Then disable the Shut Down command. Here’s how:
Open your Registry Editor. (If you’re new to editing the Registry, check www.WE-Compute.com/registry.html for instructions.)
Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\ Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\Policies\Explorer.
Create a new value by clicking Edit and New DWORD value. Right-click the new value and select Rename. Type NoClose and press Enter. Double-click the new value and under Value data type 1 (one) to disable the Shut Down command.
If at a later time you wish to re-enable shutdown, change the Value data to 0 (zero).
Friday, February 15, 2008
Microsoft
Microsoft
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Microsoft Corporation
Type
Public (NASDAQ: MSFT)
Founded
Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA (April 4, 1975)[1]
Headquarters
Redmond, Washington, United States
Key people
Bill Gates, Co-founder and Executive Chairman[1];Paul Allen, Co-founder;Steve Ballmer, CEO;Ray Ozzie, Chief Software Architect
Industry
Computer softwarePublishingResearch and developmentComputer hardwareVideo games
Products
Microsoft WindowsMicrosoft OfficeMicrosoft ServersDeveloper ToolsBusiness SolutionsGames & Xbox[2] & [3]Windows Live[4]Windows MobileZune[5]
Revenue
▲ US $51.12 billion (2007)[2]
Operating income
▲ US $18.52 billion (2007)[2]
Net income
▲ US $14.06 billion (2007)[2]
Employees
79,000 (2007)[3]
Slogan
Your potential. Our passion.
Website
www.microsoft.com
Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) (SEHK: 4338), or often just MS,[4] is an American multinational computer technology corporation with 79,000 employees in 102 countries and global annual revenue of US $51.12 billion as of 2007.[2] It develops, manufactures, licenses and supports a wide range of software products for computing devices.[5][3] Headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA, its best selling products are the Microsoft Windows operating system and the Microsoft Office suite of productivity software. These products have prominent positions in the desktop computer market, with market share estimates as high as 90% or more as of 2003 for Microsoft Office and 2006 for Microsoft Windows. One of Bill Gates' key visions is "to get a workstation running our software onto every desk and eventually in every home".[6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13]
Founded 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. The company released an initial public offering (IPO) in the stock market, which, due to the ensuing rise of the stock price, has made four billionaires and an estimated 12,000 millionaires from Microsoft employees.[14][15][16] Throughout its history the company has been the target of criticism for various reasons, including monopolistic business practices—both the U.S. Justice Department and the European Commission, among others, brought Microsoft to court for antitrust violations and software bundling.[17][18]
Microsoft has footholds in other markets besides operating systems and office suites, 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 home entertainment products such as the Xbox, Xbox 360, Zune and MSN TV.[5] Known for what is generally described as a developer-centric business culture, Microsoft has historically given customer support over Usenet newsgroups and the World Wide Web, and awards Microsoft MVP status to volunteers who are deemed helpful in assisting the company's customers.[19][16] The company's official website is one of the most visited on the Internet, receiving more than 2.4 million unique page views per day according to Alexa.com, who ranked the site 18th amongst all websites for traffic rank on September 12, 2007.[20]
Contents
[hide]
1 History
1.1 1975–1985: Founding
1.2 1985–1995: OS/2 and Windows
1.3 1995–2005: Internet and legal issues
1.4 2006–present: Vista and other transitions
2 Product divisions
2.1 Platform Products and Services Division
2.2 Business Division
2.3 Entertainment and Devices Division
3 Business culture
4 User culture
5 Corporate affairs
5.1 Corporate structure
5.2 Stock
5.3 Diversity
5.4 Logos and slogans
6 Criticism
6.1 Corporate
6.2 Products
7 See also
8 Notes and references
9 External links
History
Main article: History of Microsoft
See also: History of Microsoft Windows
1975–1985: Founding
Following the launch of the Altair 8800, Bill Gates called the creators of the 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.[21] 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, entitled "ASCII Microsoft" (now called "Microsoft Japan").[21] On January 1, 1979, the company moved from Albuquerque to a new home in Bellevue, Washington.[21] Steve Ballmer joined the company on June 11, 1980, and later succeeded Bill Gates as CEO.[21]
DOS (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.[22][23][24][25][26][27][28] The company expanded into new markets with the release of the Microsoft Mouse in 1983, as well as a publishing division named Microsoft Press.[21]
1985–1995: OS/2 and Windows
In August 1985, Microsoft and IBM partnered in the development of a different operating system called OS/2.[29] On November 20, 1985, Microsoft released its first retail version of Microsoft Windows, originally a graphical extension for its MS-DOS operating system.[21] On March 13, 1986 the company went public with an IPO, with a starting initial offering price of $21.00 and ending at the first day of trading as at US $28.00. In 1987, Microsoft eventually released their first version of OS/2 to OEMs.[30]
The sign at a main entrance to the Microsoft corporate campus. The Redmond Microsoft campus today includes more than 8 million square feet (approx. 750,000 m²) and over 30,000 employees.[31]
In 1989, Microsoft introduced its flagship office suite, Microsoft Office. This was a bundle of separate office productivity applications, such as Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel.[21] On May 22, 1990 Microsoft launched Windows 3.0.[32] 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.[33] 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.[34] 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's product Microsoft Office allowed the company to gain ground on application-software competitors, such as WordPerfect and Lotus 1-2-3.[35][36] 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.[37] Eventually, Microsoft Office became the dominant business suite, with a market share far exceeding that of its competitors.[38]
In 1993, Microsoft released Windows NT 3.1, a business operating system with the Windows 3.1 user interface but an entirely different kernel.[35] In 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.[35] The company also released its web browser, Internet Explorer, with the Windows 95 Plus! Pack in August 1995 and subsequent Windows versions.[39]
1995–2005: Internet and legal issues
In the mid-90s, Microsoft began to 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.[21][35][40] 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.[35][41] 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.[42] 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.[21]
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.[21] 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.[21] On April 3, 2000, a judgment was handed down in the case of United States v. Microsoft,[17] calling the company an "abusive monopoly"[8] 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. XP introduced a new graphical user interface, the first such change since Windows 95.[21][43] Later, with the release of the Xbox Microsoft entered the multi-billion-dollar game console market dominated by Sony and Nintendo.[21] Microsoft encountered more turmoil in March 2004 when antitrust legal action was brought against it by the European Union for abusing its market dominance (see European Union Microsoft antitrust case), eventually resulting in a judgement 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.[44][45]
2006–present: Vista and other transitions
In 2006, Bill Gates announced a two year transition period from his role as Chief Software Architect, which would be taken by Ray Ozzie, and planned to remain the company's chairman, head of the Board of Directors and act as an adviser on key projects.[46] As of December 2007, Windows Vista, released in January 2007, is Microsoft's latest operating system. Microsoft Office 2007 was released at the same time; its "Ribbon" user interface is a significant departure from its predecessors. On 1st February, 2008, Microsoft made an unsolicited bid to purchase the fully diluted outstanding shares of Yahoo for up to $44.6 billion,[47] following the company's struggle against rival search-engine company, Google, though this offer was later rejected on the 10th.
Product divisions
To 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.[48][49]
Platform Products and Services Division
The current logo of Microsoft Windows, one of the company's best-known products.
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 and Windows Vista. Almost all IBM compatible personal computers come with Windows preinstalled. The current desktop version of Windows is Windows Vista. The online service MSN, 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.[5]
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, but must be specially configured if used with non-Microsoft libraries. 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, Indigo (now renamed Windows Communication Foundation). This is intended to address some issues previously introduced by Microsoft's DLL design, which made it difficult, even impossible in some situations, to manage, install multiple versions of complex software packages on the same system (see DLL-hell), and provide a more consistent development platform for all Windows applications (see Common Language Infrastructure). In addition, the Company established a set of certification programs to recognize individuals who have expertise in its software and solutions. Similar to offerings from Cisco, Sun Microsystems, Novell, IBM, and Oracle Corporation, these tests are designed to identify a minimal set of proficiencies in a specific role; this includes developers ("Microsoft Certified Solution Developer"), system/network analysts ("Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer"), trainers ("Microsoft Certified Trainers") and administrators ("Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator" and "Microsoft Certified Database Administrator").[5]
Microsoft offers a suite of server software, entitled Windows Server System. Windows Server 2003, an operating system for network servers, is the core of the Windows Server System line. Another server product, Systems Management Server, is a collection of tools providing remote-control abilities, patch management, software distribution and a hardware/software inventory. Other server products include:
Microsoft SQL Server, a relational database management system;
Microsoft Exchange Server, for certain business-oriented e-mail features;
Small Business Server, for messaging and other small business-oriented features; and
Microsoft BizTalk Server, for employee integration assistance and other functions.[5]
Business Division
Front entrance to building 17 on the main campus of the company's Redmond campus.
The Microsoft Business Division produces Microsoft Office, which is the company's line of office software. The software product includes Word (a word processor), Access (a personal relational database application), Excel (a spreadsheet program), Outlook (Windows-only groupware, frequently used with Exchange Server), PowerPoint (presentation software), and Publisher (desktop publishing software). A number of other products were added later with the release of Office 2003 including Visio, Project, MapPoint, InfoPath and OneNote.[5]
The division focuses on developing financial and business management software for companies. These products include products formerly produced by the Business Solutions Group, which was created in April 2001 with the acquisition of Great Plains. Subsequently, Navision was acquired to provide a similar entry into the European market, resulting in the planned release of Microsoft Dynamics NAV in 2006. The group markets Axapta and Solomon, catering to similar markets, which is scheduled to be combined with the Navision and Great Plains lines into a common platform called Microsoft Dynamics.[5]
Entertainment and Devices Division
The Xbox 360, Microsoft's second system in the gaming console market.
Microsoft has attempted to expand the Windows brand into many other markets, with products such as Windows CE for PDAs and its "Windows-powered" Smartphone products. Microsoft initially entered the mobile market through Windows CE for handheld devices, which today has developed into Windows Mobile 6. The focus of the operating system is on devices where the OS may not directly be visible to the end user, in particular, appliances and cars. The company produces MSN TV, formerly WebTV, a television-based Internet appliance. Microsoft used to sell a set-top Digital Video Recorder (DVR) called the UltimateTV, which allowed users to record up to 35 hours of television programming from a direct-to-home satellite television provider DirecTV. This was the main competition in the UK for British Sky Broadcasting's (BSkyB) SKY + service, owned by Rupert Murdoch. UltimateTV has since been discontinued, with DirecTV instead opting to market DVRs from TiVo Inc. before later switching to their own DVR brand.[5]
Microsoft sells computer games that run on Windows PCs, including titles such as Age of Empires, Halo and the Microsoft Flight Simulator series. It produces a line of reference works that include encyclopedias and atlases, under the name Encarta. Microsoft Zone hosts free premium and retail games where players can compete against each other and in tournaments. Microsoft entered the multi-billion-dollar game console market dominated by Sony and Nintendo in late 2001,[50] with the release of the Xbox. The company develops and publishes its own video games for this console, with the help of its Microsoft Game Studios subsidiary, in addition to third-party Xbox video game publishers such as Electronic Arts and Activision, who pay a license fee to publish games for the system. The Xbox also has a successor in the Xbox 360, released on 2005-11-22 in North America and other countries.[51][52] With the Xbox 360, Microsoft hopes to compensate for the losses incurred with the original Xbox. However, Microsoft made some decisions considered controversial in the video gaming community, such as releasing the console with high failure rates, selling two different versions of the system, one without the HDD and providing limited backward compatibility with only particular Xbox titles.[53][54] . In addition to the Xbox line of products, Microsoft also markets a number of other computing-related hardware products as well, including mice, keyboards, joysticks, and gamepads, along with other game controllers, the production of which is outsourced in most cases. As of 15 November 2007, Microsoft announced the purchase of Musiwave, Openwave's mobile phone music sales business.[55]
Business culture
Photo of Microsoft's RedWest campus.
Landscaping at Microsoft's RedWest campus
Microsoft has often been described as having a developer-centric business culture. A great deal of time and money is spent each year on recruiting young university-trained software developers and on keeping them in the company. For example, while many software companies often place an entry-level software developer in a cubicle desk within a large office space filled with other cubicles, Microsoft assigns a private or semiprivate closed office to every developer or pair of developers. In addition, key decision makers at every level are either developers or former developers. In a sense, the software developers at Microsoft are considered the "stars" of the company in the same way that the sales staff at IBM are considered the "stars" of their company.[19]
Within Microsoft the expression "eating our own dog food" is used to describe the policy of using the latest Microsoft products inside the company in an effort to test them in "real-world" situations. Only prerelease and beta versions of products are considered dog food.[56] This is usually shortened to just "dogfood" and is used as noun, verb, and adjective. The company is also known for their hiring process, dubbed the "Microsoft interview", which is notorious for off-the-wall questions such as "Why is a manhole cover round?" and is a process often mimicked in other organizations, although these types of questions are rarer now than they were in the past.[57] For fun, Microsoft also hosts the Microsoft Puzzle Hunt, an annual puzzle hunt (a live puzzle game where teams compete to solve a series of puzzles) held at the Redmond campus.
As of 2006, Microsoft employees, not including Bill Gates, have given over $2.5 billion dollars to non-profit organizations worldwide, making Microsoft the worldwide top company in per-employee donations.[58] In January 2007, the Harris Interactive/The Wall Street Journal Reputation Quotient survey concluded that Microsoft had the world's best corporate reputation, citing strong financial performance, vision & leadership, workplace environment rankings, and the charitable deeds of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.[59]
User culture
Technical reference for developers and articles for various Microsoft magazines such as Microsoft Systems Journal (or MSJ) are available through the Microsoft Developer Network, often called MSDN. MSDN also offers subscriptions for companies and individuals, and the more expensive subscriptions usually offer access to pre-release beta versions of Microsoft software.[60][61] In recent years, Microsoft launched a community site for developers and users, entitled Channel9, which provides many modern features such as a wiki and an Internet forum.[62] Another community site that provides daily videocasts and other services, On10.net, launched on March 3, 2006.[63]
Most free technical support available through Microsoft is provided through online Usenet newsgroups (in the early days it was also provided on CompuServe). There are several of these newsgroups for nearly every product Microsoft provides, and often they are monitored by Microsoft employees. People who are helpful on the newsgroups can be elected by other peers or Microsoft employees for Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) status, which entitles people to a sort of special social status, in addition to possibilities for awards and other benefits.[16]
By 2005, the city of Seattle in the state of Washington had 2,500 users who owned smartphone and desktop computer versions of the JamBayes Traffic Forecasting Service, developed by researchers at Microsoft and the University of Washington.[64] Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Sequoia Capital, Skymoon Ventures, Crescendo Ventures, ZenShin Capital Partners, Artis Capital, Gold Hill Capital, and several individuals gave Dash USD$45 million for Dash Express which Wired News says "learns from its users". "If a Dash owner is moving 5 miles per hour in a 45 mph (72 km/h) zone, Dash servers will realize he's in traffic and warn other Dash drivers to choose faster routes".[65]
Corporate affairs
Corporate structure
The company is run by a Board of Directors consisting of ten people, made up of mostly company outsiders (as is customary for publicly traded companies). Current members of the board of directors are: Steve Ballmer, James Cash, Jr., Dina Dublon, Bill Gates, Raymond Gilmartin, Reed Hastings, David Marquardt, Charles Noski, Helmut Panke, and Jon Shirley.[66] The ten board members are elected every year at the annual shareholders' meeting, and those who do not get a majority of votes must submit a resignation to the board, which will subsequently choose whether or not to accept the resignation. There are five committees within the board which oversee more specific matters. These committees include the Audit Committee, which handles accounting issues with the company including auditing and reporting; the Compensation Committee, which approves compensation for the CEO and other employees of the company; the Finance Committee, which handles financial matters such as proposing mergers and acquisitions; the Governance and Nominating Committee, which handles various corporate matters including nomination of the board; and the Antitrust Compliance Committee, which attempts to prevent company practices from violating antitrust laws.[67][68]
There are several other aspects to the corporate structure of Microsoft. For worldwide matters there is the Executive Team, made up of sixteen company officers across the globe, which is charged with various duties including making sure employees understand Microsoft's culture of business. The sixteen officers of the Executive Team include the Chairman and Chief Software Architect, the CEO, the General Counsel and Secretary, the CFO, senior and group vice presidents from the business units, the CEO of the Europe, the Middle East and Africa regions; and the heads of Worldwide Sales, Marketing and Services; Human Resources; and Corporate Marketing. In addition to the Executive Team there is also the Corporate Staff Council, which handles all major staff functions of the company, including approving corporate policies. The Corporate Staff Council is made up of employees from the Law and Corporate Affairs, Finance, Human Resources, Corporate Marketing, and Advanced Strategy and Policy groups at Microsoft. Other Executive Officers include the Presidents and Vice Presidents of the various product divisions, leaders of the marketing section, and the CTO, among others.[69][5]
Stock
When the company debuted its IPO in March 13, 1986, the stock price was US $21.[70][71] By the close of the first trading day, the stock had closed at $28, equivalent to 9.7 cents when adjusted for the company's first nine splits.[71] The initial close and ensuing rise in subsequent years made several Microsoft employees millions.[15] The stock price peaked in 1999 at around US $119 (US $60.928 adjusting for splits).[71] While the company has had nine stock splits, the first of which was in September 18, 1987, the company did not start offering a dividend until January 16, 2003.[71][72] The dividend for the 2003 fiscal year was eight cents per share, followed by a dividend of sixteen cents per share the subsequent year.[72] The company switched from yearly to quarterly dividends in 2005, for eight cents a share per quarter with a special one-time payout of three dollars per share for the second quarter of the fiscal year.[72]
Around 2003 the stock price began a slow descent. Despite the company's ninth split on February 2, 2003 and subsequent increases in dividend payouts, the price of Microsoft's stock continued to fall for the next several years.[72][73]
Diversity
In 2005, Microsoft received a 100% rating in the Corporate Equality Index from the Human Rights Campaign, a ranking of companies by how progressive the organization deems their policies concerning LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual) employees. Partly through the work of the Gay and Lesbian Employees at Microsoft (GLEAM) group, Microsoft added gender expression to its anti-discrimination policies in April 2005, and the Human Rights Campaign upgraded Microsoft's Corporate Equality Index from its 86% rating in 2004 to its current 100% rating.[74][75]
In April 2005, Microsoft received wide criticism for withdrawing support from Washington state's H.B. 1515 bill that would have extended the state's current anti-discrimination laws to people with alternate sexual orientations.[76] Microsoft was accused of bowing to pressure from local evangelical pastor Ken Hutcherson who met with a senior Microsoft executive and threatened a national boycott of Microsoft's products. [77] Microsoft also revealed they were paying evangelical conservative Ralph Reed's company Century Strategies a $20,000 monthly fee.[78] Over 2,000 employees signed a petition asking Microsoft to reinstate support for the bill. [79] Under harsh criticism from both outside and inside the company's walls, Microsoft decided to support the bill again in May 2005.[80][79]
Microsoft hires many foreign workers as well as domestic ones, and is an outspoken opponent of the cap on H1B visas, which allow companies in the United States to employ certain foreign workers. Bill Gates claims the cap on H1B visas make it difficult to hire employees for the company, stating "I'd certainly get rid of the H1B cap."[81]
Logos and slogans
In 1987, Microsoft adopted its current logo, the so-called "Pacman Logo" designed by Scott Baker. According to the March 1987 Computer Reseller News Magazine, "The new logo, in Helvetica italic typeface, has a slash between the o and s to emphasize the "soft" part of the name and convey motion and speed." Dave Norris, a Microsoft employee, ran an internal joke campaign to save the old logo, which was green, in all uppercase, and featured a fanciful letter O, nicknamed the blibbet, but it was discarded.[82]
Microsoft's logo with the "Your potential. Our passion." tagline below the main corporate name, is based on the slogan Microsoft had as of 2008. In 2002, the company started using the logo in the United States and eventually started a TV campaign with the slogan, changed from the previous tagline of "Where do you want to go today?."[83][84][85]
Microsoft "blibbet" logo, used until 1987.
Microsoft logo with the 1994–2002 slogan "Where do you want to go today?"[83][84]
Microsoft logo as of 2008, with the slogan "Your potential. Our passion."[84]
Criticism
Main article: Criticism of Microsoft
Corporate
Since the 1980s, Microsoft has been the focus of much controversy in the computer industry. The majority of criticism has been for its business tactics, often described with the motto "embrace, extend and extinguish". Microsoft initially embraces a competing standard or product, then extends it to produce their own incompatible version of the software or standard, which in time extinguishes competition that does not or cannot use Microsoft's new version.[86] These and other tactics have led to various companies and governments filing lawsuits against Microsoft.[87][45][17] Microsoft has been called a "velvet sweatshop" in reference to allegations of the company working its employees to the point where it might be bad for their health. The first instance of "velvet sweatshop" in reference to Microsoft originated from a Seattle Times article in 1989, and later became used to describe the company by some of Microsoft's own employees.[88][89]
Free software proponents point to the company's joining of the Trusted Computing Platform Alliance (TCPA) as a cause of concern. A group of companies that seek to implement an initiative called Trusted Computing (which is claimed to set out to increase security and privacy in a user's computer), the TCPA is decried by critics as a means to allow software developers to enforce any sort of restriction they wish over their software.
“ Large media corporations, together with computer companies such as Microsoft and Intel, are planning to make your computer obey them instead of you”
Richard Stallman, founder of the Free Software Foundation[90]
Advocates of free software also take issue with Microsoft's promotion of Digital Rights Management (DRM) and total cost of ownership (TCO) comparisons with its "Get the facts" campaign. Digital Rights Management is a technology that allows content providers to impose restrictions on the methods by which their products are used on consumer hardware; and subsequently, detractors contend that such technology is an infringement on fair use and other rights, especially given that it inhibits legal activities such as re-mixing or reproduction of material for use in slide shows.[91] The "Get the facts" campaign argues that Windows Server has a lower TCO than Linux and lists a variety of studies in order to prove its case.[92] Proponents of Linux unveiled their own study arguing that, contrary to one of Microsoft's claims, Linux has lower management costs than Windows Server.[93] Another study by the Yankee Group claims that upgrading from one version of Windows Server to another costs less than switching from Windows Server to Linux.[94]
Products
For criticism of Windows Vista, see Criticism of Windows Vista
For criticism of Windows XP, see Criticism of Windows XP
For criticism of Windows 2000, see the criticism section of the Windows 2000 article
For criticism of Windows Me, see the criticism section of the Windows Me article
For criticism of Windows 9x, see the criticism section of the Windows 9x article
For criticism of Internet Explorer, see Criticism of Internet Explorer
For criticism of Microsoft Office, see the criticism section of the Microsoft Office article
See also
Microsoft Portal
Companies Portal
General
Pirates of Silicon Valley − A movie based on the rise of Apple and Microsoft.
Microsoft
Actimates − Set of toys developed by Microsoft.
Pcsafety − Part of Microsoft's technical support that deals with malware and virus issues.
Trustworthy Computing − Microsoft's initiative for increasing security and reliability on PCs.
Ultra Mobile PC − Joint specification by Microsoft and others for a small form factor tablet PC.
Microsoft Studios − A division responsible for the creation of video content for Microsoft and its partners.
Microsoft Research − A division responsible for the research of computer sciences.
Studies related to Microsoft
Lists
List of assets owned by Microsoft Corporation
List of companies acquired by Microsoft Corporation
List of Microsoft software applications
List of Microsoft topics
List of Battles that Microsoft and Google have waged against each other
Notes and references
This article uses citations that are either broken or outdated.This article uses citations that link to broken or outdated sources, and are deemed unreliable. Please improve the article or discuss this issue on the talk page. Help on using footnotes is available. This article has been tagged since November 2007.
1. ^ "Bill Gates: A timeline", news.bbc.co.uk, BBC News, 2006-06-15. Retrieved on 2007-08-15.
2. ^ a b c d MSFT Investor Relations (2007-07-19). "Microsoft Fourth Quarter FY 2007 Earnings Release: Microsoft’s Annual Revenue Surpasses $50 Billion". microsoft.com. Microsoft. Retrieved on 2007-08-15.
3. ^ a b "Fast Facts About Microsoft". microsoft.com. Microsoft (2007-08-01). Retrieved on 2007-08-15.
4. ^ David Armstrong. "Special meaning for 'MS'", The Press, 1998-07-28, p. 23. "MS, known to millions worldwide as the trademark for Bill Gates's Microsoft empire, has a dual meaning for retired Christchurch journalist John Brown."
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Microsoft Corporation Annual Report 2005 (doc). Microsoft. Retrieved on 2005-10-01.
6. ^ Quote from ComputerWorld 1985 (7/22); there is as yet no documented use of this vision statement prior to 1985. Gates' official bio asserts that he was 'Guided by a belief that the computer would be a valuable tool on every office desktop and in every home'.
7. ^ Bishop, Todd. "The rest of the motto", Todd Bishop's Microsoft Blog, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, September 23, 2004. Retrieved on 2007-01-22.
8. ^ a b Thomas Penfield Jackson, U.S. District Judge (1999-11-05). U.S. vs. Microsoft findings of fact. U.S. Department of Justice. Retrieved on 2006-05-18.
9. ^ Matthew Fordahl (2005-08-05). Beta version of Microsoft's Vista shows a lot of potential. Associated Press. Retrieved on 2006-09-02.
10. ^ Daisuke Wakabayashi (2006-12-01). Microsoft launches Vista version of Windows. Reuters. Retrieved on 2007-07-11.
11. ^ Michael Kanellos (2006-01-18). PC market surged in 2005, will settle in 2006. CNET News.com. Retrieved on 2007-07-11.
12. ^ Todd Bishop (2003-10-20). Microsoft unveils Office 2003. Seattle Post-Intelligencer Reporter. Retrieved on 2007-07-11.
13. ^ Patrick Thibodeau (2002-05-02). Can StarOffice Steal Users From Microsoft?. PC World. Retrieved on 2007-07-11.
14. ^ Chapman, Merrill R., In search of stupidity: over 20 years of high-tech marketing disasters (2nd Edition), Apress, ISBN 1-59059-721-4
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20. ^ Related info for: Microsoft.com. Alexa.com. Retrieved on 2007-09-12.
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22. ^ Booting Your PC: Getting Up Close & Personal With A Computer’s BIOS. Smart Computing (November 1999). Retrieved on 2006-09-02.
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26. ^ MS DOS and PC DOS. Lexikon's History of Computing. Retrieved on 2006-07-05.
27. ^ "When It Comes To DOS, You Now Have A Choice", Smart Computing, June 1994. Retrieved on 2006-07-05.
28. ^ "Microsoft to Microsoft disk operating system (MS-DOS)", Smart Computing, March 2002. Retrieved on 2006-07-05.
29. ^ Manek Dubash (2005-07-19). Techworld Article:OS/2 users must look elsewhere. Techworld. IDG. Retrieved on 2005-07-05.
30. ^ Microsoft Systems Journal — 1986–1994 Index. Microsoft. Retrieved on 2007-03-31. See May 1987 releases.
31. ^ Seattle Post-Intelligencer Staff. "Redmond council OKs Microsoft expansion", Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 2005-05-18. Retrieved on 2006-07-04.
32. ^ Microsoft (1990). "Windows 3.0 is Here" (PDF). Press release. Retrieved on 2007-03-31.
33. ^ Windows History. Microsoft (2002-06-30). Retrieved on 2006-07-03.
34. ^ David Both. OS/2 History. OS/2 VOICE. Retrieved on 2006-07-03.
35. ^ a b c d e Microsoft Company 15 September 1975. The History of Computing Project. Retrieved on August 11, 2005.
36. ^ Steve Masters (1998-02-13). Behind the Pearly Gates. VNU Business Publications. Retrieved on 2006-07-04.
37. ^ Andrew Orlowski (2004-11-16). Novell's MS complaint: we wuz robbed. The Register. Situation Publishing Ltd. Retrieved on 2006-07-04.
38. ^ McCracken, Harry. "A Peek at Office Upgrade", PCWorld.com, 2000-09-13. Retrieved on 2006-07-04.
39. ^ Sandi Hardmeier (2005-08-25). Microsoft - The History of Internet Explorer. Microsoft. Retrieved on 2007-02-06.
40. ^ MSN Historical Timeline: A brief history of milestone events in the life of MSN from the past ten years. Microsoft (June 2005). Retrieved on 2006-07-03.
41. ^ Marketplace: News Archives for July 15, 1996. American Public Media. Retrieved on 2006-07-03.
42. ^ The History of Microsoft Windows CS. HPC:Factor. Retrieved on 2006-07-03.
43. ^ Windows XP Professional Features. Microsoft (2004-08-25). Retrieved on 2006-07-03.
44. ^ "Microsoft hit by record EU fine", CNN, 2004-03-25. Retrieved on 2006-05-19.
45. ^ a b Commission Decision of 24.03.2004 relating to a proceeding under Article 82 of the EC Treaty (Case COMP/C-3/37.792 Microsoft) (PDF). Commission of the European Communities (2004-04-21). Retrieved on August 5, 2005. (from the official EU website)
46. ^ Microsoft (2006-06-15). "Microsoft Announces Plans for July 2008 Transition for Bill Gates". Press release. Retrieved on 2006-06-16.
47. ^ 5th UPDATE: Microsoft Offers To Buy Yahoo For $44.6 Billion
48. ^ Our Commitment to Our Customers: Microsoft's Business. Microsoft (2005-09-20). Retrieved on 2007-03-31.
49. ^ Microsoft (2005-09-20). "Microsoft Realigns for Next Wave of Innovation and Growth: CEO Ballmer appoints presidents of three core divisions; Allchin announces retirement plan". Press release. Retrieved on September 26.
50. ^ NPD Reports Annual 2001 U.S. Interactive Entertainment Sales Shatter Industry Record. Business Wire (February 7, 2002). Retrieved on 2007-03-31.
51. ^ Alexander Wolfe (November 22, 2005). Midnight Madness Hypes Xbox 360 Launch. Information Week. CMP Media. Retrieved on 2006-07-03.
52. ^ Xbox 360 sells out within hours. BBC (December 2, 2005). Retrieved on 2006-07-03.
53. ^ Tor Thorsen (2005-11-11). 360 to play 200-plus Xbox games. GameSpot. Retrieved on 2006-07-14.
54. ^ Tor Thorsen (2005-12-09). 360 backward-compatibility update rereleased. GameSpot. Retrieved on 2006-07-14.
55. ^ Musiwave acquisition (2007-11-15). Retrieved on 2007-12-13.
56. ^ CNET News.com Staff (2003-07-21). Microsoft tests its own 'dog food'. ZDNet. CNET Networks. Retrieved on 2005-10-09.
57. ^ William Poundstone (2003-05-21). Square Manhole Covers and Crazy Questions. G4TV. G4 Media. Retrieved on 2006-07-01.
58. ^ Microsoft (September 21, 2006). "Microsoft and Its Employees Surpass $2.5 Billion Mark Through Charitable Donations: Culture of volunteerism and philanthropy encourages company and 70,000 employees to make a difference". Press release. Retrieved on 2006-09-22.
59. ^ Ron Alsop. "How Boss's Deeds Buff a Firm's Reputation", The Wall Street Journal, 2007-01-31. Retrieved on 2007-01-31.
60. ^ MSDN Subscription FAQ. Microsoft. Retrieved on 2006-07-03.
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62. ^ Neville Hobson (2005-04-11). Microsoft's Channel 9 And Cultural Rules. WebProNews. iEntry Inc. Retrieved on 2006-07-03.
63. ^ On10.net homepage. Retrieved on 2006-05-04.
64. ^ Horvitz, Eric, Johnson Apacible, Raman Sarin, and Lin Liao. [http://research.microsoft.com/~horvitz/horvitz_traffic_uai2005.pdf Prediction, Expectation, and Surprise: Methods, Designs, and Study of a Deployed Traffic Forecasting Service] (PDF). Microsoft Research (research.microsoft.com/~horvitz). Retrieved on 2007-12-18.
65. ^ Sloane, Julie. "Top 10 Startups Worth Watching in 2008", Wired.com, December 24, 2007. Retrieved on 2007-12-24.
66. ^ Microsoft. "Microsoft Board of Directors". Press release. Retrieved on 2007-03-26.
67. ^ Microsoft Corporation Corporate Governance Guidelines. Microsoft. Retrieved on 9 October 2005.
68. ^ Microsoft 2005 Proxy Statement. Microsoft. Retrieved on 2006-07-03.
69. ^ Microsoft 2004 Citizenship Report. Microsoft. Retrieved on 9 October 2005.
70. ^ Microsoft Stock and Shareholder Frequently Asked Questions. Microsoft. Retrieved on 2006-07-03.
71. ^ a b c d Microsoft stock price spreadsheet from Microsoft investor relations. Microsoft. Retrieved on 2006-07-04. (Microsoft Excel format)
72. ^ a b c d Dividend Frequently Asked Questions. Microsoft. Retrieved on 2006-07-03.
73. ^ Yahoo MSFT stock chart. Yahoo Finance. Retrieved on 9 October 2005.* MSN Money MSFT chart with dividend and split info. MSN Money. Retrieved on 9 October 2005.* Ina Fried and Scott Ard (June 15, 2006). Gates stepping down from full-time Microsoft role, page 2. ZDNet News. Retrieved on 2006-07-04.
74. ^ Corporate Equality Index: A Report Card on Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Equality in Corporate America (PDF). Human Rights Campaign Foundation (2005). Retrieved on October 13, 2005.
75. ^ Gay and Lesbian Employees at Microsoft (GLEAM). Microsoft. Retrieved on 2006-06-26.
76. ^ Human Rights Campaign Foundation (April 22, 2005). "HRC Expresses profound disappointment with Microsoft's withdrawal of support for H.B. 1515". Press release. Retrieved on August 11.
77. ^ Microsoft Caves on Gay Rights
78. ^ Payments to Reed Sully Microsoft
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80. ^ Human Rights Campaign Foundation (May 6, 2005). "Microsoft makes right decision renewing support for workplace fairness". Press release. Retrieved on August 11.
81. ^ Roy Mark (2005-04-27). Gates Rakes Congress on H1B Visa Cap. internetnews.com. Retrieved on 2007-02-26.
82. ^ Larry Osterman (July 14, 2005). Remember the blibbet. Larry Osterman's WebLog. Retrieved on 2006-07-04.
83. ^ a b The Rise and Rise of the Redmond Empire. Wired (December 1998). Retrieved on 2006-09-02.
84. ^ a b c Randi Schmelzer. "McCann Thinks Local for Global Microsoft", Adweek, 2006-01-09. Retrieved on 2006-05-18.
85. ^ Jeremy Reimer (2006-01-23). Microsoft set to launch new marketing campaign. Ars Technica. Retrieved on 2006-09-02.
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87. ^ Burst.com Inc. (March 11, 2005). "Microsoft Corp. Licenses Burst.com Patents & Settles Suit". Press release. Retrieved on 2006-05-18.* Andrew Orlowski (2004-03-05). Eolas' web patent nullified. theregister.co.uk. Retrieved on 2006-05-18.* Tony Dennis (2002-12-24). Sendo & Microsoft — it all ends in tears. TheInquirer.net. Retrieved on 2006-05-18.* Dan Nystedt. "Update: Microsoft fined $32M by South Korea", IDG News Service, 2005-12-07. Retrieved on 2006-05-19.
88. ^ Andrews, Paul. "A 'Velvet Sweatshop' or a High-Tech Heaven?", The Seattle Times, 23 April 1989. Retrieved on 2007-03-30.
89. ^ Editor's note. Microsoft Systems Journal (August 1997). Retrieved on September 27, 2005.
90. ^ Robert Lemos (2002-11-07). Trust or treachery? Security technologies could backfire against consumers. CNet news.com. Retrieved on 2006-05-18.
91. ^ David Chisnall (2006-05-04). DRM: Digital Rights or Digital Restrictions?. Informit.com. Retrieved on 2006-05-18.
92. ^ Get the facts home. Microsoft. Retrieved on 2006-05-19.
93. ^ Robert Jaques (2006-02-13). Linux fans hit back at Microsoft TCO claims. vnunet.com. Retrieved on 2006-05-19.
94. ^ Mary Jo Foley. "Yankee Independently Pits Windows TCO vs. Linux TCO", eWeek.com, 2004-03-24. Retrieved on 2006-05-19.
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Adobe · CA · EA · Intuit · McAfee · Microsoft · Nintendo · Novell · Oracle · Red Hat · SAP · Symantec
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3 · América Móvil · AT&T · Bharti Airtel · BSNL · BT · Cablevision · Comcast · Deutsche Telekom · EarthLink · France Télécom · KT · NTT · Qwest · RCN · Rogers · SK Telecom · Sprint Nextel · Swisscom · Telecom Italia · Telefónica · Telmex · Time Warner · Verizon · Virgin · Vodafone
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Activision · Adobe Systems · Akamai Technologies · Altera · Amazon.com · Amgen · Amylin Pharmaceuticals · Apollo Group · Apple Inc. · Applied Materials · Autodesk · Baidu.com · BEA Systems · Bed Bath & Beyond · Biogen Idec · Broadcom · C. H. Robinson Worldwide · Cadence Design Systems · Celgene · Cephalon · Check Point · Cintas · Cisco Systems · Citrix Systems · Cognizant Technology Solutions · Comcast · Costco · Dell · DENTSPLY International · Discovery Holding Company · Dish Network Corporation · eBay · Electronic Arts · Expedia, Inc. · Expeditors International · Express Scripts · Fastenal · Fiserv · Flextronics · Focus Media Holding · Foster Wheeler Corporation · Garmin · Genzyme · Gilead Sciences · Google · Hansen Natural · Henry Schein · Hologic · IAC/InterActiveCorp · Infosys · Intel Corporation · Intuit · Intuitive Surgical · Joy Global · Juniper Networks · KLA-Tencor · Lam Research · Lamar Advertising Company · Leap Wireless International · Level 3 Communications · Liberty Global, Inc. · Liberty Media Corporation · Linear Technology · Logitech · Marvell Technology Group · Microchip Technology · Microsoft · Millicom International Cellular · Monster Worldwide · Network Appliance · NII Holdings · Nvidia · Oracle Corporation · PACCAR · Patterson Companies · Paychex · PetSmart · Qualcomm · Research In Motion · Ryanair · SanDisk · Sears Holdings Corporation · Sigma-Aldrich · Sirius Satellite Radio · Staples, Inc. · Starbucks · Steel Dynamics · Stericycle · Sun Microsystems · Symantec · Tellabs · Teva Pharmaceutical Industries · UAL Corporation · VeriSign · Vertex Pharmaceuticals · Virgin Media · Whole Foods Market · Wynn Resorts · Xilinx · Yahoo!
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Seattle-based Corporations (within the Seattle metropolitan area)
Seattle-based Fortune 500 Corporations (by size):Washington Mutual • Amazon.com • Nordstrom • Starbucks • Safeco
Seattle-based Fortune 1000 Corporations (by size):Companies listed above, plus: Alaska Airlines • Expeditors International • Plum Creek TimberPuget Sound-based Fortune 1000 Corporations (by size):Companies listed above, plus: Costco Wholesale • Microsoft • Weyerhaeuser • Paccar • Puget Sound Energy
Major Seattle- and Puget Sound-based non-public or externally owned corporations:Nintendo of America • R.E.I. • T-Mobile USA • WestFarm Foods
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Microsoft Corporation
Type
Public (NASDAQ: MSFT)
Founded
Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA (April 4, 1975)[1]
Headquarters
Redmond, Washington, United States
Key people
Bill Gates, Co-founder and Executive Chairman[1];Paul Allen, Co-founder;Steve Ballmer, CEO;Ray Ozzie, Chief Software Architect
Industry
Computer softwarePublishingResearch and developmentComputer hardwareVideo games
Products
Microsoft WindowsMicrosoft OfficeMicrosoft ServersDeveloper ToolsBusiness SolutionsGames & Xbox[2] & [3]Windows Live[4]Windows MobileZune[5]
Revenue
▲ US $51.12 billion (2007)[2]
Operating income
▲ US $18.52 billion (2007)[2]
Net income
▲ US $14.06 billion (2007)[2]
Employees
79,000 (2007)[3]
Slogan
Your potential. Our passion.
Website
www.microsoft.com
Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) (SEHK: 4338), or often just MS,[4] is an American multinational computer technology corporation with 79,000 employees in 102 countries and global annual revenue of US $51.12 billion as of 2007.[2] It develops, manufactures, licenses and supports a wide range of software products for computing devices.[5][3] Headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA, its best selling products are the Microsoft Windows operating system and the Microsoft Office suite of productivity software. These products have prominent positions in the desktop computer market, with market share estimates as high as 90% or more as of 2003 for Microsoft Office and 2006 for Microsoft Windows. One of Bill Gates' key visions is "to get a workstation running our software onto every desk and eventually in every home".[6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13]
Founded 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. The company released an initial public offering (IPO) in the stock market, which, due to the ensuing rise of the stock price, has made four billionaires and an estimated 12,000 millionaires from Microsoft employees.[14][15][16] Throughout its history the company has been the target of criticism for various reasons, including monopolistic business practices—both the U.S. Justice Department and the European Commission, among others, brought Microsoft to court for antitrust violations and software bundling.[17][18]
Microsoft has footholds in other markets besides operating systems and office suites, 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 home entertainment products such as the Xbox, Xbox 360, Zune and MSN TV.[5] Known for what is generally described as a developer-centric business culture, Microsoft has historically given customer support over Usenet newsgroups and the World Wide Web, and awards Microsoft MVP status to volunteers who are deemed helpful in assisting the company's customers.[19][16] The company's official website is one of the most visited on the Internet, receiving more than 2.4 million unique page views per day according to Alexa.com, who ranked the site 18th amongst all websites for traffic rank on September 12, 2007.[20]
Contents
[hide]
1 History
1.1 1975–1985: Founding
1.2 1985–1995: OS/2 and Windows
1.3 1995–2005: Internet and legal issues
1.4 2006–present: Vista and other transitions
2 Product divisions
2.1 Platform Products and Services Division
2.2 Business Division
2.3 Entertainment and Devices Division
3 Business culture
4 User culture
5 Corporate affairs
5.1 Corporate structure
5.2 Stock
5.3 Diversity
5.4 Logos and slogans
6 Criticism
6.1 Corporate
6.2 Products
7 See also
8 Notes and references
9 External links
History
Main article: History of Microsoft
See also: History of Microsoft Windows
1975–1985: Founding
Following the launch of the Altair 8800, Bill Gates called the creators of the 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.[21] 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, entitled "ASCII Microsoft" (now called "Microsoft Japan").[21] On January 1, 1979, the company moved from Albuquerque to a new home in Bellevue, Washington.[21] Steve Ballmer joined the company on June 11, 1980, and later succeeded Bill Gates as CEO.[21]
DOS (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.[22][23][24][25][26][27][28] The company expanded into new markets with the release of the Microsoft Mouse in 1983, as well as a publishing division named Microsoft Press.[21]
1985–1995: OS/2 and Windows
In August 1985, Microsoft and IBM partnered in the development of a different operating system called OS/2.[29] On November 20, 1985, Microsoft released its first retail version of Microsoft Windows, originally a graphical extension for its MS-DOS operating system.[21] On March 13, 1986 the company went public with an IPO, with a starting initial offering price of $21.00 and ending at the first day of trading as at US $28.00. In 1987, Microsoft eventually released their first version of OS/2 to OEMs.[30]
The sign at a main entrance to the Microsoft corporate campus. The Redmond Microsoft campus today includes more than 8 million square feet (approx. 750,000 m²) and over 30,000 employees.[31]
In 1989, Microsoft introduced its flagship office suite, Microsoft Office. This was a bundle of separate office productivity applications, such as Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel.[21] On May 22, 1990 Microsoft launched Windows 3.0.[32] 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.[33] 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.[34] 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's product Microsoft Office allowed the company to gain ground on application-software competitors, such as WordPerfect and Lotus 1-2-3.[35][36] 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.[37] Eventually, Microsoft Office became the dominant business suite, with a market share far exceeding that of its competitors.[38]
In 1993, Microsoft released Windows NT 3.1, a business operating system with the Windows 3.1 user interface but an entirely different kernel.[35] In 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.[35] The company also released its web browser, Internet Explorer, with the Windows 95 Plus! Pack in August 1995 and subsequent Windows versions.[39]
1995–2005: Internet and legal issues
In the mid-90s, Microsoft began to 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.[21][35][40] 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.[35][41] 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.[42] 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.[21]
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.[21] 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.[21] On April 3, 2000, a judgment was handed down in the case of United States v. Microsoft,[17] calling the company an "abusive monopoly"[8] 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. XP introduced a new graphical user interface, the first such change since Windows 95.[21][43] Later, with the release of the Xbox Microsoft entered the multi-billion-dollar game console market dominated by Sony and Nintendo.[21] Microsoft encountered more turmoil in March 2004 when antitrust legal action was brought against it by the European Union for abusing its market dominance (see European Union Microsoft antitrust case), eventually resulting in a judgement 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.[44][45]
2006–present: Vista and other transitions
In 2006, Bill Gates announced a two year transition period from his role as Chief Software Architect, which would be taken by Ray Ozzie, and planned to remain the company's chairman, head of the Board of Directors and act as an adviser on key projects.[46] As of December 2007, Windows Vista, released in January 2007, is Microsoft's latest operating system. Microsoft Office 2007 was released at the same time; its "Ribbon" user interface is a significant departure from its predecessors. On 1st February, 2008, Microsoft made an unsolicited bid to purchase the fully diluted outstanding shares of Yahoo for up to $44.6 billion,[47] following the company's struggle against rival search-engine company, Google, though this offer was later rejected on the 10th.
Product divisions
To 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.[48][49]
Platform Products and Services Division
The current logo of Microsoft Windows, one of the company's best-known products.
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 and Windows Vista. Almost all IBM compatible personal computers come with Windows preinstalled. The current desktop version of Windows is Windows Vista. The online service MSN, 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.[5]
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, but must be specially configured if used with non-Microsoft libraries. 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, Indigo (now renamed Windows Communication Foundation). This is intended to address some issues previously introduced by Microsoft's DLL design, which made it difficult, even impossible in some situations, to manage, install multiple versions of complex software packages on the same system (see DLL-hell), and provide a more consistent development platform for all Windows applications (see Common Language Infrastructure). In addition, the Company established a set of certification programs to recognize individuals who have expertise in its software and solutions. Similar to offerings from Cisco, Sun Microsystems, Novell, IBM, and Oracle Corporation, these tests are designed to identify a minimal set of proficiencies in a specific role; this includes developers ("Microsoft Certified Solution Developer"), system/network analysts ("Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer"), trainers ("Microsoft Certified Trainers") and administrators ("Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator" and "Microsoft Certified Database Administrator").[5]
Microsoft offers a suite of server software, entitled Windows Server System. Windows Server 2003, an operating system for network servers, is the core of the Windows Server System line. Another server product, Systems Management Server, is a collection of tools providing remote-control abilities, patch management, software distribution and a hardware/software inventory. Other server products include:
Microsoft SQL Server, a relational database management system;
Microsoft Exchange Server, for certain business-oriented e-mail features;
Small Business Server, for messaging and other small business-oriented features; and
Microsoft BizTalk Server, for employee integration assistance and other functions.[5]
Business Division
Front entrance to building 17 on the main campus of the company's Redmond campus.
The Microsoft Business Division produces Microsoft Office, which is the company's line of office software. The software product includes Word (a word processor), Access (a personal relational database application), Excel (a spreadsheet program), Outlook (Windows-only groupware, frequently used with Exchange Server), PowerPoint (presentation software), and Publisher (desktop publishing software). A number of other products were added later with the release of Office 2003 including Visio, Project, MapPoint, InfoPath and OneNote.[5]
The division focuses on developing financial and business management software for companies. These products include products formerly produced by the Business Solutions Group, which was created in April 2001 with the acquisition of Great Plains. Subsequently, Navision was acquired to provide a similar entry into the European market, resulting in the planned release of Microsoft Dynamics NAV in 2006. The group markets Axapta and Solomon, catering to similar markets, which is scheduled to be combined with the Navision and Great Plains lines into a common platform called Microsoft Dynamics.[5]
Entertainment and Devices Division
The Xbox 360, Microsoft's second system in the gaming console market.
Microsoft has attempted to expand the Windows brand into many other markets, with products such as Windows CE for PDAs and its "Windows-powered" Smartphone products. Microsoft initially entered the mobile market through Windows CE for handheld devices, which today has developed into Windows Mobile 6. The focus of the operating system is on devices where the OS may not directly be visible to the end user, in particular, appliances and cars. The company produces MSN TV, formerly WebTV, a television-based Internet appliance. Microsoft used to sell a set-top Digital Video Recorder (DVR) called the UltimateTV, which allowed users to record up to 35 hours of television programming from a direct-to-home satellite television provider DirecTV. This was the main competition in the UK for British Sky Broadcasting's (BSkyB) SKY + service, owned by Rupert Murdoch. UltimateTV has since been discontinued, with DirecTV instead opting to market DVRs from TiVo Inc. before later switching to their own DVR brand.[5]
Microsoft sells computer games that run on Windows PCs, including titles such as Age of Empires, Halo and the Microsoft Flight Simulator series. It produces a line of reference works that include encyclopedias and atlases, under the name Encarta. Microsoft Zone hosts free premium and retail games where players can compete against each other and in tournaments. Microsoft entered the multi-billion-dollar game console market dominated by Sony and Nintendo in late 2001,[50] with the release of the Xbox. The company develops and publishes its own video games for this console, with the help of its Microsoft Game Studios subsidiary, in addition to third-party Xbox video game publishers such as Electronic Arts and Activision, who pay a license fee to publish games for the system. The Xbox also has a successor in the Xbox 360, released on 2005-11-22 in North America and other countries.[51][52] With the Xbox 360, Microsoft hopes to compensate for the losses incurred with the original Xbox. However, Microsoft made some decisions considered controversial in the video gaming community, such as releasing the console with high failure rates, selling two different versions of the system, one without the HDD and providing limited backward compatibility with only particular Xbox titles.[53][54] . In addition to the Xbox line of products, Microsoft also markets a number of other computing-related hardware products as well, including mice, keyboards, joysticks, and gamepads, along with other game controllers, the production of which is outsourced in most cases. As of 15 November 2007, Microsoft announced the purchase of Musiwave, Openwave's mobile phone music sales business.[55]
Business culture
Photo of Microsoft's RedWest campus.
Landscaping at Microsoft's RedWest campus
Microsoft has often been described as having a developer-centric business culture. A great deal of time and money is spent each year on recruiting young university-trained software developers and on keeping them in the company. For example, while many software companies often place an entry-level software developer in a cubicle desk within a large office space filled with other cubicles, Microsoft assigns a private or semiprivate closed office to every developer or pair of developers. In addition, key decision makers at every level are either developers or former developers. In a sense, the software developers at Microsoft are considered the "stars" of the company in the same way that the sales staff at IBM are considered the "stars" of their company.[19]
Within Microsoft the expression "eating our own dog food" is used to describe the policy of using the latest Microsoft products inside the company in an effort to test them in "real-world" situations. Only prerelease and beta versions of products are considered dog food.[56] This is usually shortened to just "dogfood" and is used as noun, verb, and adjective. The company is also known for their hiring process, dubbed the "Microsoft interview", which is notorious for off-the-wall questions such as "Why is a manhole cover round?" and is a process often mimicked in other organizations, although these types of questions are rarer now than they were in the past.[57] For fun, Microsoft also hosts the Microsoft Puzzle Hunt, an annual puzzle hunt (a live puzzle game where teams compete to solve a series of puzzles) held at the Redmond campus.
As of 2006, Microsoft employees, not including Bill Gates, have given over $2.5 billion dollars to non-profit organizations worldwide, making Microsoft the worldwide top company in per-employee donations.[58] In January 2007, the Harris Interactive/The Wall Street Journal Reputation Quotient survey concluded that Microsoft had the world's best corporate reputation, citing strong financial performance, vision & leadership, workplace environment rankings, and the charitable deeds of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.[59]
User culture
Technical reference for developers and articles for various Microsoft magazines such as Microsoft Systems Journal (or MSJ) are available through the Microsoft Developer Network, often called MSDN. MSDN also offers subscriptions for companies and individuals, and the more expensive subscriptions usually offer access to pre-release beta versions of Microsoft software.[60][61] In recent years, Microsoft launched a community site for developers and users, entitled Channel9, which provides many modern features such as a wiki and an Internet forum.[62] Another community site that provides daily videocasts and other services, On10.net, launched on March 3, 2006.[63]
Most free technical support available through Microsoft is provided through online Usenet newsgroups (in the early days it was also provided on CompuServe). There are several of these newsgroups for nearly every product Microsoft provides, and often they are monitored by Microsoft employees. People who are helpful on the newsgroups can be elected by other peers or Microsoft employees for Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) status, which entitles people to a sort of special social status, in addition to possibilities for awards and other benefits.[16]
By 2005, the city of Seattle in the state of Washington had 2,500 users who owned smartphone and desktop computer versions of the JamBayes Traffic Forecasting Service, developed by researchers at Microsoft and the University of Washington.[64] Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Sequoia Capital, Skymoon Ventures, Crescendo Ventures, ZenShin Capital Partners, Artis Capital, Gold Hill Capital, and several individuals gave Dash USD$45 million for Dash Express which Wired News says "learns from its users". "If a Dash owner is moving 5 miles per hour in a 45 mph (72 km/h) zone, Dash servers will realize he's in traffic and warn other Dash drivers to choose faster routes".[65]
Corporate affairs
Corporate structure
The company is run by a Board of Directors consisting of ten people, made up of mostly company outsiders (as is customary for publicly traded companies). Current members of the board of directors are: Steve Ballmer, James Cash, Jr., Dina Dublon, Bill Gates, Raymond Gilmartin, Reed Hastings, David Marquardt, Charles Noski, Helmut Panke, and Jon Shirley.[66] The ten board members are elected every year at the annual shareholders' meeting, and those who do not get a majority of votes must submit a resignation to the board, which will subsequently choose whether or not to accept the resignation. There are five committees within the board which oversee more specific matters. These committees include the Audit Committee, which handles accounting issues with the company including auditing and reporting; the Compensation Committee, which approves compensation for the CEO and other employees of the company; the Finance Committee, which handles financial matters such as proposing mergers and acquisitions; the Governance and Nominating Committee, which handles various corporate matters including nomination of the board; and the Antitrust Compliance Committee, which attempts to prevent company practices from violating antitrust laws.[67][68]
There are several other aspects to the corporate structure of Microsoft. For worldwide matters there is the Executive Team, made up of sixteen company officers across the globe, which is charged with various duties including making sure employees understand Microsoft's culture of business. The sixteen officers of the Executive Team include the Chairman and Chief Software Architect, the CEO, the General Counsel and Secretary, the CFO, senior and group vice presidents from the business units, the CEO of the Europe, the Middle East and Africa regions; and the heads of Worldwide Sales, Marketing and Services; Human Resources; and Corporate Marketing. In addition to the Executive Team there is also the Corporate Staff Council, which handles all major staff functions of the company, including approving corporate policies. The Corporate Staff Council is made up of employees from the Law and Corporate Affairs, Finance, Human Resources, Corporate Marketing, and Advanced Strategy and Policy groups at Microsoft. Other Executive Officers include the Presidents and Vice Presidents of the various product divisions, leaders of the marketing section, and the CTO, among others.[69][5]
Stock
When the company debuted its IPO in March 13, 1986, the stock price was US $21.[70][71] By the close of the first trading day, the stock had closed at $28, equivalent to 9.7 cents when adjusted for the company's first nine splits.[71] The initial close and ensuing rise in subsequent years made several Microsoft employees millions.[15] The stock price peaked in 1999 at around US $119 (US $60.928 adjusting for splits).[71] While the company has had nine stock splits, the first of which was in September 18, 1987, the company did not start offering a dividend until January 16, 2003.[71][72] The dividend for the 2003 fiscal year was eight cents per share, followed by a dividend of sixteen cents per share the subsequent year.[72] The company switched from yearly to quarterly dividends in 2005, for eight cents a share per quarter with a special one-time payout of three dollars per share for the second quarter of the fiscal year.[72]
Around 2003 the stock price began a slow descent. Despite the company's ninth split on February 2, 2003 and subsequent increases in dividend payouts, the price of Microsoft's stock continued to fall for the next several years.[72][73]
Diversity
In 2005, Microsoft received a 100% rating in the Corporate Equality Index from the Human Rights Campaign, a ranking of companies by how progressive the organization deems their policies concerning LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual) employees. Partly through the work of the Gay and Lesbian Employees at Microsoft (GLEAM) group, Microsoft added gender expression to its anti-discrimination policies in April 2005, and the Human Rights Campaign upgraded Microsoft's Corporate Equality Index from its 86% rating in 2004 to its current 100% rating.[74][75]
In April 2005, Microsoft received wide criticism for withdrawing support from Washington state's H.B. 1515 bill that would have extended the state's current anti-discrimination laws to people with alternate sexual orientations.[76] Microsoft was accused of bowing to pressure from local evangelical pastor Ken Hutcherson who met with a senior Microsoft executive and threatened a national boycott of Microsoft's products. [77] Microsoft also revealed they were paying evangelical conservative Ralph Reed's company Century Strategies a $20,000 monthly fee.[78] Over 2,000 employees signed a petition asking Microsoft to reinstate support for the bill. [79] Under harsh criticism from both outside and inside the company's walls, Microsoft decided to support the bill again in May 2005.[80][79]
Microsoft hires many foreign workers as well as domestic ones, and is an outspoken opponent of the cap on H1B visas, which allow companies in the United States to employ certain foreign workers. Bill Gates claims the cap on H1B visas make it difficult to hire employees for the company, stating "I'd certainly get rid of the H1B cap."[81]
Logos and slogans
In 1987, Microsoft adopted its current logo, the so-called "Pacman Logo" designed by Scott Baker. According to the March 1987 Computer Reseller News Magazine, "The new logo, in Helvetica italic typeface, has a slash between the o and s to emphasize the "soft" part of the name and convey motion and speed." Dave Norris, a Microsoft employee, ran an internal joke campaign to save the old logo, which was green, in all uppercase, and featured a fanciful letter O, nicknamed the blibbet, but it was discarded.[82]
Microsoft's logo with the "Your potential. Our passion." tagline below the main corporate name, is based on the slogan Microsoft had as of 2008. In 2002, the company started using the logo in the United States and eventually started a TV campaign with the slogan, changed from the previous tagline of "Where do you want to go today?."[83][84][85]
Microsoft "blibbet" logo, used until 1987.
Microsoft logo with the 1994–2002 slogan "Where do you want to go today?"[83][84]
Microsoft logo as of 2008, with the slogan "Your potential. Our passion."[84]
Criticism
Main article: Criticism of Microsoft
Corporate
Since the 1980s, Microsoft has been the focus of much controversy in the computer industry. The majority of criticism has been for its business tactics, often described with the motto "embrace, extend and extinguish". Microsoft initially embraces a competing standard or product, then extends it to produce their own incompatible version of the software or standard, which in time extinguishes competition that does not or cannot use Microsoft's new version.[86] These and other tactics have led to various companies and governments filing lawsuits against Microsoft.[87][45][17] Microsoft has been called a "velvet sweatshop" in reference to allegations of the company working its employees to the point where it might be bad for their health. The first instance of "velvet sweatshop" in reference to Microsoft originated from a Seattle Times article in 1989, and later became used to describe the company by some of Microsoft's own employees.[88][89]
Free software proponents point to the company's joining of the Trusted Computing Platform Alliance (TCPA) as a cause of concern. A group of companies that seek to implement an initiative called Trusted Computing (which is claimed to set out to increase security and privacy in a user's computer), the TCPA is decried by critics as a means to allow software developers to enforce any sort of restriction they wish over their software.
“ Large media corporations, together with computer companies such as Microsoft and Intel, are planning to make your computer obey them instead of you”
Richard Stallman, founder of the Free Software Foundation[90]
Advocates of free software also take issue with Microsoft's promotion of Digital Rights Management (DRM) and total cost of ownership (TCO) comparisons with its "Get the facts" campaign. Digital Rights Management is a technology that allows content providers to impose restrictions on the methods by which their products are used on consumer hardware; and subsequently, detractors contend that such technology is an infringement on fair use and other rights, especially given that it inhibits legal activities such as re-mixing or reproduction of material for use in slide shows.[91] The "Get the facts" campaign argues that Windows Server has a lower TCO than Linux and lists a variety of studies in order to prove its case.[92] Proponents of Linux unveiled their own study arguing that, contrary to one of Microsoft's claims, Linux has lower management costs than Windows Server.[93] Another study by the Yankee Group claims that upgrading from one version of Windows Server to another costs less than switching from Windows Server to Linux.[94]
Products
For criticism of Windows Vista, see Criticism of Windows Vista
For criticism of Windows XP, see Criticism of Windows XP
For criticism of Windows 2000, see the criticism section of the Windows 2000 article
For criticism of Windows Me, see the criticism section of the Windows Me article
For criticism of Windows 9x, see the criticism section of the Windows 9x article
For criticism of Internet Explorer, see Criticism of Internet Explorer
For criticism of Microsoft Office, see the criticism section of the Microsoft Office article
See also
Microsoft Portal
Companies Portal
General
Pirates of Silicon Valley − A movie based on the rise of Apple and Microsoft.
Microsoft
Actimates − Set of toys developed by Microsoft.
Pcsafety − Part of Microsoft's technical support that deals with malware and virus issues.
Trustworthy Computing − Microsoft's initiative for increasing security and reliability on PCs.
Ultra Mobile PC − Joint specification by Microsoft and others for a small form factor tablet PC.
Microsoft Studios − A division responsible for the creation of video content for Microsoft and its partners.
Microsoft Research − A division responsible for the research of computer sciences.
Studies related to Microsoft
Lists
List of assets owned by Microsoft Corporation
List of companies acquired by Microsoft Corporation
List of Microsoft software applications
List of Microsoft topics
List of Battles that Microsoft and Google have waged against each other
Notes and references
This article uses citations that are either broken or outdated.This article uses citations that link to broken or outdated sources, and are deemed unreliable. Please improve the article or discuss this issue on the talk page. Help on using footnotes is available. This article has been tagged since November 2007.
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88. ^ Andrews, Paul. "A 'Velvet Sweatshop' or a High-Tech Heaven?", The Seattle Times, 23 April 1989. Retrieved on 2007-03-30.
89. ^ Editor's note. Microsoft Systems Journal (August 1997). Retrieved on September 27, 2005.
90. ^ Robert Lemos (2002-11-07). Trust or treachery? Security technologies could backfire against consumers. CNet news.com. Retrieved on 2006-05-18.
91. ^ David Chisnall (2006-05-04). DRM: Digital Rights or Digital Restrictions?. Informit.com. Retrieved on 2006-05-18.
92. ^ Get the facts home. Microsoft. Retrieved on 2006-05-19.
93. ^ Robert Jaques (2006-02-13). Linux fans hit back at Microsoft TCO claims. vnunet.com. Retrieved on 2006-05-19.
94. ^ Mary Jo Foley. "Yankee Independently Pits Windows TCO vs. Linux TCO", eWeek.com, 2004-03-24. Retrieved on 2006-05-19.
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Server software
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Technology
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Hardware
Surface · Zune (4, 8, 30, 80) · MSN TV · Natural Keyboard · Keyboard · Mouse · LifeCam · LifeChat · SideWinder · Ultra-Mobile PC · Fingerprint · Audio System · Cordless Phone · Pocket PC · RoundTable · Response Point
Education and recognition
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Licensing
Client Access License · Shared Source
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Board of directors
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Major computing companies
Cellular hardware
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Computer hardware
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Computer networks
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Dot-com/web services
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Electronics manufacturers
Celestica · Elcoteq · Flextronics · Foxconn · Jabil · Kimball · Plexus · Quanta · Sanmina-SCI · SMTC · Solectron
IT consulting
Accenture · ACS · Atos Origin · Avanade · BearingPoint · Booz Allen Hamilton · BT · Capgemini · CGI · Cognizant · CSC · Deloitte. · EDS · First Data · Fujitsu · Getronics · HCL Tech · HP TSG · IBM Global Services · i-flex · Indra · Infosys · Keane · LogicaCMG · Orange Business Services · PA · Perot · SAIC · Sapient · Satyam · TCS · TietoEnator · Titan · Unisys · Wipro
Storage
EMC · Fujitsu · Maxtor · NetApp · Samsung · Seagate · Hitachi · Western Digital
Semiconductors
AMD · Broadcom · Elpida · Fairchild · Freescale · Hynix · Infineon · Intel · Micron · National · Nvidia · NXP · Qimonda · Renesas · Rohm · Sharp · STMicroelectronics · TI · TSMC · VIA
Software
Adobe · CA · EA · Intuit · McAfee · Microsoft · Nintendo · Novell · Oracle · Red Hat · SAP · Symantec
Telecom
3 · América Móvil · AT&T · Bharti Airtel · BSNL · BT · Cablevision · Comcast · Deutsche Telekom · EarthLink · France Télécom · KT · NTT · Qwest · RCN · Rogers · SK Telecom · Sprint Nextel · Swisscom · Telecom Italia · Telefónica · Telmex · Time Warner · Verizon · Virgin · Vodafone
Vertically integratedmanufacturers
Apple · HP · IBM · NEC · Sun
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Dow Jones Industrial Average companies
Current stocks
3M · Alcoa · Altria Group · American Express · American International Group · AT&T · Boeing · Caterpillar · Citigroup · The Coca-Cola Company · DuPont · ExxonMobil · General Electric · General Motors · Hewlett-Packard · Home Depot · Honeywell · Intel · IBM · Johnson & Johnson · JPMorgan Chase · McDonald's · Merck & Co. · Microsoft · Pfizer · Procter & Gamble · United Technologies · Verizon · Wal-Mart · The Walt Disney Company
Former stocks
American Telephone & Telegraph · American Tobacco Company · Chevron · Eastman Kodak · Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company · International Paper · North American Company · Sears Roebuck · Union Carbide · United States Rubber Company
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Companies of the NASDAQ-100 index (As of January 2, 2008)
Activision · Adobe Systems · Akamai Technologies · Altera · Amazon.com · Amgen · Amylin Pharmaceuticals · Apollo Group · Apple Inc. · Applied Materials · Autodesk · Baidu.com · BEA Systems · Bed Bath & Beyond · Biogen Idec · Broadcom · C. H. Robinson Worldwide · Cadence Design Systems · Celgene · Cephalon · Check Point · Cintas · Cisco Systems · Citrix Systems · Cognizant Technology Solutions · Comcast · Costco · Dell · DENTSPLY International · Discovery Holding Company · Dish Network Corporation · eBay · Electronic Arts · Expedia, Inc. · Expeditors International · Express Scripts · Fastenal · Fiserv · Flextronics · Focus Media Holding · Foster Wheeler Corporation · Garmin · Genzyme · Gilead Sciences · Google · Hansen Natural · Henry Schein · Hologic · IAC/InterActiveCorp · Infosys · Intel Corporation · Intuit · Intuitive Surgical · Joy Global · Juniper Networks · KLA-Tencor · Lam Research · Lamar Advertising Company · Leap Wireless International · Level 3 Communications · Liberty Global, Inc. · Liberty Media Corporation · Linear Technology · Logitech · Marvell Technology Group · Microchip Technology · Microsoft · Millicom International Cellular · Monster Worldwide · Network Appliance · NII Holdings · Nvidia · Oracle Corporation · PACCAR · Patterson Companies · Paychex · PetSmart · Qualcomm · Research In Motion · Ryanair · SanDisk · Sears Holdings Corporation · Sigma-Aldrich · Sirius Satellite Radio · Staples, Inc. · Starbucks · Steel Dynamics · Stericycle · Sun Microsystems · Symantec · Tellabs · Teva Pharmaceutical Industries · UAL Corporation · VeriSign · Vertex Pharmaceuticals · Virgin Media · Whole Foods Market · Wynn Resorts · Xilinx · Yahoo!
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Seattle-based Corporations (within the Seattle metropolitan area)
Seattle-based Fortune 500 Corporations (by size):Washington Mutual • Amazon.com • Nordstrom • Starbucks • Safeco
Seattle-based Fortune 1000 Corporations (by size):Companies listed above, plus: Alaska Airlines • Expeditors International • Plum Creek TimberPuget Sound-based Fortune 1000 Corporations (by size):Companies listed above, plus: Costco Wholesale • Microsoft • Weyerhaeuser • Paccar • Puget Sound Energy
Major Seattle- and Puget Sound-based non-public or externally owned corporations:Nintendo of America • R.E.I. • T-Mobile USA • WestFarm Foods
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft"
Categories: Companies listed on NASDAQ Companies listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange Articles with broken or outdated citations from November 2007 All articles with broken or outdated citations Dow Jones Industrial Average Companies in the NASDAQ-100 Index Semi-protected Microsoft Companies based in Redmond, Washington
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