Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, that develops, manufactures, licenses, supports and sells computer software, consumer electronics and personal computers and services. Its best known software products are the Microsoft Windows line of operating systems, Microsoft Office office suite, and Internet Explorer web browser. Its flagship hardware products are Xbox game console and the Microsoft Surface series of tablets. It is the world’s largest software maker measured by revenues. It is also one of the world’s most valuable companies.
Microsoft was founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen on April 4, 1975 to develop and sell BASIC interpreters for Altair 8800. It rose to dominate the personal computer operating system market with MS-DOS in the mid-1980s, followed by the Microsoft Windows. The company’s 1986 initial public offering, and subsequent rise in its share price, created an estimated three billionaires and 12,000 millionaires from Microsoft employees. Since the 1990s, it has increasingly diversified from the operating system market and has made a number of corporate acquisitions. In May 2011, Microsoft acquired Skype Technologies for $8.5 billion in its largest acquisition to date.
As of 2013, Microsoft is market dominant in both the IBM PC-compatible operating system and office software suite markets (the latter with Microsoft Office). The company also produces a wide range of other software for desktops and servers, and is active in areas including Internet search (with Bing), the video game industry (with the Xbox, Xbox 360 and Xbox One consoles), the digital services market (through MSN), and mobile phones (via the Windows Phone OS). In June 2012, Microsoft entered the personal computer production market for the first time, with the launch of the Microsoft Surface, a line of tablet computers.
With the acquisition of Nokia’s devices and services division to form Microsoft Mobile Oy, the company will re-enter the smartphone hardware market, after its previous attempt, Microsoft Kin, which resulted from their acquisition of Danger Inc.
Paul Allen and Bill Gates, childhood friends with a passion in computer programming, were seeking to make a successful business utilizing their shared skills. In 1972 they founded their first company named Traf-O-Data, which offered a rudimentary computer that tracked and analyzed automobile traffic data. Allen went on to pursue a degree in computer science at the University of Washington, later dropping out of school to work at Honeywell. Gates began studies at Harvard. The January 1975 issue of Popular Electronics featured Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems’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. They officially established Microsoft on April 4, 1975, with Gates as the CEO. Allen came up with the original name of “Micro-Soft,” the combination of the words microcomputer and software, 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”. The company moved to a new home in Bellevue, Washington in January 1979.
Microsoft entered the OS business in 1980 with its own version of Unix, called Xenix. However, it was MS-DOS that solidified the company’s dominance. After negotiations with Digital Research failed, IBM awarded a contract to Microsoft in November 1980 to provide a version of the CP/M OS, which was set to be used in the upcoming IBM Personal Computer (IBM PC). For this deal, Microsoft purchased a CP/M clone called 86-DOS from Seattle Computer Products, branding it as MS-DOS, which IBM rebranded to PC DOS. Following the release of the IBM PC in August 1981, Microsoft retained ownership of MS-DOS. Since IBM copyrighted the IBM PC BIOS, other companies had to reverse engineer it in order for non-IBM hardware to run as IBM PC compatibles, but no such restriction applied to the operating systems. Due to various factors, such as MS-DOS’s available software selection, Microsoft eventually became the leading PC operating systems vendor. The company expanded into new markets with the release of the Microsoft Mouse in 1983, as well as a publishing division named Microsoft Press. Paul Allen resigned from Microsoft in February after developing Hodgkin’s disease.
At Microsoft, giving is ingrained in our culture, a cornerstone of our citizenship and as our employees will tell you, one of the most rewarding — not to mention fun — aspects of our jobs.
When our giving program began in 1983, approximately 200 Microsoft employees raised $17,000 for nonprofits. Today, more than 39,000 employees participate in the campaign, which is approximately 65% of Microsoft’s total U.S. workforce.
Microsoft’s annual Employee Giving Campaign takes place in the U.S. throughout the year, with a special push every October. You can feel the energy on campus as the campaign hits high gear, with more than 300 activities including a 5K Run, an online auction and other special events.
Microsoft matches employee nonprofit donations and volunteering year round up to $15,000 per employee. Microsoft also helps employees find nonprofits that best match their volunteering skills and interests with our own in-house volunteering tool.
It adds up to a very real impact on local communities near and far — and an enduring giving culture that stems directly from our mission as a company: to help people realize their full potential, in everything they do.
Employee Giving by the Numbers
1. Microsoft employees have donated more than $1 billion, inclusive of the corporate match, since 1983.
2. Microsoft employees in the U.S. have volunteered more than 2 million hours of their time to causes they care about since we began our volunteer match program in 2005.
3. Since 1983, Microsoft and its employees have provided more than $6.5 billion in cash, services and software to nonprofits around the world.
Microsoft donates Under 501C3. Ever wonder how the Employee Giving programs at Microsoft really work? Are you interested in knowing what the annual Employee Giving Campaign that takes place in October each year on Microsoft campuses throughout the country is all about? Download our Maximize the Match one pager for more information. To watch an educational session designed for non-profits throughout the community, as well as the Microsoft employees that support them, who want to be sure to make the most of the Microsoft Employee Giving programs, click here. You’ll learn some of the basics about the programs while also hearing about best practices for being successful in your fundraising efforts at Microsoft.
HOW TO REQUEST A MATCH FOR A GIFT PAID DIRECTLY TO A NONPROFIT ORGANIZATION
1. Make a donation directly to the organization of your choice through their Web site, by phone, or by mail.
2. Click the “Match Now” button to the right. You will be redirected to the tool.
3. Click “Submit New Request.”
4. Select the option “Paid via Cash/Check or Credit/Debit Card Directly to the Agency.”
5. Click “Search for Charity” or “Show Charities I Have Previously Designated”.
6. Search for and select the organization.
7. Fill in the required information.
8. If your gift is to a specific fund within the organization, please include designation in the Purpose field (for example, “Hurricane Relief Fund” or “sponsorship of Bob Smith”).
9. Click “Confirm” to complete your matching gift request (if you are contributing to more than one organization, repeat these steps to request a match for each separate contribution).
HOW TO MAKE A GIFT USING THE ONLINE GIVING TOOL
1. Click the “Match Now” button to the right. You will be redirected to the tool.
2. Click “Submit New Request.”
3. Select “Charge My Debit/Credit Card.”
4. Click “Search for Charity” or “Show Charities I Have Previously Designated”.
5. Search for and select the organization.
6. Fill in the required information.
7. If your gift is to a specific fund within the organization, please include designation in the Purpose field (for example, “Hurricane Relief Fund” or “sponsorship of Bob Smith.”)
8. Click “Confirm.”
9. Enter your credit card information to complete your request (if you are contributing to more than one organization, repeat these steps to request a match for each separate contribution)
NOTE: A small transaction fee will be charged by your credit/debit card company. The amount of the fee will be deducted from your gift. Microsoft will match the entire gift amount before the transaction fee.
