended the formal business partnership between Gates and Allen, which had been strained months prior due to a contentious dispute over Microsoft equity. The company restructured on June 25, 1981, to become an incorporated business in its home state of Washington (with a further change of its name to “Microsoft Corporation, Inc.”). Allen came up with the original name of Micro-Soft, a portmanteau of microcomputer and software. Gates called Altair manufacturer Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems (MITS), offering to demonstrate the implementation. As of June 30, 2015, Microsoft has a global annual revenue of US$86.83 billion (~$112 billion in 2024) and 128,076 employees worldwide. In 1985, IBM requested Microsoft to develop a new operating system for their computers called OS/2.

In 2008, Microsoft wanted to purchase Yahoo (first completely, later partially) in order to strengthen its position on the search engine market vis-à-vis Google. On the advertisement side of the deal, Microsoft’s Atlas ad-serving division became the exclusive provider of previously unsold advertising inventory on Viacom owned web sites. The deal allowed Microsoft to license many shows from Viacom owned cable television and film studios for use on Xbox Live and MSN.

additional Microsoft employees fired after protesters breached HQ

Eventually Microsoft was fined €497 million (US$613 million), ordered to divulge certain protocols to competitors, and to produce a new version of its Windows XP platform—called Windows XP Home Edition N—that did not include its Windows Media Player. However, Microsoft encountered more turmoil in March 2004 when antitrust legal action would be brought against it by the European Union for allegedly abusing its market dominance (see Microsoft Corp. v. Commission). In 2004, the company released Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005, a version of Windows XP designed for multimedia abilities, and Windows XP Starter Edition, a version of Windows XP with a smaller feature set designed for entry-level consumers. Windows Server 2003 was launched, featuring enhanced administration abilities, such as new user interfaces to server tools. Microsoft launched their second console, the Xbox 360, in 2005 – which was more successful than the original.

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• On April 25, 2014, Microsoft acquired Nokia Devices and Services for $7.2 billion (~$9.37 billion in 2024).
• 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.
• On July 22, 2020, Microsoft announced plans to close its Mixer service, planning to move existing partners to Facebook Gaming.
• On November 10, 2020, Microsoft released the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S video game consoles.

In 2002, Microsoft launched the .NET initiative, along with new versions of some of its development products, such as Microsoft Visual Studio. The console was also outsold by the Wii, which introduced gesture control and opened up a new market for video games. Microsoft entered the multibillion-dollar game console market dominated by Sony and Nintendo, with the release of the Xbox. Microsoft released Windows XP and Office XP in 2001, a version that aimed to encompass the features of both its business and home product lines.

The operating system was the first to require Microsoft Product Activation, an anti-piracy mechanism that requires users to activate the software with Microsoft within 30 days. The next update to the consumer line, Windows ME (or Windows Millennium Edition), was released on September 14, 2000. On June 15, 2000, the company released a new version of its hand-held operating system, Windows CE 3.0. The documents also alluded to legal and other actions against Linux as well as other open source software.

In August, Microsoft and IBM partnered in the development of a different operating system called OS/2. Ireland became home to one of Microsoft’s international production facilities in 1985, and on November 20 Microsoft released its first retail version of Microsoft Windows (Windows 1.0), originally a graphical extension for its MS-DOS operating system. Microsoft committed to develop Macintosh versions of Multiplan, Word, and Microsoft Chart; Apple agreed to not provide software development kits and prototype computers to companies with applications competing with Microsoft’s.