“Microsoft Corporation is a global technology corporation. It’s producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services settled at the Microsoft.
Its best-known software products are the Windows line of operating systems, the Microsoft Office suite, and the Web Browser and Microsoft Edge internet browsers.
Its flagship equipment products are the Xbox computer game consoles and the Microsoft Surface setup of touchscreen personal computers. Microsoft positioned No. 21 in the 2020 Fortune 500 rankings of the largest United States corporations by absolute revenue.
It was the world’s largest software producer by income as of 2019. It is one of the Large Five American information technology companies, alongside Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, and Meta.
Founder
Microsoft was founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen on April 4, 1975, to create and sell BASIC interpreters for the Altair 8800.
It rose to dominate the personal computer operating system market with MS-DOS during the 1980s, followed by Windows.
Historical overview
The company’s 1986 initial public offering (Initial public offering), and subsequent rise in its share cost, made 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 various corporate acquisitions. Their largest being is the acquisition of LinkedIn for $26.2 billion in December 2016, followed by their acquisition of Skype Technologies for $8.5 billion in May 2011.