Microsoft Corporation is an American multinationalđ technology company with headquarters in Redmond, Washington in the USA.
Its Products and Services
Microsoft develops, manufactures, licenses and sells computer software, consumer electronics, personal computersđ„, and related services.
Its best-knownâ software products are the Microsoft Windows operating systems, the Microsoft Office suite, the Internet Explorer and Edge web browsers.
Its flagship hardware products are the Xbox video game consolesđźÂ and the Microsoft Surface touchscreen PCs.
As of 2016, it is the worldâs largest software maker by revenueđ°, and one of the worldâs most valuable companies.
Early history
Microsoft was founded by childhood friendsđ„Â Bill Gates and Paul Allen on April 4, 1975.
They refined BASIC (a popular mainframe computer programming languageđą) and developed other programming languages.
Rise to the Top
Microsoft went on to đȘdominate the PC operating system market with MS-DOS in the mid-1980s.
By 1993đ, nearly 90% of the worldâs PCs ran on a Microsoft operating system.
In 1995 the company released Windows 95, which for the 1st time fully integratedđ MS-DOS with Windows.
Gates moves aside
In 2000, company Bill Gates relinquishedđ ââ his role as CEO of Microsoft to Steve Ballmer but he failed to live up to the expectations.
New âheightsâ under the new CEO
Satya Nadella took over as CEO in 2014, and scaled back on hardware and has instead focused on Cloud Computingâ, a move that helped the companyâs shares reach their highest value, since Dec. 1999.
Acquisitions
Microsoft has made a number of corporate acquisitions, such as Skype Technologies for $8.5 billion in 2011, Nokiađ± for $7 Billion in 2014 and LinkedIn for $26.2 billion in 2016.