Investing Opinion of Microsoft Corporation
Background
Microsoft Corporation started with two close friends who were total computer enthusiasts named Bill Gates and Paul Allen. Despite difficulties accessing computers and other sophisticated technology, they were both computer geeks. In 1970, Gates and Allen started a small firm that specialized in creating small applications for local clients. This company, Traf-O-Data, sold computers to the city of Seattle for counting city traffic. In 1973, Bill Gates left Seattle to study at Harvard University; however, he ultimately dropped out to concentrate on his project with Allen. In 1975, Altair, at the time a famous software company, employed Bill Gates and Paul Allen to write a version of the
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Microsoft stock went public in 1986 at $21 per share. In 1991, Jon Shirley retired and was replaced by Michael R. Hallman; Microsoft became the first PC software firm to generate more than $1 billion sales in one year. In 1998, the U.S. Department of Justice claimed that Microsoft had violated the Sherman Act and in 2000 Microsoft had to face two antitrust cases.
During 2000, Microsoft also acquired Visio Corporation, which was its largest acquisition at the time. In the same year, Steve Ballmer was chosen as the new president and CEO for the company. In 2001, Microsoft launched its very famous “Office XP, “Windows XP” and “Xbox” products. Two years later, Microsoft introduced Microsoft Office System. In 2004, Microsoft planned to return as much as $75 billion to shareholders in the form of dividends and stock buybacks. In 2009, Microsoft launched Bing decision engine. Microsoft officially acquired Skype in 2011. In 2013, Steve Ballmer announced his plan for retirement, which resulted in Satya Nadella becoming the new CEO in 2014.
Today, Microsoft owns more than 15 trademarks including as Bing, Xbox, Direct X, Microsoft Office, Skype, and Nokia. Microsoft makes more than $32 billion annually, making it the largest software company in the world. Mostly recently, its revenue for 2014 was $86,83 billion.
Their home office is located at One Microsoft Way, Redmond, WA 98052-7329 USA. Satya Nadella is Microsoft’s chief executive officer and John W. Thompson
Microsoft was able to prove that Macintosh and Windows were different in various ways. In 1986, Microsoft went public with 24.7 million shares, that of which Gates owned 45 percent of. Microsoft was racking up $520 million, and of that money, Gates was getting $243 million. A year later was on the list of the top 400 wealthiest people in America.
"The company that actually made the world realize the magic of software, and made computing accessible to almost everyone on the planet, is Microsoft," according to Business Insider. Through their invention of a user-friendly operating system, Microsoft helped make personal computers both cheaper and more useful. The rise of affordable computers with word processing, data storage, and programmability features led to the widespread use of computers in schools, which laid the foundation for the growth of computer science, thereby giving rise to an explosion of new technology. In addition to transforming education, Microsoft's products transformed business. Microsoft's Office Suite and Azure cloud platform have fueled small business growth through the use of Excel spreadsheets for budgeting, PowerPoint for presentations, and Azure for data connectivity. According to NetMarketShare, Windows holds 91.53 percent of the desktop market share. This overwhelming market share demonstrates how Microsoft influences the way the world does business. With the Xbox gaming system, Microsoft made a profitable leap from business to entertainment. Microsoft's Xbox systems are the most popular game consoles in the world, poised to become even more popular as China has ended its ban on foreign gaming systems. Due to the Xbox's price point, ability to run PS3 games, and live features,
Microsoft is traded on the NASDAQ stock market using the ticker symbol is MSFT. The current stock price as of October 14th 2015 is $46.84. The trading range over the past year has been between $39.72 and $50.05. The dividend rate is $1.44 and their yield is 3.06.
Microsoft Corporation develops, manufactures and distributes a range of software products and services for various computing devices worldwide. Microsoft also manufactures gaming systems such as Xbox 360 and related entertainments systems. Microsoft was founded in 1975 and is headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Microsoft currently employs about 90,000 full-time employees worldwide.
Then, Microsoft had a chance of meeting with a businessmen, who worked in Japan. The businessmen helped Gates get into the Japanese market. He negotiated a deal with, Kazuhiko Nishi. Nishi also negotiated a deal with a Japanese technology company to build a PC using Microsoft software. This PC was released in September 1979 in Japan, the U.K. and the United States. After the PC was released, they made one million dollars.
Microsoft was founded in 1975, and is the worldwide leader in software, services, and solutions (Career). Microsoft is proud to offer great products and employ outstanding people. Previous Microsoft CEO, Steve Ballmer once said, “There are many things that are true about Microsoft. We have big goals, big dreams, and big aspirations for the future. We are both competitive with our products and in the way we attract and retain talent. For me, the most important factor is competition for talent, because I know our success comes from the people who work here” (Foley).
Satya Nadella is the new CEO and author of the new mission and vision statement for Microsoft
Microsoft, a key figure in the technology industry, presents many key products and services that help the technology industry grow to where it has gotten. Microsoft is a corporation that is the NASDAQ market. The company provides products and services in the technology industry. The products highlighted for the 2015 fiscal year for Microsoft were the Surface family, Microsoft Office 365, and Xbox console to name a few. Microsoft has a retail sector that have both online and in store locations, with addition to business to business commerce. In the SEC 10-K analysis for the fiscal year ending on June 30, 2015, Microsoft includes key financial features to include nonmanufacturing (selling and administrative expenses) to go along with the
Microsoft started with only 25 employees each employee had very important tasks to do such as product development, business development and marketing.(biogates) Gates positioned himself as CEO of Microsoft which made $2.5 million in 1978 Gates was only 23 years old. As the computer industry grew Microsoft grew, as they would make programs for up coming computer companies. Microsoft then went from 25 employees to 128, and being worth $4million to $16million.(biogates) By 1983 Microsoft has become a global company, with offices in Great Britain, and Japan with over 30% of the computers world wide using there
After careful deliberation, the United States Justice Court concluded that Microsoft violated 1 and 2 of the Sherman Antitrust Act and remedy that they be broken into two separate businesses; one of the businesses in the operating system market and other one in the Software market (Wikipedia).
Microsoft is a highly diversified company. Its technologically-related products span from software to music players to game consoles to web browsers to search engines to phones. However, its flagship product, the product which has been the primary driver of its profits has been Microsoft Windows, the ubiquitous operating system that runs on virtually every computer in the world. Windows has been deemed so critical that even Microsoft's competitor Apple was effectively forced by market pressures to allow its Macs to run Windows, in an effort to boost sales. "As astounding as Apple's success has been, it hasn't put a dent in the Microsoft Office monopoly. [Current CEO] Ballmer and company still profit on every Macbook running Word, Excel and PowerPoint" (Greg 2012).But while Microsoft continues to make its highly profitable Windows products (despite industry criticism about its user features); it has struggled to diversify in its many critical areas, most notable in its music, phones, and Internet service.
Just over a few decades with Steve Ballmer, Microsoft has a new corporate leader at the helm. As Satya Nadella takes over the position that Mr. Ballmer once endured, his spirit took off with great confidence concerning his new role at the company (Microsoft, 2014). The next decade is likely to reveal the level of success his abilities bring to the future of the company and his own status as leader.
Microsoft are situated within the top 20 largest companies functioning in the world, with turnover figures of 60-70 billion dollars a year (E-how, 2011).
In 1975, Bill Gates and Paul Allen created a company called Microsoft. More than thirty years later, Microsoft is a leader in the field of computer programming. Gates and Allen both had big plans for their company and came up with different ways of managing people and products
Micosoft was founded on 4th April 1975 by Bill Gates & Paul Allen and is headquartered in Redmond, Washington (USA). The company provides employment to more than 89000 people. Microsoft recorded revenues of $62000 million in the financial Year 2010 (Microsoft, 2011).