Microsoft Corporation

Microsoft Corporation is the leading American computer software company. Microsoft develops and sells a wide variety of software products to businesses and consumers in more than 50 countries. The company’s Windows operating systems for personal computers are the most widely used operating systems in the world. Microsoft has its headquarters in Redmond, Washington. Microsoft’s other well-known products include Word, a word processor; Excel, a spreadsheet program; Access, a data base program; and PowerPoint, a program for making business presentations. Microsoft’s Internet Explorer allows users to browse the World Wide Web. Among the company’s other products are games, financial software, programming languages for software developers, input devices, such as keyboards, and computer-related books.

Microsoft was founded in 1975 by William H. Gates and Paul Allen in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The pair had teamed up in high school in Seattle, Washington, where they were first introduced to computers and programming languages in 1968. In 1979 Microsoft relocated to the Seattle area, and in 1981 the company released the highly successful MS-DOS operating system, which rapidly became the standard operating system for personal computers.

Under Gates’s leadership, Microsoft expanded rapidly in the 1980s and the 1990s, driven by the success of its applications software and operating systems. The company’s Windows operating systems, which employed a graphical user interface, became the most widely used operating systems for personal computers. As the company grew, the value of its stock boomed. In 1987, at age 31, Gates – who then owned about 40 percent of the company’s stock – became the youngest self-made billionaire in American history. By 1998, he had amassed a personal fortune in excess of $50 billion, making him the wealthiest individual in the world.

At Microsoft, Paul Allen worked to develop some of the company’s most innovative and popular products, including Windows, Microsoft Word, and Microsoft Mouse. In 1982 Allen learned that he had Hodgkin’s disease, a form of cancer. The disease went into remission after radiation treatment, but the illness caused Allen to reevaluate his lifestyle. In 1983 he left his position at Microsoft, but remained on the company’s board of directors and retained a sizable percentage of the company’s stock. He spent much of the next two years traveling, reading and scuba diving. In 1985 Allen started Asymetrix Corporation, which makes software used in the creation of multimedia. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the value of Microsoft stock increased enormously, making Allen one of the world’s richest individuals. He has used his wealth to invest in a number of multimedia, telecommunications, and entertainment companies. Allen’s charitable foundations have donated millions of dollars to support educational institutions, cancer research, and cultural organizations.

Microsoft Corporation now employs about 22,230 people. Its annual revenues amount to $11,358 million and profits rose to $3,454 million. Microsoft Corporation ranks 145th among 500 biggest American companies sorted by revenue.

NOTES

1. software - the sets of programs that tell a computer

how to do a particular job (hardware =

computer machinery and equipment)

2. spreadsheet program - a computer program that can show and

calculate financial information

3. to team up - to join with someone in order to work on

something

4. graphical user interface (GUI) - a way of showing and organizing

information on a computer screen that it

is easy to use and understand

5. to boom - to increase in value

6. in excess of … - more than a particular amount

7. to develop a product - to design or make a new product over

a period of time

8. to retain (a percentage of the stock) - to keep or continue to have (a percentage

of the stock)

9. charitable foundation - благотворительный фонд

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