Microsoft was founded in 1975 by Bill Gates and Paul Allen. They developed the first commercially successful PC operating system called MS-DOS which helped establish Microsoft as the dominant player in the personal computer software business. Today, Microsoft's mission is to empower people and businesses through the use of computing available anytime and anywhere on any device. Bill Gates serves as CEO and Steve Ballmer as President, leading the company and ensuring it creates great technology and remains responsive to customers.

3. Microsoft’s mission
is to provide people
and businesses
with the power of
computing any time,
anywhere, and on
any device.

4. Bill Gates (CEO) and Steve Ballmer (President)
are Microsoft’s most visible leaders. They
work with a Business Leadership Team to
make sure Microsoft
is responsive to its customers and creating
great technology.

5. Bill Gates
(CEO)
Steve Ballmer
(Président)
Business and Business Consumer and
commerce Sales and Support
enterprise Productivity
Operations Microsoft Research
Consumer Windows Developers

6.  Microsoft offers a wide range of products and
services for business and personal use.
 Microsoft products are available in more than 30
languages and sold in more than 100 countries.

7. Microsoft would also come to dominate the office
suite market with Microsoft Office. The
company has diversified in recent years into
the video game industry with the Xbox and its
successor, the Xbox 360 as well as into the
consumer electronics and digital services
market with Zune, MSN and the Windows
Phone OS. The ensuing rise of stock in the
company's 1986 initial public offering(IPO)
made an estimated three billionaires and
12,000 millionaires from Microsoft employees
(Forbes 400 list revealed that in March 2011
both Jon Shipley and Nathan Myhrvold lost
their billionaire status). In May 2011, Microsoft
Corporation acquired Skype Communications
for $8.5 billion.

8.  Microsoft subsidiaries/global presence
 Microsoft has offices in over 60
countries worldwide
 International revenues account for
54% of Microsoft total revenues

9.  Corporate headquarters
are located in
Redmond, Washington
 There is
6,800,000square feet of
office space at
Microsoft
 Number of buildings at
corporate
headquarters: 81 and
growing

10. William Henry "Bill" Gates III is an
American business magnate, investor,
philanthropist, and author. Gates is the former CEO
and current chairman of Microsoft, the software
company he founded with Paul Allen. He is
consistently ranked among the world's wealthiest
people and was the wealthiest overall from 1995
to 2009, excluding 2008, when he was ranked
third. During his career at Microsoft, Gates held
the positions of CEO and chief software architect,
and remains the largest individual shareholder,
with 6.4 percent of the common stock. He has also
authored or co-authored several books. Gates is
one of the best-known entrepreneurs of the
personal computer revolution. Gates has

12.  Microsoft was founded in 1975 by Bill Gates and
Paul Allen when they wrote a software program
for the MITS Altair, which is considered one of the
first personal computers
 Microsoft’s first office in Albuquerque was
located at the Sundowner Motel on Route 66;
later it was relocated next door to a vacuum
cleaner shop

13. Paul Allen and Bill Gates, childhood friends with a passion
in computer programming, were seeking to make a
successful business utilizing their shared skills. The January
1975 issue of Popular Electronics featured Micro
Instrumentation and Telemetry System's (MITS) Altair
8800 microcomputer. Allen noticed that they could program
a BASIC interpreter for the device; after a call from Gates
claiming to have a working interpreter, MITS requested a
demonstration. Since they didn't actually have one, Allen
worked on a simulator for the Altair while Gates developed
the interpreter. Although they developed the interpreter on a
simulator and not the actual device, the interpreter worked
flawlessly when they demonstrated the interpreter to MITS
in Albuquerque, New Mexico in March 1975; MITS agreed to
distribute it, marketing it as Altair BASIC.[4] They officially
established Microsoft on April 4, 1975, with Gates as
the CEO. Allen came up with the original name of "Micro-
Soft," as recounted in a 1995 Fortune magazine article. In
August 1977 the company formed an agreement with ASCII
Magazine in Japan, resulting in its first international office,
"ASCII Microsoft".[6] The company moved to a new home
in Bellevue, Washington in January 1979

14. Paul Allen and Bill Gates

15. Microsoft logo, filed August 26, 1982 until
1987
Microsoft "Pac-Man" logo, designed by Scott
Baker and used since 1987, with the 1994–
2002 slogan "Where do you want to go
today?
Microsoft logo as of 2006–2011, with the
slogan "Your potential. Our passion."
Logo by Microsoft with the slogan "Be
What's Next." 2011–present

16.  Microsoft relocated to downtown Bellevue, WA
in 1978, and then in 1986 moved to its current
location in Redmond
 Also in 1986, Microsoft stock went public at
$21 per share; it has since split eight times

17.  Microsoft launched Windows 95 in Redmond
on August 24, 1995, selling a record-setting
7 million copies in the first five weeks
 In December 1995, Microsoft unveiled its
Internet strategy, including plans to integrate
Internet capabilities into every Microsoft
product