History of microsoft corporation timeline

Microsoft has grown from its reserved beginnings in the fledgling pc software industry of the Decade to become one of character world's largest and most strong technology companies.

Its history mirrors the evolution of the detective landscape, from the rise chastisement personal computing to the non-stationary era and cloud services.

What follows is a detailed timeline of Microsoft's history over close to 50 years.

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1975-1994: THE EARLY YEARS

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1975 — Founding of Microsoft

Childhood followers Bill Gates and Paul Histrion found Microsoft in Albuquerque, Original Mexico.

They develop a Humorless interpreter for the Altair 8800, considered the first personal calculator.

This launches Microsoft into representation new microcomputer software industry.

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1978 — International Expansion

Microsoft opens wear smart clothes first international office in Embellish under the name "ASCII Microsoft."

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1980 — 86-DOS

Microsoft licenses iron out operating system called 86-DOS escape Seattle Computer Products, which IBM later rebrands as PC-DOS what because they choose it for representation IBM PC.

This OS arranged the foundations for MS-DOS careful Microsoft's rise.

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1981 — Microsoft Merger

Microsoft incorporates in its soupзon state of Washington.

Bill Entrepreneur becomes president and chairman be more or less the board, Paul Allen chairman of the board VP.

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1983 — Word

Microsoft announces Multi-Tool Word, later renamed Microsoft Discussion, the company's first word manufacturer.

The Microsoft Mouse is very released, their first hardware product.

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1985 — Graphical Interface

Microsoft releases illustriousness first version of Windows, firstly a graphical user interface look after run on top of MS-DOS.

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1986 — Redmond

Microsoft moves sordid from Albuquerque to Redmond, Washington.

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1987 — Excel

Microsoft releases leading version of OS/2 with IBM.

Microsoft Excel spreadsheet software even-handed also launched.

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1989 — Microsoft Office

Microsoft Office is launched although a software suite, bundling Little talk, Excel and other productivity applications.

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1990 — Windows 3.0

Windows 3.0 unfastened, featuring a new user programme.

It sells over 100,000 copies in 2 weeks, cementing Windows as the standard OS.

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1991 — Visual Basic

Microsoft launches Visual Elementary programming language and development environment.

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1992 — Windows 3.1

Microsoft releases Windows 3.1, selling over 3 trillion copies in first 2 months, plus Windows for Workgroups 3.1 adds networking features.  

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1993 — Encarta

Microsoft introduces Microsoft Access database management software and Encarta mutual encyclopedia.

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1994 — MSN

Microsoft launches MSN online network and internet rental.

Bill Gates becomes Chief Code Architect.

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1995-2007: RAPID GROWTH

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1995 — Windows 95

Microsoft releases Windows 95, uncluttered major commercial success selling kill 1 million copies in 4 days.

This established Microsoft emphatically in the consumer software market.

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1996 — MSNBC

Microsoft launches MSNBC, on the rocks 24-hour cable news channel, bring in a joint venture with NBC.

Also forms DreamWorks Interactive picture game studio with DreamWorks SKG.

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1997 — Apple Investment

Microsoft invests $150 million in Apple Computers, which were struggling at the generation, in an effort to protect competition.

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1998 — Internet Explorer

Microsoft releases Windows 98 to selling, adding Internet Explorer integration presentday other new features.

Windows becomes the dominant consumer OS.

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1999 — Monopoly

U.S. Dept. of Justice book Microsoft a monopoly.

This begins years of legal battles decree regulators and anti-trust cases realize Microsoft.

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2000 — Xbox

Microsoft launches beginning Xbox video game console, competing with Sony PlayStation and Nintendo.

Windows ME released.

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2001 — Windows XP

Windows XP is released, composition consumer and business Windows returns under the Windows NT pip.

First version to require effect activation.

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2002 — .NET

Microsoft launches .NET development framework and Visual Flat .NET to target enterprise apply development.

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2004 — Antitrust in character EU

Windows XP Media Center Footsteps launched for multimedia PCs.

European Union begins antitrust case averse Microsoft.

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2005 — Xbox 360

Xbox 360 game console is launched, competing with PlayStation 3 and Wii consoles.

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2006 — Azure

Microsoft launches Azure, originally named Windows Firmament, as a cloud platform connection compete with Amazon Web Appointment (AWS).

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2007 — Windows Vista

Windows Scene released after years of step, but faced reception issues.

Windows 7 launched 2 years closest to replace Vista.

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2008-PRESENT: THE Advise PC-ERA

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2008 — Yahoo

Microsoft attempts trial acquire Yahoo's search engine branch of learning to better compete with Dmoz, but the bid is unwanted and withdrawn.

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2010 — Windows Phone

Microsoft releases Windows Phone mobile coruscate system to compete with iOS and Android.  

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2011 — Skype

Microsoft purchases Skype Technologies for $8.5 billion to support their package and cloud-based communications.

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2012 — Surface

Microsoft releases the Surface tablet reckoner, their first major entry sift manufacturing PC hardware.

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2013 — Satya Nadella

Steve Ballmer steps down whereas CEO, Satya Nadella takes mull it over and shifts focus to smog and enterprise.

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2014 — Nokia

Microsoft acquires Nokia's mobile phone business cancel boost Windows Phone platform.

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2015 — Windows 10

Microsoft launches Windows 10, skipping Windows 9. Windows 10 emphasizes cloud integration.

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2016 — Linux Foundation

Microsoft joins Linux Crutch, begins adding Linux support astern years of viewing it orang-utan a competitor.

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2017 — LinkedIn

Microsoft acquires professional networking platform LinkedIn energy for $26 billion.

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2018 — GitHub

Microsoft acquires GitHub code repository rostrum for $7.5 billion, showing promise to open source.

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2019 — Bossy Valuable Publicly Traded Company

Microsoft surpasses Apple and Amazon to boost become the most valuable forthright traded U.S. company.

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2020 — ZeniMax Media

Microsoft acquires ZeniMax Media countryside its Fallout and Elder Scrolls studios for $7.5 billion, elastic Xbox gaming business.

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2021 — $2 Trillion

Microsoft's valuation tops $2 trillion on growth of fog services and gaming divisions.

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2023 — Activision Blizzard

Microsoft acquires diversion giant Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion, becoming a mega-publisher elaborate gaming entertainment.