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[Hide][Help us with translations!]MicrosoftFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaJump to: navigation, searchMicrosoft Corporation Microsoft wordmark.svgType 	PublicNASDAQ: MSFTHKEX: 4338Founded 	Albuquerque, New Mexico (April 4, 1975 (1975-04-04))[1]Founder(s) 	Bill GatesPaul AllenHeadquarters 	Redmond, Washington, United StatesArea served 	WorldwideKey people 	Bill Gates (Chairman)Steve Ballmer (CEO)Ray Ozzie (CSA)Craig Mundie (CRSO)Don Mattrick (Senior VP of Entertainment and Devices)Industry 	Computer softwareConsumer electronicsVideo game consolesProducts 	Microsoft WindowsMicrosoft OfficeMicrosoft ServersWindows Developer ToolsMicrosoft ExpressionBusiness SoftwareGames[2] & Xbox 360[3]Windows Live[4]Windows MobileZune[5]Bing[6]Revenue 	▼ US$ 58.437 billion (2009)[7]Operating income 	▼ US$ 20.363 billion (2009)[7]Net income 	▼ US$ 14.569 billion (2009)[7]Total assets 	▲ US$ 77.888 billion (2009)[7]Total equity 	▲ US$ 39.558 billion (2009)[7]Employees 	93,000 in over 100 countries (2009)[8]Website 	Microsoft.comMicrosoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT, HKEX: 4338) is a multinational computer technology corporation that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of software products for computing devices.[9] Headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA, its most profitable products are the Microsoft Windows operating system and the Microsoft Office suite of productivity software.The company was founded in 1975, to develop and sell BASIC interpreters for the Altair 8800. Microsoft rose to dominate the home computer operating system market with MS-DOS in the mid-1980s, followed by the Windows line of operating systems. Many of its products have achieved near-ubiquity in the desktop computer market. One commentator notes that Microsoft's original mission was "a computer on every desk and in every home, running Microsoft software."[10] Microsoft possesses footholds in other markets, with assets such as the MSNBC cable television network, the MSN Internet portal, and the Microsoft Encarta multimedia encyclopedia. The company also markets both computer hardware products such as the Microsoft mouse and the Microsoft Natural keyboard, as well as home entertainment products such as the Xbox, Xbox 360, Zune and MSN TV.[9] The company's initial public stock offering (IPO) was in 1986; the ensuing rise of the company's stock price has made four billionaires and an estimated 12,000 millionaires from Microsoft employees.[11][12][13]Throughout its history the company has been the target of criticism, including monopolistic business practices and anti-competitive strategies including refusal to deal and tying. The U.S. Department of Justice and the European Commission, among others, have ruled against Microsoft for antitrust violations.[14][15] (See also United States v. Microsoft, European Union Microsoft competition case.)Contents[hide]    * 1 History          o 1.1 1975–1984: Founding          o 1.2 1985–1994: IPO, OS/2 and Windows          o 1.3 1995–2005: Internet and legal issues          o 1.4 2006–present: Vista, Windows 7, and other transitions    * 2 Product divisions          o 2.1 Platform Products and Services Division          o 2.2 Business Division          o 2.3 Entertainment and Devices Division    * 3 Economic impact    * 4 User culture    * 5 Corporate affairs          o 5.1 Corporate structure          o 5.2 Stock          o 5.3 Diversity          o 5.4 Logos and slogans    * 6 Environmental record    * 7 Criticism          o 7.1 Anti-competitive          o 7.2 Freedom and privacy          o 7.3 Misrepresentation    * 8 See also    * 9 References    * 10 External linksHistoryMain article: History of MicrosoftSee also: History of Microsoft Windows1975–1984: FoundingFollowing the launch of the Altair 8800, William Henry Gates III, (known as Bill Gates) called the developers of a new microcomputer, Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems (MITS), offering to demonstrate an implementation of the BASIC programming language for the system. After the demonstration, MITS agreed to distribute Altair BASIC.[16] Gates left Harvard University, moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico where MITS was located, and founded Microsoft there. The company's first international office was founded on November 1, 1978, in Japan, titled "ASCII Microsoft" (now called "Microsoft Japan").[16] On January 1, 1979, the company moved from Albuquerque to a new home in Bellevue, Washington.[16] Steve Ballmer joined the company on June 11, 1980, and later succeeded Bill Gates as CEO.[16]Among pre-IBM-PC products were the software package TASC (The AppleSoft Compiler), which compiled a BASIC program into Apple machine language, and the hardware product Microsoft Softcard, an add-on Z80 processor card for the Apple II and compatible computers which allowed the use of the CP/M operating system instead of Applesoft and Apple DOS. In 1980, Microsoft entered the operating system business with its own version of Unix, called Xenix, which it licensed to various computer vendors.An early Microsoft logo, filed August 26, 1982An early Microsoft logo, trademarked at the USPTO used by MicrosoftDOS (Disk Operating System) was the operating system that brought the company its first real success. On August 12, 1981, after negotiations with Digital Research failed, IBM awarded a contract to Microsoft to provide a version of the CP/M operating system, which was set to be used in the upcoming IBM Personal Computer (PC). For this deal, Microsoft purchased a CP/M clone called 86-DOS from Seattle Computer Products, which IBM renamed to PC-DOS. Later, the market saw a flood of IBM PC clones after Columbia Data Products successfully cloned the IBM BIOS, and by aggressively marketing MS-DOS to manufacturers of IBM-PC clones, Microsoft rose from a small player to one of the major software vendors in the home computer industry.[17][18][19][20][21][22][23] The company expanded into new markets with the release of the Microsoft Mouse in 1983, as well as a publishing division named Microsoft Press.[16]1985–1994: IPO, OS/2 and WindowsIn August 1985, Microsoft and IBM partnered in the development of a different operating system called OS/2.[24] On November 20, 1985, Microsoft released its first retail version of Microsoft Windows, originally a graphical extension for its MS-DOS operating system.[16] On March 13, 1986 the company went public with an initial public offering (IPO), with a starting initial offering price of $21.00 and ending at the first day of trading as at US $28.00. The ensuing rise of the stock price has made four billionaires and an estimated 12,000 millionaires from Microsoft employees.[12][25][26] In 1987, Microsoft eventually released their first version of OS/2 to OEMs.[27]The sign at a main entrance to the Microsoft corporate campus. The Redmond Microsoft campus today includes more than 750,000 m² (approx. 8 million square feet) and over 30,000 employees.[28]In 1989, Microsoft introduced its flagship office suite, Microsoft Office. The software bundled separate office productivity applications, such as Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel.[16] On May 22, 1990 Microsoft launched Windows 3.0.[29] The new version of Microsoft's operating system boasted such new features as streamlined user interface graphics and improved protected mode capability for the Intel 386 processor; it sold over 100,000 copies in two weeks.[30] Windows at the time generated more revenue for Microsoft than OS/2, and the company decided to move more resources from OS/2 to Windows.[31] In the ensuing years, the popularity of OS/2 declined, and Windows quickly became the favored PC platform.During the transition from MS-DOS to Windows, the success of Microsoft Office allowed the company to gain ground on application-software competitors, such as WordPerfect and Lotus 1-2-3.[32][33] According to The Register, Novell, an owner of WordPerfect for a time, alleged that Microsoft used its inside knowledge of the DOS and Windows kernels and of undocumented Application Programming Interface features to make Office perform better than its competitors.[34] Eventually, Microsoft Office became the dominant business suite, with a market share far exceeding that of its competitors.[35]In 1993, Microsoft released Windows NT 3.1, a business operating system with the Windows 3.1 user interface but an entirely different kernel.[32]1995–2005: Internet and legal issuesIn 1995, Microsoft released Windows 95, a new version of the company's flagship operating system which featured a completely new user interface, including a novel start button; more than a million copies of Microsoft Windows 95 were sold in the first four days after its release.[32] The company also released its web browser, Internet Explorer, with the Windows 95 Plus! Pack in August 1995 and subsequent Windows versions.[36]On, May 26, 1995, following Bill Gates's internal "Internet Tidal Wave memo",[37] Microsoft began to redefine its offerings and expand its product line into computer networking and the World Wide Web. On August 24, 1995, it launched a major online service, MSN (Microsoft Network), as a direct competitor to AOL. MSN became an umbrella service for Microsoft's online services.[16][32][38] The company continued to branch out into new markets in 1996, starting with a joint venture with NBC to create a new 24/7 cable news station, MSNBC.[32][39] 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, specifically designed to run on low-memory, low-performance machines, such as handhelds and other small computers.[40] Later in 1997, Internet Explorer 4.0 was released for both Mac OS and Windows, marking the beginning of the takeover of the browser market from rival Netscape. In October, the Justice Department filed a motion in the Federal District Court in which they stated that Microsoft had violated an agreement signed in 1994, and asked the court to stop the bundling of Internet Explorer with Windows.[16]The year 1998 was significant in Microsoft's history, with Bill Gates appointing Steve Ballmer as president of Microsoft but remaining as Chair and CEO himself.[16] The company released Windows 98, an update to Windows 95 that incorporated a number of Internet-focused features and support for new types of devices.[16] On April 3, 2000, a judgment was handed down in the case of United States v. Microsoft,[14] calling the company an "abusive monopoly"[41] and forcing the company to split into two separate units. Part of this ruling was later overturned by a federal appeals court, and eventually settled with the U.S. Department of Justice in 2001.In 2001, Microsoft released Windows XP, the first version that encompassed the features of both its business and home product lines. Before XP was released, Microsoft had to maintain both the NT and the 9x codebase. XP introduced a new graphical user interface, the first such change since Windows 95.[16][42] In late 2001, with the release of the Xbox, Microsoft entered the multi-billion-dollar game console market dominated by Sony and Nintendo.[16] Microsoft encountered turmoil in March 2004 when antitrust legal action was brought against it by the European Union for abusing its current dominance with the Windows operating system (see European Union Microsoft antitrust case), eventually resulting in a judgment to produce new versions of its Windows XP platform—called Windows XP Home Edition N and Windows XP Professional N—that did not include its Windows Media Player, as well as a fine of €497 million ($613 million).[43][44]2006–present: Vista, Windows 7, and other transitionsThe entrance sign of Microsoft at a German Campus.On June 27, 2008, Bill Gates retired from day-to day activities in the company, following a two year transition period from his role as Chief Software Architect, which was taken by Ray Ozzie, but remained the company's chairman, head of the Board of Directors and would act as an adviser on key projects.[45] Windows Vista, released in January 2007, was Microsoft's latest operating system and had sold 300 million copies by December 2008.[46] Microsoft Office 2007, released at the same time, features a "Ribbon" user interface which is a significant departure from its predecessors. Relatively strong sales of both titles helped to produce a record profit in 2007.[47]Microsoft announced on February 21, 2008 that it will share information about its products and technology to make it easier for developers to create software that works with its products.[48] and followed that up by providing such information.[49] However, the European Union continued to demonstrate its dissatisfaction with the company for its lack of compliance with the March 2004 judgment and subsequently, on February 27, 2008 imposed a fine of €899 million ($1.4 billion), then the largest fine in the history of EU competition policy.[50]In its January 2009 report of financial results, Microsoft announced layoffs of up to 5,000 employees in response to slowing economic activity due to the ongoing financial crisis.[51] Despite this, on February 12, 2009, Microsoft announced its intent to open a small chain of Microsoft-branded retail stores. David Porter, a former executive at Wal-Mart and DreamWorks, was named corporate vice president of Retail Stores.[52][53] On October 22, 2009 the first retail Microsoft Store open in Scottsdale, Arizona, the same day Windows 7 was officially release for public. Microsoft focused on refining Vista with ease of use features and performance enhancements with Windows 7, rather then a large reworking of Windows. [54]Product divisionsTo be more precise in tracking performance of each unit and delegating responsibility, Microsoft reorganized into seven core business groups—each an independent financial entity—in April 2002. Later, on September 20, 2005, Microsoft announced a rationalization of its original seven business groups into the three core divisions that exist today: the Windows Client, MSN and Server and Tool groups were merged into the Microsoft Platform Products and Services Division; the Information Worker and Microsoft Business Solutions groups were merged into the Microsoft Business Division; and the Mobile and Embedded Devices and Home and Entertainment groups were merged into the Microsoft Entertainment and Devices Division.[55][56]Platform Products and Services DivisionThe current logo of Microsoft Windows, the company's signature product.This division produces Microsoft's flagship product, the Windows operating system. It has been produced in many versions, including Windows 3.1, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows Me, Windows Server 2003, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008 and Windows 7. Almost all IBM compatible personal computers come with Windows preinstalled. The current desktop version of Windows is Windows 7. The online service MSN, the search engine Bing (formerly Windows Live Search and MSN Search)[6], the Windows Live family of products and services[4], the cable television station MSNBC and the Microsoft online magazine Slate are all part of this division. (Slate was acquired by The Washington Post on December 21, 2004.) At the end of 1997, Microsoft acquired Hotmail, the most popular webmail service, which it rebranded as "MSN Hotmail." In 1999, Microsoft introduced MSN Messenger, an instant messaging client, to compete with the popular AOL Instant Messenger. Along with Windows Vista, MSN Messenger became Windows Live Messenger.[9]Microsoft Visual Studio is the company's set of programming tools and compilers. The software product is GUI-oriented and links easily with the Windows APIs. The current version is Visual Studio 2008. The previous version, Visual Studio 2005 was a major improvement over its predecessor, Visual Studio.Net 2003, named after the .NET initiative, a Microsoft marketing initiative covering a number of technologies. Microsoft's definition of .NET continues to evolve. As of 2004, .NET aims to ease the development of Microsoft Windows-based applications that use the Internet, by deploying a new Microsoft communications system