Microsoft

Microsoft

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Microsoft Corporation
Microsoft logo
illustration of Microsoft
Creation April 4, 19751
Key Dates 1981: Launch of MS-DOS
1985: launch of Windows 1.0
1992: launch of Office
2001: launch of the Xbox
2011: Skype purchase
2014: purchase of Nokia mobile OY and acquisition of Mojang AB
2016: acquisition of LinkedIn
2018: acquisition of GitHub
Founders Bill Gates2 and Paul Allen2
Bill Gates, Steve Ballmer, Paul Allen, Satya Nadella, Steven Sinofsky
Legal form Corporation and public limited company with public offering
NASDAQ Stock Exchange (MSFT) and Hong Kong Stock Exchange (4338) 3
Slogan Empowering us all ("Let's free our potential")
Redmond Headquarters
United States United States flag
Direction Satya Nadella (since February 4, 2014)
President John W. Thompson
BlackRock Shareholders (0.03), Steve Ballmer (0.04) 4, Bill Gates (0.04) 4, The Vanguard Group (0.06), The Capital Group Companies (0.05) and State Street Corporation (0 , 04)
Activity Operating system, software, video games, mobile telephony, tablet / computer, connected objects, telecommunication
Microsoft Windows products, Microsoft Office, Microsoft Servers, Skype, Windows Azure, Microsoft Dynamics, Microsoft Visual Studio, Xbox, Microsoft Surface, Microsoft Mobile, Bing, hardware, Xbox, list of Microsoft software applications and Microsoft Project Calendar. help (d)
Subsidiaries Microsoft Mobile OY LTD (formerly Nokia)
Number of staff 131 300 (2018) 5
Website www.microsoft.com [archive]
Capitalization $ 847.856 billion (2019) 6
Own funds up 72.31 billion euros (2018) 7
Debt Increase Negative.svg 66.65 billion euros (2018) 7
Revenue up € 110.360 billion (2018) 8
Net profit down 14.48 billion euros (2018) 7
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Microsoft Corporation is a US-based computer and micro-computing multinational founded in 1975 by Bill Gates and Paul Allen. Its core business is developing and selling operating systems, software and hardware products. In 2016, the turnover amounted to 89.95 billion dollars8. The company employs 120,000 people in 107 countries.

The head office is located in Redmond, near Seattle in the western United States. The best-selling history is driven by the Windows operating system and the Office suite, which is now fueling a diversification policy.

Microsoft's strong international business strategy is based on "tied selling" - an arsenal of exclusive deals with hardware manufacturers and distributors. It gives the company a dominant position that has imposed Windows on the vast majority of PCs, desktops and laptops. Now, the goal of having "a Windows-based computer on every desk and in every home" is almost achieved with over 90% of the world's market share9. Microsoft is, however, present in other business areas: such as cloud computing (Azure), the Bing search engine, peripherals (keyboards, mice) and Xbox video game consoles.