Microsoft

On April 4, 1975, Bill Gates and Paul Allen created Microsoft (a portmanteau of "microcomputer software") to develop and market BASIC interpreters for the Altair 8800. With MS-DOS in the mid-1980s, it dominated the personal computer operating system industry, followed by Microsoft Windows. Microsoft workers became billionaires and millionaires as a result of the company's initial public offering (IPO) in 1986 and subsequent growth in share price.Since the 1990s, it has expanded beyond the operating system industry and undertaken a series of corporate acquisitions, the greatest of which being the $26.2 billion purchase of LinkedIn in December 2016, followed by the $8.5 billion purchase of Skype Technologies in May 2011.

In 2000, Steve Ballmer succeeded Bill Gates as CEO, and he later proposed a "devices and services" approach. This began with Microsoft's acquisition of Danger Inc. in 2008, followed by the company's first foray into the personal computer manufacturing market in June 2012 with the launch of the Microsoft Surface line of tablet computers, and finally the formation of Microsoft Mobile through the acquisition of Nokia's devices and services division. Since Satya Nadella took over as CEO in 2014, the firm has shifted its focus away from hardware and toward cloud computing, resulting in the company's stock reaching its highest level since December 1999.

Microsoft restored its title as the world's most valuable publicly listed business in 2018, after being dethroned by Apple in 2010. Microsoft became the third U.S. public firm to be valued at over $1 trillion in April 2019, behind Apple and Amazon. Microsoft has the third-highest worldwide brand worth as of 2020.

Headquarters: Redmond, Washington, United States

Website: https://www.microsoft.com/vi-vn