welcome to watchmojo.com I’m your host
ashcan and in today’s business profile
we take a look at Microsoft Microsoft is
headquartered in Redmond Washington it
is a company that operates in over 100
countries has over 80,000 employees and
has annual revenues of over 50 billion
dollars Microsoft commands nearly 90
percent market share but like most
companies is facing a myriad amount of
challenges today Microsoft story is
well-documented and that is that Bill
Gates was a student at Harvard
University and decided to drop out and
basically relocate to New Mexico where
one of its first partners and clients
was located the next year in 1978 the
company’s first international office
opened up in Japan and on January 1st
1979 Bill Gates decided to relocate the
company’s headquarters from New Mexico
out over in Redmond Washington and in
1980 Steve Ballmer a Harvard classmate
of Bill Gates decided to leave Proctor
and Gamble and join the company on
August 12 1981 IBM gave Microsoft its
first major successful contract that is
when IBM passed up digital research and
granted Microsoft a contract for the
disk operating system or Gauss on march
13 1986 Microsoft had its IPO or initial
public offering the stock opened at 21
and closed at 28 but if you adjust for
all the stock splits that’s about 10
cents compared to today’s price now
Microsoft has gone on to create for
billionaires and over 12,000
millionaires in 1989 Microsoft launched
its flagship office suite called
Microsoft Office and the next year in
1990 it launched windows 3.0 which
really helped the company become the
dominant platform of the computing
industry Microsoft’s critics are quick
to point out that the company is rarely
invented much and in fact it’s missed on
many opportunities none of which are
greater than the Internet in the world
wide web by the mid-1990s Netscape had
commanding position in the browser Wars
and that’s when Microsoft decided to
launch Internet Explorer and bundle it
in its OS that’s when the Justice
Department decided to file a motion and
Microsoft’s antitrust problems began
today Microsoft is a diversified
technology company that uses its cash
cows to invest in new high-growth areas
Microsoft is facing many competitors all
at once in the video game market it is
taking on of course Nintendo and Sony in
the music business it’s taking on Apple
SanDisk and of course online it’s taking
on yahoo google and AOL it’s for that
reason that some people are arguing that
Microsoft should be broken up not for
antitrust purposes but for strategic
reasons while Bill Gates remains the
company’s chairman other executives have
taken over the most senior positions
Steve Ballmer became the president in
1998 and is today the CEO as well and in
2006 Ray Ozzie became the firm’s chief
Software Architect in 2007 Microsoft
shocked the investment community by
investing 240 million dollars in a 1.6
percent stake in Facebook the hot social
networking site
it valued Facebook at 15 billion dollars
but more importantly it showed the
community just how serious Microsoft is
in its war against Google for internet
advertising dollars
ashcan and in today’s business profile
we take a look at Microsoft Microsoft is
headquartered in Redmond Washington it
is a company that operates in over 100
countries has over 80,000 employees and
has annual revenues of over 50 billion
dollars Microsoft commands nearly 90
percent market share but like most
companies is facing a myriad amount of
challenges today Microsoft story is
well-documented and that is that Bill
Gates was a student at Harvard
University and decided to drop out and
basically relocate to New Mexico where
one of its first partners and clients
was located the next year in 1978 the
company’s first international office
opened up in Japan and on January 1st
1979 Bill Gates decided to relocate the
company’s headquarters from New Mexico
out over in Redmond Washington and in
1980 Steve Ballmer a Harvard classmate
of Bill Gates decided to leave Proctor
and Gamble and join the company on
August 12 1981 IBM gave Microsoft its
first major successful contract that is
when IBM passed up digital research and
granted Microsoft a contract for the
disk operating system or Gauss on march
13 1986 Microsoft had its IPO or initial
public offering the stock opened at 21
and closed at 28 but if you adjust for
all the stock splits that’s about 10
cents compared to today’s price now
Microsoft has gone on to create for
billionaires and over 12,000
millionaires in 1989 Microsoft launched
its flagship office suite called
Microsoft Office and the next year in
1990 it launched windows 3.0 which
really helped the company become the
dominant platform of the computing
industry Microsoft’s critics are quick
to point out that the company is rarely
invented much and in fact it’s missed on
many opportunities none of which are
greater than the Internet in the world
wide web by the mid-1990s Netscape had
commanding position in the browser Wars
and that’s when Microsoft decided to
launch Internet Explorer and bundle it
in its OS that’s when the Justice
Department decided to file a motion and
Microsoft’s antitrust problems began
today Microsoft is a diversified
technology company that uses its cash
cows to invest in new high-growth areas
Microsoft is facing many competitors all
at once in the video game market it is
taking on of course Nintendo and Sony in
the music business it’s taking on Apple
SanDisk and of course online it’s taking
on yahoo google and AOL it’s for that
reason that some people are arguing that
Microsoft should be broken up not for
antitrust purposes but for strategic
reasons while Bill Gates remains the
company’s chairman other executives have
taken over the most senior positions
Steve Ballmer became the president in
1998 and is today the CEO as well and in
2006 Ray Ozzie became the firm’s chief
Software Architect in 2007 Microsoft
shocked the investment community by
investing 240 million dollars in a 1.6
percent stake in Facebook the hot social
networking site
it valued Facebook at 15 billion dollars
but more importantly it showed the
community just how serious Microsoft is
in its war against Google for internet
advertising dollars
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