Microsoft is one of the largest and most diverse industries in the world. They provide a broad range of goods and services withing the computer technology industry. Founded by William Henry Gates (Bill Gates) in 1975, it has grown into a premier company. Listed as the 49th largest public company in the world by Forbes.com, it has made currently made Mr. Gates the worlds 2nd richest man(although 60% of his assets are now outside of Microsoft.). Microsoft has a spectacular balance sheet, with 77 billion in assets(2009) and about 27 billion in liabilities(2009), this gives them a stockholders equity of almost 40 billion, and an estimated profit of close to 18 billion for the fiscal year.As stated earlier Microsoft was founded in 1975 by Bill Gates, in order to sell BASIC interpreters for the Altair 1800, one of the first microcomputers ever created. Gates struck a deal with Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems(MITS), to implement the BASIC programming language for the Altair. This move helped launch the Altair Basic, which marked the beginning of Gates career. He moved to New Mexico where MITS was located and founded Microsoft. After initial success Gates moved the company to the Seattle area of Washington State, and in 1980 hired Steve Balmer, his 24th employee and first business manager, who would succeed Gates as CEO of Microsoft in 2000. Together the two men have worked together to become two of the most successful men on the planet.
Over the last 30 years the company has seen tremendous, and somewhat unprecedented success. Although it has not come without criticism as many lawsuits and claims have come against the software giant for everything from monopolistic practices to environmentally damaging policies. The company currently has a hand in almost every aspect of the computer technology industry. Some of its most popular products/services include; MSN(web portal), the Microsoft Office Suite, Windows Live, Windows Vista, the Zune, MSNBC, the Xbox/Xbox 360, and the newly developed Windows 7. These are just a few of the examples of currently used products and services, as they have designed hundreds of products over their 35 year history. With this said the future of Microsoft seems bright, with no signs of the industry slowing down Microsoft is firmly in position to continue dominance of all things technological.
