Microsoft

Microsoft History Review

At the beginning, the basic idea behind the company was to build software to Altair 8800. Founder developed MS-DOS in 1981 and first Microsoft Windows in 1985.

Afterwards, PC’s started to be common thing in private and business worlds, and with that Microsoft would dominate the emerging market throughout the 80s and 90s. At that time they established themselves as the top computer software providers on the market.

Microsoft Performance Summary

Microsoft is well known for its high performances on the market since its inception, leading it to feature on the NASDAQ 100 as well as the Dow Jones. It earliest success can be traced back to the development of MS-DOS in 1981, which gave them the contract with IBM. Microsoft went publicly traded in 1986, with shares opening at $21 at the start of the day and closing on $31.25.

The release of Windows operating system helps them to becoming the largest PC software company based on sales by 1988. After further release such as Windows 3.0 and Windows NT, Windows 95 is released in 1995, and revolutionises the entire PC market. It sold a staggering 7 million copies in its first five weeks, with state of the art features such as dial-up internet, games, plug and play capabilities all helping to sell the software like never before. Profits for that year alone were over $5 billion, with a net revenue growth of 29%.

Developments since the 2000s have included numerous operating systems such as Windows XP and Vista, along with releases of gaming console Xbox and its successor the Xbox 360. Its first reported loss since becoming a public traded company was in 2012, with a quarterly loss posted in that year.

Microsoft Key People

Bill Gates – founder. At this time is technology advisor.

John W Thompson – chairman of the company, previously worked as vice-president of IBM and CEO of Symantech.

Saatya Nadella – Chief Operating Officer (CEO), formally working as part of Microsoft’s Cloud and Enterprise group.

Microsoft 2014 Summary Performance

2014 was a productive year for Microsoft. They introduced Cortana (Siri’s competitior), new Xbox and tablet Surface Pro 3.

The commercial cloud revenue reached $4.4 billion, the highest amount if any cloud based technology. Total revenues were over $86 billion, with a gross margin of almost $60 billion and operating income of over $27 billion. This resulted in an increase for shareholders, who received $15.7 billion in cash, raising them by 27%.

Attempting to take a share of the mobile market through Windows OS on mobile devices such as the Nokia Lumia has seen Microsoft taking only a small share of the mobile phone market. Windows 10 is the ambitious project for Microsoft the plans to uses one single operating system across all of its products, pc’s, smartphones and tablets, and its Xbox consoles.