Microsoft

History

Year	Detail
1975	Microsoft was founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen to develop and sell BASIC interpreters for the Altair 8800.
1979	Microsoft moved from Albuquerque, New Mexico, to Bellevue, Washington.
1981	Microsoft incorporated and became Microsoft, Inc., in the state of Washington. IBM introduces its personal computer with Microsoft’s 16-bit operating system, MS-DOS 1.0.
1986	Microsoft moved to a corporate campus in Redmond, Washington, and Microsoft stocks were listed publicly.
1989	Microsoft introduces the earliest version of the Office suite of productivity applications.
1990	Microsoft launched Windows 3.0. This version contained an improved ability to move pieces of data greater than 64KB.
1995	Microsoft launched Windows 95 and sold 7 million copies in its first five weeks, becoming the world's most popular operating system.
1998	Microsoft launched Windows 98. Windows 98 was a consumer-oriented operating system developed by Microsoft as part of its Windows 9x family of Microsoft Windows operating systems.
2000	Microsoft launched Windows 2000. It was created from the previous Windows NT desktop OS and was originally called Windows NT 5.0.
2001	Microsoft launched Xbox, Office XP. Microsoft launched Windows XP. Windows XP replaced Windows 2000 and Windows ME, which helped bring the NT and 9x versions of Windows together.
2003	Microsoft launched Microsoft Office System, an office suite developed and distributed by Microsoft for its Windows operating system.
2009	Microsoft launched the Bing decision engine, which included features that deliver the best results and presented them in a more organized way to simplify key tasks.
2011	Microsoft launched Office 365, which was aimed originally at corporate users.
2011	Microsoft closes its acquisition of Skype an Internet communications company, for $8.5 billion led by investor group Silver Lake.
2012	Microsoft acquired Yammer, a four-year-old social networking company for enterprises, for $1.2 billion in cash.
2013	Microsoft unveils Xbox One. The new system brought together games, TV, movies, music, sports and Skype. Microsoft launched Outlook.com, Surface 2 and Surface Pro 2.
2014	Microsoft completed the acquisition of Nokia Devices and Services business, Minecraft. Microsoft launched Office for iPad.
2015	Microsoft opens store in New York City.
2016	Microsoft launched SQL Server 2016 and Microsoft Dynamics 365. Microsoft completes acquisition of LinkedIn.
2017	Microsoft introduces new technology for education, including Windows 10 S, the new Surface Laptop, and Microsoft Teams for classrooms.
2018	Microsoft opened a new campus in Dublin, Ireland, and completed the acquisition of GitHub.
2019	Microsoft introduces HoloLens 2, Microsoft opens flagship store in London and Microsoft announces five Surface products for late 2019, plus two new dual-screen devices, Surface Neo and Surface Duo, coming in late 2020.
2020	Microsoft introduces Surface Laptop Go and Azure Space.
2021	Microsoft introduces the Microsoft Viva employee experience platform, the Microsoft Mesh mixed-reality platform, and Windows 11.
2022	Microsoft completes the acquisition of Nuance.
2023	Microsoft and OpenAI extended the partnership, introduced Windows Copilot, and completed the acquisition of Activision Blizzard.