History of Microsoft

Some facts from Microsoft's history are highlighted in separate articles:

• Microsoft Guide
• Microsoft financials
• Acquisitions and sale of Microsoft assets
• Microsoft relations with governments and intelligence agencies of the world
• Microsoft Offices
• Employees and Human Resources at Microsoft
• Microsoft Open Source Software Policy
• Microsoft Data Centers
• Data breaches at Microsoft
• Microsoft Partners

2023

Microsoft's harmful emissions rose 30% in 3 years

In 2023, harmful emissions from the company Microsoft increased by almost 30% compared to three years ago. Thus, we can talk about the failure of the environmental program, on which American the manufacturer ON spends billions. dollars

Our problems are partly unique due to the company's position as a leading cloud provider that is expanding its data centers, according to Microsoft's website.

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It follows from the company's materials that Microsoft's direct and energy-related emissions in 2023 decreased by 6.3% compared to 2020, but in supply chains they increased by 30.9%, and they account for the overwhelming share of total emissions. As a result, the corporation's total emissions in 2023 increased by 29.1%.

As Microsoft explained, the increase in indirect emissions is associated with building materials and hardware components, including server equipment, which are used in huge volumes when creating a large number of data centers.

In 2023, Microsoft facilities emitted about 15.4 million tons of CO2 into the atmosphere, equivalent to annual carbon dioxide pollution in Haiti or Brunei, according to an environmental development report. The data centers used for AI training are even more energy intensive than traditional data centers, which already use a lot of energy to run servers and cooling systems to prevent overheating. Microsoft plans to build even more such data centers now that it is fully focused on artificial intelligence.

Microsoft previously said that by 2030 the company will absorb more carbon dioxide than emit in production (the so-called carbon neutrality), and the volume of waste will be reduced to zero. To do this, Microsoft is developing a large number of eco-projects. So, in May 2024, Microsoft entered into cooperation with Brookfield to produce 10.5 GW of renewable energy. According to the Financial Times, more than $10 billion should be invested in this project.^[1]

American tax found $28.9 billion in debts from Microsoft

On October 11, 2023, the Microsoft Corporation announced that it had received a notice from the United States Internal Revenue Agency (IRS) demanding reimbursement of unpaid taxes. The official documentation says that the total amount of debt is $28.9 billion.

The dispute concerns the distribution of Microsoft profits between various countries and jurisdictions between 2004 and 2013. The Redmond Corporation says that taxes of up to $10 billion, which the company has already paid, are not reflected in the IRS data.

Microsoft announced receipt of notification from the IRS demanding a refund of $28.9 billion

Microsoft disagrees with the department's requirements and will appeal to the IRS. This process is expected to take several years. We believe that we carefully followed the rules of the Internal Revenue Office and paid the required taxes both in the United States and in other countries around the world, the corporation said in a statement.

Microsoft emphasizes that it has historically been one of the largest payers of corporate income tax in the United States. From 2004 to 2023, the company paid more than $67 billion in taxes. The main disagreement with the American regulator is how exactly Microsoft distributed profits during 2004-2013. We are talking about the so-called transfer pricing: this is the assignment of prices for goods or services provided by one independent division of the company to another division. The price can be set on a contractual basis, on the basis of costs or on the basis of market value adjusted for the funds saved due to the transaction within the company: transportation costs, advertising, etc.

We will continue to work with the IRS and look forward to reaching a mutual solution to this issue. The appeals process will take several years, and if we cannot reach a direct agreement with the IRS, Microsoft will have the opportunity to challenge any outstanding issues through the courts, the corporation adds.[2]

In the top 5 world ranking of DBMS developers PostgreSQL

The corporation Microsoft entered the top 5 of the world ranking of developers DBMS with, open source PostgreSQL prepared and published at the end of March 2023 by analysts. The EnterpriseDB (EDB) top five also includes EDB,, and Postgres Professional(). Fujitsu Amazon AWS

World ranking of open source DBMS developers PostgreSQL according to EDB

The EDB ranking ranks companies by their contribution to the 15 version of PostgreSQL, released in September 2022. For analysis, EDB used release notes as well as a list of PostgreSQL committers. The analysis did not take into account independent and freelance developers. Read more here.

2021

Ukrainian tester stole $10 million from Microsoft with Xbox gift cards

On July 2, 2021, it became known that Ukrainian developer Volodymyr Kvaschuk was sentenced to nine years in prison for stealing more than $10 million from Microsoft. The verdict was passed back in 2020, but now the details of the scheme used by the offender have become known.

The Ukrainian worked for Microsoft from August 2016 to June 2018. Previously, he was a contract employee, and then got a job in the state and worked in the city of Renton, Washington. Kwaszczuk was a QA tester on the Universal Store Team, responsible for e-commerce activities.

In this position, employees have the opportunity to create accounts using specially allocated email addresses and credit cards. This allows you to make free purchases using discount cards. To protect itself from fraud, the company blocked the delivery of physical goods ordered in this way.

Vladimir bypassed this restriction. The Ukrainian bought gift cards through his account, after which their cost could be credited to his account and receive a discount in the Microsoft digital or offline store.

But Kwaszczuk went even further, using the scheme for personal gain - selling digital cards to third parties. According to the prosecution, he caused the company $10 million in losses by trading promotional codes at low prices.

According to the investigation, one day the programmer began to sell so many codes that it brought down prices for Xbox gift cards throughout the reseller market.

Two years later, Kwaszczuk has already stolen more than 152,000 cards totaling $10,100,000. During this time, he managed to buy Tesla for $162,899 and a house near Lake Washington worth more than $1,600,000.

At some point, the scheme began to crack: buyers began to complain that Kwaszczuk's cards were not working. Its main customers, Avsterbone and Makoo, have contacted Microsoft support to find out the cause of the problem. There they were informed that the company was busy investigating the stolen cards.

In 2018, the Internal Security Service discovered a "leak" and blocked the accounts of testers, but could not determine the identity of the attacker. With the help of the detectives of Scotland Yard, Kvaschuk was still caught - he ordered three video cards Nvidia to a non-existent address, which aroused suspicions. During subsequent searches, 4,000 dollars cash were found at his home, flash drives with "hundreds of thousands" of these gift codes, as well as keys to car Tesla and Kvaschuk's own plan for the coming years, where he painted on what else he would spend his fortune.

A total of 152 thousand cards were stolen for a total of $10 million. According to the verdict, the offender must pay a fine of $8.3 million and spend nine years in custody in the colony^[3].

Storage of European cloud users in the EU

Microsoft has pledged to store data from European users of cloud services in the EU. The company announced this on May 6, 2021.

Earlier, a court in Europe ruled that the storage of European data in the United States threatens the risks of tracking them. After this verdict, technology companies had to ensure that this information was stored in data centers located in the EU.

Microsoft, the company said on May 6, will carry out all the technical work necessary to ensure that European corporate and state customers can process and store their data in the Eurozone by the end of 2022. The innovation will apply to all major Microsoft services, including Azure, Microsoft 365 and Dynamics 365.

Microsoft pledged to store data of European users of cloud services in the EU

Microsoft has promised to consult with customers and regulators over the implementation of the plan in the coming months. In particular, it is planned to discuss the necessary adjustments regarding information security, said company president Brad Smith.

The corporation will challenge every government request for personal data if there are legitimate grounds to do so, according to a statement from Microsoft. If the data is disclosed in violation of the EU's general data protection regulation, then customers are promised monetary compensation.

By the beginning of May 2021, Microsoft has 13 operating or under construction in Europe. data centers Among them are objects in,, and France Germany. Ireland Sweden The company is also preparing to launch Dublin at the Center of Excellence for Privacy. In the fall of 2021, Microsoft is going to hold the EU Cloud Customer Summit in Europe, which will reveal details of how the company protects the data of users of cloud services.^[4]

Launch of the organization for the development of the Rust programming language

In early February 2021, Google, Microsoft, AWS, Huawei, Mozilla launched the Rust Foundation, a non-profit organization. She will be responsible for supporting the ecosystem and developers of the Rust software language, as well as sponsoring the project. Read more here.

2020

Microsoft paid $374,300 to experts as part of Azure Sphere cybersecurity study

Microsoft paid a reward of $374,300 to information security researchers as part of the Azure Sphere Security Research Challenge, which lasted for three months. This became known on October 9, 2020. During the study, experts were able to find 20 important security vulnerabilities that were fixed in the releases of updates 20.07, 20.08 and 20.09. In total, 70 researchers from 21 countries took part in the competition.

As part of the study, Microsoft invited the world's leading experts in the field, cyber security as well as security solution providers, to try to hack devices using the types attacks most often used by attackers. The competition participants were provided with a developer kit, direct communication with the security team, OS support by, e-mail as well as publicly available code. operating system cores

The aim of the competition was to focus researchers' attention on what has the greatest impact on customer safety. Therefore, experts were provided with six study scenarios with an additional reward of up to 20% over the standard reward under the Azure Bounty program (up to $40,000), as well as $100,000 for two high-priority scenarios.

Several participants helped discover potentially dangerous vulnerabilities in Azure Sphere. During the competition, a total of 40 applications were received, 30 of which led to an improvement in the product. Sixteen of them were entitled to remuneration, which totaled $374,300.

The study was conducted in partnership with companies, Avira Baidu International Technology,, Bitdefender Bugcrowd, Cisco Systems Inc (Talos),,, ESET FireEye F-Secure Corporation,, K7 HackerOne Computing, McAfee Palo Alto Networks and Zscaler^[5]

Microsoft has increased payments for searching for vulnerabilities in its software by 3 times

In early August 2020, it became known that it Microsoft spent about $13.7 million for fiscal year 2020 for reporting security errors in its software. This figure is three times the amount received by researchers ON a year earlier ($4.4 million). More. here

Microsoft founded a coalition to move to zero carbon emissions

In July, Microsoft, together with Mercedes-Benz AG, Nike, Starbucks, Unilever, Danone, A.P. Moeller - Maersk, Natura & Co and Wipro created^[6] our ^[7] coalition Transform to Net Zero, the goal of which is to help businesses around the world move to zero harmful emissions. The announcement was made as part of the company's massive plan to reduce its carbon footprint and move to negative carbon emissions, introduced in January 2020^[8].

Main article: Zero waste philosophy (Bioeconomics) Green economy

Creating a Consulting Unit

In early July 2020, it became known that Microsoft created an autonomous consulting division, which began work from the new financial year, that is, from July 1.

It is known that Microsoft often makes changes in the organization of sales and customer support at the beginning of the new fiscal year. Microsoft's goal is to improve customer experience and expand the company's range of popular products and services. Thus, Microsoft representatives are striving to develop and implement optimal customer support plans. So far, Microsoft has declined to comment on the size and significance of the new consulting division, but those changes are certain to affect Customer Success division employees, technical account managers and other support staff.

Microsoft has created a consulting division

It is not yet known whether the creation of the new unit will be accompanied by major cuts, but information sources believe that there are no such plans. It is known, however, that Microsoft is not shy about reducing entire commands in areas that have lost priority. For example, Microsoft fired about 200 sellers, including the head of Customer Success. As a result, the customer service department on the platform Microsoft Cloud was headed by Mark Souza, corporate vice president of cloud and intelligent platforms at Microsoft, reports the publication. ZDNet

As is usually the case with the restructuring, Microsoft also intends to change a number of positions for its employees as part of the latest changes. Technical Account Managers (TAMs) will be renamed "Account Managers" (CSAMs) and will report to Customer Service. The chief field engineers will now be called "customer service engineers."^[9]

Developing the ethics of artificial intelligence

In early March 2020, Microsoft and IBM signed an ethical code for the use of AI, published by the Pope. At a special three-day conference, Rome called for the observance of basic ethical principles when using AI. Read more here.

Development of software for 5G equipment under the control of the American government

On February 4, 2020, it became known that technology and telecommunications companies, including Microsoft, Dell and AT&T, are developing software for 5G equipment under the control of the American government. Through this work, the White House expects to weaken Huawei's leading position in this market. Read more here.

Plan for transition to negative carbon emissions

On January 17, 2020, Microsoft, represented by CEO Satya Nadella and other top officials of the company, officially announced its intention to achieve negative carbon emissions by 2030, and to completely eliminate the consequences of emissions by 2050 in the entire time since the company was founded in 1975. Microsoft also intends to invest $1 billion in the development of technologies to eliminate the carbon footprint and help its customers reduce emissions.

The initiative involves:

1. Reducing its own carbon footprint.

By 2030, Microsoft intends to achieve negative levels of carbon emissions by removing more than it produces. Emissions reductions include a shift to renewable energy for all data centers, buildings and campuses by 2025, and complete electrification of the domestic fleet. By 2050, the company plans to completely remove its carbon footprint, both from direct emissions and through electricity consumption, in the entire time since its inception. For this, a number of methods will be used, such as, for example, planting and restoring forests, sequestration of carbon (carbon capture in the soil), bioenergy with carbon binding and storage (BECCS) and direct air capture (DAC).

2. Creation of an innovation fund for $1 billion.

Over the next 4 years, the company plans to allocate $1 billion under the Climate Innovation Fund to accelerate the development of progressive methods, technologies and scientific developments to reduce carbon emissions and their withdrawal from the atmosphere.

3. Help the ecosystem of partners and customers.

Microsoft will develop and implement technologies to help partners and customers reduce their own carbon emissions. In particular, the new Microsoft Sustainability Calculator tool is able to predict the amount of carbon emissions from use, clouds Azure visualizing results in Power. BI This will help customers assess the amount of current emissions and potentially assess the environmental benefits of full migration to the cloud. In 2021, Microsoft intends to integrate environmental principles into procurement processes and, logistics which will help reduce carbon emissions from our suppliers.

Every year, Microsoft plans to publish the Environmental Sustainability Report, which will provide statistics on the work done. The company also intends to create all the necessary conditions so that the company's employees can contribute to the overall efforts to preserve the climate.

2019

A fine of $25 million for bribing officials

On July 22, 2019, it became known that Microsoft paid $25 million to the American government for a pre-trial settlement following investigations, as a result of which the company was convicted of bribing officials.

According to Reuters, most of the amount recovered from Microsoft - $16.6 million - will be transferred to the   US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) as compensation for  civil claims it filed against the corporation.

Microsoft will pay $25 million for bribes

The remaining part - $8.75 million - is a fine imposed on the Hungarian division of Microsoft for violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act - it prohibits American companies from using bribery as one of the methods of preserving and promoting their business outside their native country). We are talking about the seizure of illegally received profits ($13.8 million) plus about $2.8 million in interest.

Investigations conducted by the SEC and the Department of Justice USA showed that Microsoft's Hungarian office for several years gave local resellers and distributors big discounts on licensed. software Microsoft partners sold at software prices close to standard prices and used the income received to bribe government workers and conclude profitable deals state agencies with Microsoft.

According to the US Department of Justice, the head of Microsoft's representative office in Hungary falsely assured headquarters of the need for such discounts.

These employees failed to pass on the rebates they claimed were needed to get the deal done to customers. Instead, the Justice Department concluded that "overstated margins were used to fund improper payments," Microsoft President Brad Smith said in an attempt to justify the Hungarian office's leadership.

The SEC also found that Microsoft subsidiaries in Saudi Arabia and Thailand offered "inappropriate travel and gifts" (that is, bribes) to officials and employees of non-state companies.

In addition, the Turkish division of Microsoft, as reported by the regulator, provided an "excessive discount" to a third party without any signs of the services offered. This SEC episode did not come to be seen as a bribe.

According to the agreement reached, Microsoft will not officially admit its guilt or deny it.

Brad Smith wrote a letter to employees in which he said that the employees involved in corruption were fired, and the company severed relations with four resellers. Those sued the software giant, saying that the termination of cooperation violates the terms of the contracts. Microsoft said it is important to "break all ties" with any company involved in such corruption schemes.

Dropping bribe charges will cost Microsoft millions of dollars

Since the scandal, Microsoft has improved its anti-corruption measures, including ensuring transparency in the process of giving discounts to government customers and Microsoft using artificial intelligence to identify potentially illegal sales.^[10]

According to the iTWire edition, this is not the first time that Microsoft has been caught in dubious transactions in Eastern Europe. A former Romanian minister and three other officials have been jailed for misappropriating discounts Microsoft provided to schools that purchase the company's software. Civil servants not only failed to appeal the sentences - their prison sentences and fines were increased.

What happened in Romania refers to a system that was launched in 2003 and which allowed the authorities to avoid open tenders for IT services and allowed Microsoft to sell Windows licenses to government customers at inflated prices through third parties.

Bill Gates calls Microsoft's greatest mistake

In June 2019, Bill Gates spoke about the "greatest mistake" made by Microsoft and the co-founder of this company himself. The businessman regrets that not Microsoft, but Google has created the world's most popular mobile operating system - Android. Read more here.

Create Accenture Microsoft Business Group

In early February 2019, Accenture, Microsoft and Avanade announced the creation of a joint company Accenture Microsoft Business Group, which will promote Microsoft corporate products. This project was Microsoft's largest investment in the partner business. Read more here.

Allocation of $0.5 billion for the construction of cheap housing for state employees in Seattle

On January 16, 2019, Microsoft announced the allocation of $500 million to overcome the housing crisis in Seattle. The money of the American company will be spent on the construction of cheap apartments and houses for public sector workers.

As part of the announced plan, Microsoft will allocate $475 million over three years to subsidize developers, thanks to which they will be able to offer customers housing at reduced prices. Another $25 million will go to solve the problem of homeless people.

A homeless encampment called Nickelsville in Seattle, November 3, 2015

The corporation emphasizes the desire to help primarily doctors, teachers, firefighters and other workers with little income.

The growth in average salaries in the region has not kept pace with the rate of increase in housing costs, as a result of which low- and middle-income workers are further and further away from the opportunity to live near where they work, Microsoft said in a statement.

According to data collected by the company, in the period from 2011 to 2018, the average cost of a house in the Puget Sound region (there are a large number of additional offices of Silicon Valley companies) jumped by 96%, while the average household income during this time increased by only 34%. According to Microsoft estimates, Seattle lacks about 305 thousand apartments by the beginning of 2019.

The housing crisis in Seattle San Francisco is caused primarily by the arrival of large technology companies there, including Microsoft, and Amazon, Alphabet Facebook as well as many successful startups.

Highly paid employees can afford to rent or buy expensive properties. However, local residents and those who arrived from other cities who work in other areas faced the problem of rising prices for rented housing and were forced to move to lower-quality and remote apartments and houses. Also in the metropolis, the problem of homeless people is aggravated.^[11]

2018

Participation in the Open Data Initiative

On September 24, 2018, Microsoft, SAP and Adobe announced a joint initiative that aims to help companies use their own data better and more profitably for themselves. Read more here.

How Microsoft makes tens of millions of dollars from bribes. Scheme

In August 2018, it became known about a corruption scheme in which Microsoft was involved in Hungary. The U.S. Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) are investigating. 

According to The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), citing knowledgeable sources, in Hungary Microsoft sold software to government agencies through intermediaries. The latter received software products, including the Microsoft Office package, at a big discount, and then resold it to government agencies at full price or close to it. 

Such a scheme, which operated from 2013 to 2014, was nothing more than bribery of officials, only Microsoft did it not directly, but through partners. Investigators suspected that the intermediaries used the resulting difference to pay bribes and kickbacks to government workers.

In August 2018, it became known about a corruption scheme in which Microsoft was involved in Hungary

The publication received a comment from Microsoft Deputy General Counsel David Howard. He said that Microsoft promptly began internal proceedings as soon as it learned about possible offenses in Hungary.

We are committed to the ethical noms of doing business and will not make concessions to damage these standards, "he said.

The company announced cooperation with the US Department of Justice and the SEC in this investigation, and also announced the dismissal of four employees of its representative office in Hungary, including the head of the office, Istvan Papp, who violated Microsoft's policy. In addition, the software giant has torn up partnership agreements with four firms in that country and has placed more emphasis on transparency when providing discounts.

WSJ journalists contacted Istvan Papp via WhatsApp and he said in a short message that he was a "respected member" of the Microsoft family and received positive feedback from management. He refrained from further comment.

Istvan Papp is former head of Microsoft's Hungarian office

According to the Microsoft newspaper in 2012, an attempt was made to dissuade the Hungarian government from using free text editors and spreadsheets from competitors. In November 2012, the then chief operating officer of the company, Kevin Turner, met with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who brought with him a group of owners of small companies. 

How that meeting ended is not specified, but it is known that over the next two years Microsoft annually sold software worth $30 million to such companies, sometimes with discounts that could reach 30%. At the same time, WSJ notes that it is not yet possible to determine which part of these sales was tested.

According to one of the interlocutors, the discounts were agreed with sales managers working outside Hungary, since Hungarian employees cheated and were convicted of indicating false information. At the same time, not all the discounts that Microsoft provided ultimately reached government customers who bought software from intermediary firms, WSJ sources say.

The publication notes that such transactions, which became the subject of an anti-corruption investigation, contributed to the growth of Microsoft sales and the strengthening of the status of the Hungarian division. In a press release dated June 2015, Microsoft called this office "the most effective" daughter "among representative offices of this size" in the five previous years. Microsoft's representative office in Hungary was opened in 2013.

Microsoft is not the first to be suspected of kickbacks and bribery of officials. In 2013, The Wall Street Journal wrote that the American authorities are studying relations with the company's partners in China, Romania, Italy, Russia and Pakistan amid allegations that these intermediaries may have participated in corruption schemes. 

According to the WSJ, in August 2018, the SEC is checking for alleged anti-competitive behavior of Microsoft related to patents in the Czech Republic. The company said it was aware of and facilitating the investigation. What exactly the Microsoft is suspected of is not specified.

In September 2018, a trial will take place in Romania, in which the former head of the local representative office of Microsoft, Kalin Tatomir (Călin Tatomir), is accused of laundering and involvement in the fact that officials abused their official position when concluding contracts with the company.

Prosecutors say Tatomir, using corruption schemes, assisted intermediaries in selling software to Microsoft so the government would gain an "unreasonable advantage." At the same time, the corporation itself is not accused of any violations.

Kalin Tatomir is former head of Microsoft's Romanian office

US authorities have broad competence to investigate and prosecute if allegations of bribery and corruption abroad are received. They have such powers under the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. This law prohibits companies from paying bribes for contracting and business development.

Proceedings based on complaints from informants from within the company are a common case, often companies themselves report possible violations. Many investigations by regulators find nothing illegal after scrutiny.^[12]

Microsoft stopped considering Apple a competitor

At the end of April 2018, Microsoft Marketing Director Chris Capossela said in an interview with Cheddar that the company no longer considers Apple a competitor and now focuses on cooperation.

We have stopped paying attention to the competition that I think was in the past. We need to release our products for the platforms our customers use. Therefore, there is Office for iPad and iPhone, "Capossella said.

Steve Jobs and Bill Gates

Traditional competition in the tech industry no longer makes sense as companies increasingly work with each other's products, he said. As an example, a top manager cited Google, which uses Microsoft Visual Studio software development tools.

By the end of April 2018, the App Store has more than 100 applications and utilities released by Microsoft. The company doesn't intend to impose restrictions on iOS or macOS users just because they don't like Windows, Capossela said.

As Cheddar notes, Apple and Microsoft founders Steve Jobs and Bill Gates have maintained an ambiguous relationship for many years: they helped each other, then criticized, trying to show their superiority. In 1994, Apple sued Microsoft, accusing the company of patent infringement. Three years later, with Apple on the brink of bankruptcy, Bill Gates gave the company financial backing.

Chris Capossela says that with Satya Nadella's arrival at the helm of the Microsoft, the company began a "cultural shift," and she became more in-depth and focused on her own fans instead of trying to get ahead of Apple or other IT companies in the fight for the same users.

Modern youth say that when they think about growing up, they think about Microsoft. When it's time to get a job, they think about Microsoft. And this is a great position for us, - concluded the company's marketing director.[13]

Transfer of patent rights to customers in joint technology development

On April 4, 2018, it became known that Microsoft began transferring the rights to patents and industrial designs to customers in joint technology development.

Under the new rules, published on April 4, 2018, in the transfer of rights, the technology giant will restrict the use of licenses to modernize its platform, and will not use joint development to offer competitive products. 

The new principles of the company were announced by Brad Smith, President and Director of Legal Affairs, as part of the Joint Innovation initiative. 

Microsoft began to transfer patent rights to customers in joint technology development

According to GeekWire, this is another example of Microsoft's pragmatic approach, in which the use of intellectual property is seen as a marketing ploy, rather than protection from open source projects and other competitive technologies.  

The goal of the new rules, Smith said, is to allay customer fears that Microsoft could use co-developed technology to compete with them.  

There are more and more joint projects with clients, says Smith. For example, the Microsoft project and the 365c hospital in North Korea, when Microsoft helped develop a system artificial intelligence(AI) to help surgeons during operations. Now the medical institution plans to sell this software to other hospitals, the newspaper notes. ZDNet

As the number of such joint projects increases, questions about who owns the developed technology will arise more and more often. It is important that there is an approach that ensures that key customer patents for new solutions are owned by them, and that IT companies will not be able to use this knowledge to enter the customer market and become their competitors, possibly using technology that was created with the participation of customers, "said Brad Smith.

Microsoft promises to "assist in filing applications for a patent created on the basis of joint development and assign rights to customers."^[14]

$5 billion investment in IoT

On April 4, 2018, Microsoft announced a $5 billion investment in Internet of Things (IoT). These funds will be spent for four years, according to the blog of the American company.

Microsoft did not specify for what purposes the allocated investments will go. Microsoft Azure Corporate Vice President Julia White only noted that the company's IoT platform covers Microsoft cloud services, operating systems and devices, and $5 billion will allow organizations of any size and level of technical development to create devices and programs connected to networks.

Microsoft to invest $5 billion in IoT until 2022

Our goal is to provide each customer with the opportunity to transform their business and the world as a whole with the help of network solutions... We're going to make it easier for anyone and company to access the Internet of Things, for any budget, "White said.

Microsoft plans to conduct research, work on the development of the ecosystem and infrastructure security in the Internet of Things market. According to Jason Zander, vice president of the company, by the beginning of April 2018, Microsoft's total investment in IoT projects reached $1.5 billion. These funds went to research, development and support partner companies.

The Microsoft says that with the help of the company's proposed platform, Johnson Controls created a "smart" thermostat, [[Schneider Electric (Schneider Electric) [|Schneider Electric]] built an automatic solar panel surveillance system in Nigeria, and Kohler created an entire line of "smart" lights for the kitchen and bathroom.

Microsoft reports A.T. Kearney's forecast that globally, the Internet of Things will help companies cut costs by a total of $177 billion by 2020 and increase efficiency, which will be expressed in revenue of $1.9 trillion.^[15]

2017

Satya Nadella on Premium Goods Production

Microsoft takes a completely different approach in the consumer segment than Apple and Google, and does not seek to produce premium products. This statement was made in early November 2017 by the head of the corporation Satya Nadella, Softpedia reports.^[16]

Microsoft chief Satya Nadella

According to Nadella, Microsoft's technologies are designed to enable them to create something of their own, while competitors have focused on offering a completely finished product that meets the needs of the consumer.

Even if it's a consumer product, it's a tool. I love Microsoft technology for being created with it, "Satya Nadella said in an interview with TechRadar.[17]

I do not want to downplay the successes that Apple or Google have made. However, we are very different companies. We do not act as an intermediary in the market. We create tools, not produce luxury goods. We create technologies that help create, "he stressed.

Although Satya Nadella did not directly name Apple as a luxury manufacturer, he clearly hints at this particular company, whose products are often positioned as premium products. Take at least the new flagship smartphone iPhone X - the most expensive in the history of the corporation, the price of the 256 gigabyte version of which in the store Apple Store reaches $1149.

Satya Nadella: We create tools, not produce luxury goods

However, Nadella is partly disingenuous, because Microsoft's products are also not cheap. For example, the new Surface Book 2 in the top configuration costs more than $3,000, and the price of the Surface Studio all-in-one can reach $4,200.

Having become at the helm of the corporation, Satya Nadella always behaved gentlemanly towards rivals, and during the interview he made it clear that Microsoft's success does not necessarily require its rivals to be defeated. On the contrary, everyone will only benefit from healthy competition, because each company has its own culture and approach to customers.

The development of artificial intelligence

At the October 2017 D.LIVE conference organized by the newspaper, Peggy The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) Microsoft Johnson, Executive Vice President for Business Development, spoke about how the company is developing. artificial intelligence (AI) Work on these technologies is carried out by a large number of specialists involved, including as a result of the takeover of startups.

When asked what Microsoft sees as the greatest opportunity, Johnson replied:

Honestly, we're looking at everything. We're looking at things that will solve our problems... We pay great attention to artificial intelligence.

About 8 thousand Microsoft employees are working on artificial intelligence

According to her, by October 2017, Microsoft has been working on AI technologies for about 25 years, about 8 thousand people are engaged in their development. To strengthen its position in this market, Microsoft made 18 acquisitions in several years. Eight deals were made in 2017 alone, Johnson said, adding that the corporation does not intend to stop there and is preparing for new purchases. A special emphasis is planned to be placed on transactions in which we are talking about tools for the development of artificial intelligence.

Earlier in 2017, Microsoft introduced cognitive services with which developers can create applications that recognize gestures, translate texts into many languages, break down videos into fragments for quick search, editing and subtitling in real time, and adapt data for image recognition in the most important categories for users.

In addition, the Cognitive Services Labs of Microsoft was launched, which allows developers to take part in research by the scientific community in order to better understand the future of AI. One of the first AI services available in the Lab was the Gesticulation Recognition API, which helps create more intuitive and natural functionality, allowing users to interact and control with gestures.

In October 2017, Microsoft announced the global Innovate.AI competition, which aims to find startups that are developing the future of artificial intelligence. The volume of the fund for venture financing is $3.5 million.

Startups that use AI for smart apps, services or platforms can submit applications through the Microsoft Ventures website. Developers will be able to compete for one of four prizes. In the regions of the competition (North America, Europe and Israel), a finalist will be selected who will receive $1 million in venture capital financing and $500 thousand in Azure loans . The fourth prize will go to the contestant whose project makes the best use of AI for the welfare of society.

The initiative should help start-up companies with great potential to get funding to solve problems in these areas of computer science and ultimately improve people's lives.

At the D.LIVE conference, Peggy Johnson also said that, in addition to artificial intelligence, the company is considering opportunities in areas such as quantum computing, gaming, cloud computing, machine learning, IT infrastructure and the distribution of enterprise software as a service.

We are constantly exploring opportunities. We try not to look at it through a competitive lens. What is the synergy in this? If that makes sense, we continue, "Peggy Johnson said.

Settlement of the conflict with Kaspersky Lab

On August 10, 2017, it became known about the withdrawal of Kaspersky Lab's complaint against Microsoft after the American IT corporation agreed to comply with the requirements of the Russian antivirus company. According to Reuters, citing a statement from Kaspersky Lab, the company intends to abandon claims against Microsoft filed with the European Commission.

2016

Kaspersky Lab plans to contact the European Commission with a complaint against Microsoft

On December 12, 2016, it became known about plans Kaspersky Lab to contact the European Commission with a complaint about, which, Microsoft according to the ON antivirus protection company, does not give time to adapt products to updated versions, Windows which contributes to the undeserved popularization of antivirus. Windows Defender The appeal is expected in January 2017.

Antivirus software developers believe that the period of 66 days adopted by the American corporation to prepare products before the release of RTM versions does not allow them to "fully fulfill their obligations to users." As a result, customers are left without protection, and Kaspersky Lab (Kaspersky) suffers financial losses^[18]

The antivirus company did not consider it possible to complain earlier due to partnerships with the corporation.

What to expect from Microsoft

At the end of December 2015, Business Insider published an article in which journalists tried to predict what to expect from Microsoft in 2016. According to observers, the American company will release new smartphones and tablets, advance in the development of HoloLens augmented reality glasses, expand partnerships, open new stores, etc.

HoloLens

These augmented reality glasses will be available in the developer version in the first quarter of 2016 for $3,000. At least in October 2015, this was promised by Terry Myerson, executive vice president of Windows and Microsoft devices. However, it will take several more years before the product enters the mass market.

According to Business Insider observers, the American company will release new smartphones and tablets, advance in the development of HoloLens augmented reality glasses, expand partnerships, open new stores, etc.

Surface Phone и Lumia

Rumors about the development of smartphone the Surface Phone, aimed at corporate users, have been circulating in the media for a long time. According to unofficial data, this device, expected in 2016, will receive a 5.2- or 5.5-inch screen with a resolution of 2560 x 1440 pixels, a powerful, processor Intel 20-megapixel main camera, a metal body, an iris scanner and the Windows 10 Mobile operating system, which can later receive support for Win32 applications.

If the Surface Phone is addressed to a business audience, the Lumia line will remain consumer. There is no doubt that it will be expanded in 2016, given the large number of telephone innovations released at Microsoft in 2015.

Tablets and laptops

In 2015, Microsoft unveiled its first laptop, the Surface Book. Business Insider suggests that in 2016 there will be a second generation of this laptop computer, which will become more productive, lightweight and thin compared to its predecessor.

Also, the software giant is probably preparing new Surface 4 and Surface Pro 5 tablets.

Retail expansion

With the expansion of the range of products, Microsoft began to increase the number of retail stores around the world. Such points of sale, for example, are open in New York and Sydney. The press reported that a similar salon would be opened in London in 2016.

More partners

Under the leadership of Satya Nadella, Microsoft has become more open to cooperation, including with competitors. The company has already entered into partnership deals with Apple, Salesforce, Box, Cyanogen, Samsung, etc. In 2016, this list should expand.

New software

Microsoft is considered the largest software manufacturer, so the company will certainly continue to improve Windows 10, Office, the new Microsoft Edge browser and other products. In 2016, a lot of updates can be expected for both consumer and corporate software.

Acquisitions

In 2015, Microsoft bought several firms with which the company's software products were improved. Microsoft strives for its technologies to be used on various platforms, so it cannot do without new acquisitions, journalists say.^[19]

2015

Creating a Business Protection Center against Cyber ​ ​ Attacks

On November 17, 2015, Microsoft spoke about R&D costs in the field of information security technologies (information security), and also announced the creation of a corporate customer support unit in the fight against cyber attacks.

According to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella during his speech at the Microsoft Government Cloud Forum conference in Washington, the company intends to build a comprehensive information security platform that will allow it to detect viral attacks, defend itself and respond to them properly, as well as build a "smart" information collection network and interaction with other industry players. At the same time, the platform will work in connection with the Azure cloud, the Windows 10 operating system and the Microsoft Enterprise Mobility Suite service, Nadella said.

Satya Nadella says Microsoft spends more than $1 billion annually on research and development of information security technologies

Microsoft is committed to protecting its customers' data wherever they are, he said. To implement this task, the company annually spends more than $1 billion on research and development of cybersecurity technologies.

live in a world where attacks can come from anywhere and the attacks themselves have become much more complex. Since these threats are very serious, companies need to build a new line of defense, "said the head of Microsoft

In this regard, Microsoft is creating the Cyber ​ ​ Defense Operations Center, which brings together the company's best information security specialists. This division, which will work around the clock, will include not only information security experts, but also analysts, developers, programmers, operational specialists and project managers, Nadella said.

All these people will work closely with the new department of the Microsoft Enterprise Cybersecurity Group, created to help companies counter cyber attacks. Employees of this group will assess the level of security of enterprise information systems, monitor the security of their IT infrastructure, identify dangerous activity and respond to incidents.

Some consulting firms and IT vendors already offer similar services, but Microsoft is confident that the company's experience in the cloud services market will help it attract corporate and private clients around the world to work with the Microsoft Enterprise Cybersecurity Group.^[20]

Large-scale reorganization

On September 28, 2015, Microsoft announced a financial reorganization, in which the American corporation will publish data on the income of the three main divisions instead of the previous seven. The software giant is changing its reporting format to take into account its focus on the cloud and mobile business.

According to Reuters, citing a statement from Microsoft, the company's revenue and operating profit will be distributed across the following three divisions:

• Productivity and Business Processes,
• Intelligent Cloud и
• More Personal Computing.

The 7 divisions for which Microsoft reported earlier are merged into 3

Productivity and Business Processes includes Microsoft Office and Office 365 office applications, as well as Dynamics and Dynamics CRM Online customer relationship management systems.

Intelligent Cloud will take into account the revenues of server products and services, including Windows Server operating systems, Windows Azure cloud platform and SQL Server relational database analysis and management systems.

The More Personal Computing segment will include sales of consumer electronics (tablets, smartphones, game consoles, etc.), as well as revenue from licensing Windows operating systems and a business related to the Bing search engine.

As Microsoft spokesman Cameron Bays clarified to Bloomberg, the company's structure will also include a small group, Corporate and Other, responsible for future revenues.^[21]

Prior to this reorganization, the cloud business, server solutions, Windows and Office were part of Commercial's corporate products, and the consumer business was overseen by the Devices & Consumer structure. These two large business groups included seven divisions.

Microsoft will begin reporting on the new system in the first quarter of fiscal 2016, which will be closed at the end of September 2015. The company will release the financial results of this period on October 22. Microsoft also promises to release reports, compiled taking into account the reorganization, for the 2014 and 2015 fiscal years.^[22]

Company in numbers: Office is used by every seventh resident of the Earth

At the end of September 2015, Microsoft updated the Microsoft by the Numbers section, in which it spoke about the most notable achievements of its products. According to the published information, every seventh resident of the Earth uses the Microsoft Office package.

As of the end of September 2015, the number of Office users reached 1.2 billion. A lot of people work with this software complex using mobile devices running operating systems that are not related to Windows. Thus, the Office package has been downloaded more than 100 million times by the owners of iOS and Android gadgets.

The number of Office users has reached 1.2 billion people

According to Microsoft statistics, 80% of companies in the Fortune 500 are working with cloud services. By 2018, Microsoft intends to increase revenue from sales of cloud solutions to $20 billion. By September 2015, about 40% of the revenue generated by the Azure platform comes from startups and independent software developers. One in five Azure virtual machines runs on Linux.

Microsoft also spoke about the success of its VoIP service Skype. With its help, calls are made every day with a total duration of more than 3 billion minutes, and the Skype Translator service allows you to translate voice messages into 6 different languages.

In addition, the software giant pointed to 400 million active users of the Outlook.com postal service, 48 million users of the Xbox Live gaming service, 669 thousand applications in the Microsoft Store (formerly Windows Store) and over 75 million computer devices based on the Windows 10 platform. The American company expects the latest figure to grow to 1 billion devices by 2018. Every day, Microsoft donates about $2.6 million for software development in favor of more than 86 thousand non-profit organizations around the world.

Microsoft modular data centers consume 50% less energy than traditional data centers. Finally, it is worth noting another interesting figure: employees of Microsoft headquarters in Redmond order about 984 thousand portions of French fries in the cafeterias of the campus every year.^[23]

Three priorities

In early August 2015, Microsoft announced three main tasks that the company is going to perform in the near future. There is no mention of operating systems among them.

Windows not included with the list of priority areas of Microsoft

Three priorities for research and development in the 2015-2016 fiscal year were listed by Microsoft in a report sent to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission:

• Improve office software products and business processes. This task applies to Office 365 and related solutions. By the end of June 2015, the number of Office 365 subscribers amounted to 15.2 million, an increase of 3 million users in one quarter. Microsoft does not intend to stop there and is going to make every effort to attract new customers, including by improving its products by buying useful assets.

• Build an intelligent cloud platform. The basis of this plan is the Microsoft Azure cloud, thanks to which in April-June 2015 the corporation's revenue in the commercial cloud services market jumped 88% to $832 million. The software giant is going to further strengthen its cloud business, especially since the company is led by Satya Nadella, the former head of the cloud division.

• Create more personal computing. Here we are talking about the formation of a more personalized approach when creating computer systems, taking into account the requirements of customers.

According to Busniess Insider, Windows 10 was not on Microsoft's priority list, despite the fact that the company has high hopes for this operating system and wants it to gain a foothold in a wide variety of electronics.^[24]

Perhaps Microsoft is positioning Windows 10 as a means of performing the above tasks. For example, the operating system is ready to use many Azure services - in particular, Azure Active Directory, which will open up new areas of business, such as virtual desktop infrastructure, selling Office 365 licenses, creating a private cloud, or configuring disaster recovery over the network.

Cloud Subscription Sales Growth

In the fourth fiscal quarter (corresponding to the second calendar in 2015), Microsoft increased the number of Office 365 Home and Personal subscribers by 3 million, and their total number reached 15.2 million. At the same time, the volume of revenue from the provision of corporate cloud services by the corporation grew by 88%.

Plans to triple cloud sales to $20 billion

On April 29, 2015, Microsoft announced plans to triple its revenue in the cloud product market in three years. This may be helped by increased sales of Windows 10 devices.

During a conversation with financial analysts at Build 2015 (April 29 - May 1), Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said the company aims to make money on enterprise cloud products such as Office 365, Azure and Dynamics CRM Online, about $20 billion for fiscal year 2018. In 2015, the volume of this business is expected at $6.3 billion.

According to Nadella, for Microsoft, the cloud direction is a strategically important front in the fight against competitors. At the same time, the top manager admitted that many individual developers and startups prefer to use the competing product Amazon Web Services for online computing. Microsoft wants to attract as many such customers to the Azure platform as possible.

Satya Nadella speaks at Build 2015 conference (April 29, 2015)

It is worth noting that Amazon, as well as Microsoft, estimates the annual volume of the cloud business at $6.3 billion. Amazon Web Services revenue in the first quarter of 2015 grew by 50% on an annualized basis, amounting to $1.57 billion.

At Build 2015, Microsoft CFO Amy Hood said the company forecast gross margins in the corporate cloud sector of 44% in fiscal year 2015. The top manager did not specify how this indicator will change compared to the previous year.

She added that Microsoft will still direct capital spending to expand the cloud business, although the company's operating costs will remain at the level of a year ago in fiscal 2016.

At Build 2015, Microsoft Chief Operating Officer Kevin Turner also spoke. He said that one of Azure's last major customers is the meteorological portal Accuweather, which, using Microsoft's cloud platform, began processing about 10 billion requests to display weather reports every 24 hours.

Turner also said that Microsoft predicts a total of 1 billion Windows 10 devices on the market by 2017-2018^[25]

Striving for a single ecosystem like Apple and Google

From March 16 to March 19, 2015, in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, Microsoft held the Convergence 2015 conference, during which a senior company representative spoke about one aspect of the business in which the software giant lags behind competitors. We are talking about a developed ecosystem, according to the Microsoft News website.^[26]

During the conference, Microsoft Marketing Director Chris Capossela cited an illustration depicting the relationship between Microsoft, Google and Apple branded products. This image shows how certain solutions of one manufacturer interact with each other.

Interconnection of Apple, Google and Microsoft products

For example, according to a slide from the presentation at Convergence 2015, tablet owners iPad almost certainly use a desktop browser, and Safari web browser users Chrome prefer a mail service. Gmail Supporters of the latter, most likely, search for information on the Internet using the Google search engine, and choose a cloud one to work with documents. Google Docs Microsoft has much less interacting products than competitors, Kapossela admitted.

"Microsoft has a lot of big products like Windows, Internet Explorer (browser) and Office. However, it can be seen that they practically do not interact with each other, unlike those developed by Google and Apple, "said a top manager at Microsoft

Apple can only advertise a handful of devices, such as the iPhone and iPad, but because all of the company's solutions are connected by one ecosystem, each product effectively promotes the other without any marketing investment, he said.

Following in the footsteps of Apple and Google, Microsoft is going to actively develop its ecosystem, including many of its products. By March 2015, the company's work in this direction resulted in integration OneNote into the Surface Pro 3 tablets, the search engine - Bing into the voice assistant Cortana and VoIP the service - Skype into, Microsoft Outlook.com said Chris Capossela, adding that Microsoft "seriously" engaged in close interaction of its products with each other.

2013

Blocking competitors from participating in the Microsoft conference

In July 2013, Microsoft blocked the possibility of participating in one of its main events of the year for representatives of competing companies. We are talking about the global partner conference (Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference 2013), held from July 7 to 11, 2013 in Houston, USA.

Although the competition between companies in the IT market is quite tough, this is a rather rare case when one of the mega-vendors so openly "banned" the specialists of competitors. To cut off unwanted visitors from Google, VMware and Salesforce, Microsoft has provided a special item in the registration form that directly indicates that the employees of this troika have no place at the event.

Warning on the company's website that Google, VMware and Salesforce.com specialists are closed entry to the event'

The affiliate conference is where sales professionals learn everything about the corporation's new products and services, so Microsoft has insured itself for obvious reasons. In total, in 2013, as expected on the eve of the event, the conference was supposed to be attended by 16 thousand people from 160 countries of the world.

Interestingly, Microsoft Apple Amazon Red Hat Cisco IBM Oracle did not create any obstacles to attending the event in 2013 for representatives of companies,,, and, although all of these are being fought hard in various market segments.

New Company Structure

In the first decade of July 2013, Steve Ballmer announced significant changes regarding the goals, strategy and structure of the corporation, sending all its employees the appropriate ^[27]. Microsoft relies on integrated solutions (hardware plus software) and plans to develop a line of its own devices.

The new structure consists of the following groups:

• Operating Systems Engineering Group, led by Terry Myerson, the group responsible for developing operating systems for all types of devices.

• Devices and Studios Engineering Group, led by Julie Larson-Green, the group is responsible for developing devices as well as supply chains for related components. The second area of ​ ​ work is entertainment content (games and so on).

• Applications and Services Engineering Group, led by Qi Lu, is responsible for applications and services, including communication and search.

• Cloud and Enterprise Engineering Group, led by Satya Nadella, is responsible for developing back-end technologies for data centers, databases and dedicated enterprise solutions.

• Dynamics, led by Kirill Tatarinov, a native of Russia, will continue to develop the eponymous line of business applications as before.

• Advanced Strategy and Research Group, led by Eric Rudder, is engaged in research and innovative development.

• Marketing Group, led by Tami Reller, supports all of the corporation's marketing activity.

• Separately mentioned is Chief Operating Officer Kevin Turner, who leads worldwide sales, marketing, support, licensing and commercial operations.

• The Business Development and Evangelism Group, led by Tony Bates, specializes in partnerships including OEMs, vendors, developers, and evangelism.

• Finance Group is a group of financiers led by Amy Hood.

• Legal and Corporate Affairs Group, led by Brad Smith, is responsible for the legal support of the corporation.

• HR Group, led by Lisa Brummel, deals with personnel issues.

2012

Logo change

On August 23, 2012, Jeff Hensen, general manager of Microsoft brand strategy, announced a change in the company's logo in a blog post.

Hensen reports that the logo change, which has been in use for nearly 25 years, is due to the launch of new products from the company: Windows 8, Windows Phone 8 and Xbox.

It is planned that the new logo will be introduced in the new products of the giant. "Our logo must evolve to visually highlight a new beginning," Hensen said in a post.

Old Microsoft logo goes down in history

The new logo consists of the name of the company and its symbol. To write the word Microsoft used Segoe font, the standard corporate font of the company. The graphic consists of four multi-colored squares that should symbolize the diversity of Microsoft's product portfolio.

Microsoft retains its stake in Facebook

Microsoft will not sell its stake in Facebook after lifting its ban on securities transactions with the Internet company on August 16, 2012, Bloomberg reported, citing unnamed sources. The ban applies to shareholders who bought the company's securities before the IPO, which took place in May 2012.

Microsoft believes that social network shares are a strategic asset that will help the giant compete with Google through a partnership between the two companies.

In 2007, Microsoft bought a 26.2 million or 1.7% stake in Facebook for $240 million. Now this package is estimated at $572 million.

2011: Analysts question Microsoft's bright future

Some experts believe that the CEO of the corporation, Steve Ballmer, has tightened the screws too tightly, which redirected Microsoft out of the path of innovative development. It is enough for one or two unsuccessful quarters that the corporation has embarked on a path of degradation. However, how can a company generating billions of dollars in profits stumble so seriously? According to Matt Rosoff, an analyst at Business Insider, the "domino effect" may contribute to this. Everything will begin with the fact that the popularity of tablets and, in particular, the iPad, will finally bring down the personal computer market. Read more

2009: $388 million fine to Singapore-based Uniloc

In 2009, the US Federal Court ordered the world software leader Microsoft to pay $388 million to Singapore-based Uniloc for violating patent law. Uniloc accuses Microsoft of violating its patent rights in the activation procedure in Windows XP, Office XP, and Windows Server 2003. This procedure, within a limited time interval, requires you to enter a code to release the lock so that the user can use the product in the future. The code comes with the license. According to Uniloc, they patented such a mechanism in 1992. A fine of $388 million is the amount of Uniloc's lost profits multiplied by two.

2008: Trial with Google over Windows Vista search

Первые лица Microsoft нередко страдают от ненавистников монопольного положения своей корпорации. Последний случай произошел весной 2008 года - Steve Ballmer at a speech at a Hungarian university, he came under fire from eggs. In 1998, Belgian avant-garde artist Noel Godin, during a visit by Bill Gates to Brussels, managed to flatten a cream cake on the face of the head of Microsoft

At this time, Microsoft is condemned for opaque development of most products, which was the cause of several lawsuits.

Thus, the company Google filed a lawsuit against Microsoft in order to obtain information Windows about the Vista search system and other data necessary for the development of Google Desktop for Windows Vista, one of the functions of which is indexing and searching for files. Google won the case by accusing Microsoft of having a monopoly on Windows Vista's built-in search engine. This is a lawsuit by Google against Microsoft, the purpose of which was to obtain information from Google about the Windows Vista search system and other data necessary for the development of Google Desktop for Windows Vista, one of the functions of which is to index and search for files. Google won the process by jeopardizing the monopoly of Microsoft's built-in Windows Vista search engine.

The situation was similar with the Internet Explorer browser (browser).

1997: The end of the feud with Apple

During his first term in charge of Apple, Steve Jobs became famous for his battle for the PC market, marked by a direct conflict between Apple and IBM. Along the way, Apple opposed itself to Microsoft, the company that supplied the IBM PC operating system, and subsequently, taking as a basis the appearance of the Macintosh graphics operating system, developed Windows.

The feud between the defeated Apple and Microsoft, which acquired the market leader status, continued after 1985, when Jobs had already left the company. The confrontation with Microsoft became part of Apple's culture, which proclaimed itself a fighter against everything associated with Microsoft and Wintel. Meanwhile, the Macintosh market continued to narrow, and its share was already measured in units of percent.

In 1996, Jobs found the strength to admit that the desktop war was over - Microsoft won. In his opinion, there was no point in spending money and energy on a battle that had no prospects. No, Apple will continue to play according to its own rules and on its own terms. And the giant from Redmond, let him remain in the positions he won, without interfering with the company that changed its course to move forward.

In exchange for a mutual licensing agreement, Microsoft agreed for at least five years to devote substantial resources to developing new versions of Office and Internet Explorer for Macintosh. In addition, the corporation bought a stake in Apple in the amount of $150 million, confirming its interest in the success of this company. In turn, Apple agreed for five years to make Internet Explorer (browser) the default browser for Mac OS.

The agreement, which Jobs announced in 1997 in Boston at the Macworld conference (and which was clearly followed by the hand of Bill Gates), was a de facto call for all Mac fans to bury tomahawks and move on.

Steve Jobs (on the catwalk) and Bill Gates (on the video screen) discuss the Macworld agreement and announce a new alliance between Apple and Microsoft, August 6, 1997.

From now on, Apple will develop in parallel with its former irreconcilable opponent, abandoning direct confrontation with him. Jobs' new stance toward Microsoft freed up a powerful intellectual energy pulse. Developers and Apple fans got the opportunity to move on and conquer new markets.

1995: Release of Windows 95 and Internet Explorer

Released in 1995, Windows 95 sold 7 million copies in the first two weeks of sales alone. Since the same year, the corporation began to focus on the Internet. The Internet Explorer browser created by Microsoft has become an integral part of Windows 98.

The MSN system is one of the three largest search engines, however, seriously inferior not only to the leading Google, but also to Yahoo, which ranks second.

1993: Sale of 1 million fixed assets per month

In 1993, the volume of sales of operating systems from Microsoft reached 1 million copies per month.

1992: Opening an office in Russia

The corporation opened its representative office in Russia in November 1992 (since July 2004 - Microsoft Rus LLC).

1989

Video: 1989 in the history of Microsoft. Bill Gates pops out of the drawer onstage ahead of performance

1987: First version of Windows

In 1987, the first version of Windows was released.

1980s Warren Buffett accidentally met with Bill Gates, bought Microsoft shares and earned $37 billion

Warren Buffett accidentally met with, Bill Gates bought shares Microsoft and earned $37 billion. The investor told journalist Bob Woodward about this for his new book, How to Lead: Wisdom from the World's Greatest CEOs, Founders, and Game Changers. More. here

1986: Carrying out an IPO

IPO Microsoft took place on March 13, 1986. At that time, the company's share price was $21 per share. At the end of the first trading day, the value of the shares rose to $28 per share. In subsequent years, the company's shares continued to rise in price, which contributed to the fact that some employees of the corporation became millionaires. The stock price peaked in 1999 at $119 per share.

Microsoft Share Price Dynamics

Microsoft has crushed its shares nine times. Splicing shares is a fairly common technique for a company whose securities are very quickly becoming more expensive. Such a maneuver is justified in order to make stocks more accessible to the general population. Microsoft has split nine times since going public in 1986. If she had not done this, every paper issued during the IPO would have cost $6,000 in 2010.

1983: Microsoft Mouse за $200

In April 1983, Microsoft introduced its first mouse manipulator, the Microsoft Mouse, which cost $200.

1981: Contract with IBM to install MSDOS on all its PCs

As a result, on August 12, 1981, IBM signed a contract with Microsoft, according to which all IBM PCs were produced exclusively with MSDOS preinstalled. Since then, Microsoft's fame has skyrocketed.

1979: QDOS refinement to MSDOS

The first operating system to bring success to the corporation was DOS (Disk Operating System). So, in 1979, Gates received an order to create (operating system OS) for the world's first personal computer from the corporation (IBM IBM Personal Computer, PC). To develop an OS for PC IBM Microsoft , she bought the QDOS product from Tim Paterson, finalized it and presented it under the IBM name MSDOS.

1978

Full composition of Microsoft in 1978

On the bottom left, Bill Gates, expelled from the third year of university in 1975, is the future richest man in the world.]]

1975: Founding of the Company

The company was founded on April 4, 1975 - then two companions and friends, Paul Allen and Bill Gates, first created Micro-Soft, later called Microsoft Corporation (Microcomputer Software Corporation). This event took place in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

For the first time, the name of the company arose in the correspondence of two co-founders - Bill Gates and Paul Allen. The future richest man on Earth shared the opinion that the name should reflect the very essence of the business - the symbiosis of "iron" and "software" entities (Microsoft). This name was officially fixed: the partners registered a legal entity in the state of New Mexico, where they were to work for their first customer - Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems, stationed in Albuquerque. Gates and Alain moved to this city after they completed work on the Basic language, the rights to use which were sold to MITS, which at that time was the first developer of the Altair personal computer.

June 25, 1975 Microsoft becomes a private corporation. At that time, Bill Gates' mother was the sales manager, who quite successfully promoted Microsoft products to various computer giants.

Much later, at the end of June 2019 Bill Gates , he said that in the first days Microsoft of his existence he worked seven days a week and did not take a vacation. This is an inevitable sacrifice that has to be made when creating your own company, Gates believes. More. here

See also

• Microsoft financials
• Acquisitions and sale of Microsoft assets
• The "cell PC" revolution or who will benefit from the ARM-Intel war

Notes