[Type text]
10/16/2009
PROJECT
FIGHTERS
1/2
INTRODUCTION TO MICROSOFT BY ZACK, JANNUS
AND STEVE
A Beginner’s Guide | Ge, Yan, Yang
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Introduction to Microsoft By Zack, Jannus and Steve
Table of Contents
Attribution ................................................................................................................................ 3
Our Contribution ................................................................................................................... 3
Wikipedia .............................................................................................................................. 3
Creative Commons ................................................................................................................ 4
Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 5
History ....................................................................................................................................... 6
1985–1994: IPO, OS/2 and Windows.................................................................................... 7
IPO ......................................................................................................................................... 7
Post-IPO ................................................................................................................................ 7
1995–2005: Internet and legal issues ................................................................................... 8
2006–present: Vista and other transitions ........................................................................... 9
Product divisions ..................................................................................................................... 11
Platform Products and Services Division ............................................................................ 11
Entertainment and Devices Division ................................................................................... 13
Economic impact..................................................................................................................... 15
User culture............................................................................................................................. 16
Corporate affairs ..................................................................................................................... 17
Corporate structure ............................................................................................................ 17
Stock.................................................................................................................................... 17
Diversity .............................................................................................................................. 18
Logos and slogans ............................................................................................................... 19
Environmental record ......................................................................................................... 19
Freedom and privacy .............................................................................................................. 22
Misrepresentation .................................................................................................................. 23
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Introduction to Microsoft By Zack, Jannus and Steve
Attribution
All the content in this report, except for the Top Web Links section is from Wikipedia,
licensed under the Creative Commons Share-Alike 3.0 Unported License (see below for an
overview of both Wikipedia and the Creative Commons). The following picture shows the
full license below (it is also set up as a hyperlink to the original web source for this license).
(Wikipedia, 2009)
(Wikipedia, 2009)
Figure 1 – Wikipedia Creative Commons License
Our Contribution
We have attempted to add extra value to the content by structuring it in an easy to read,
business report format and to add an informative “Top Web Links” section. We have also
added an index to help you find what you are looking for. We hope you find it useful and
worth the $1 purchase price. We have prepared this report as part of a MS Word 2007
assignment for BSYS 1000 – Computer Applications I that we are taking at the British
Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT). All proceeds will go to student clubs within the
School of Business at BCIT.
Wikipedia
Wikipedia is a multilingual, Web-based, free-content encyclopedia project based mostly on
anonymous contributions. The name “Wikipedia” is a portmanteau of the words wiki (a type
of collaborative Web site) and encyclopedia. Wikipedia’s articles provide links to guide the
user to related pages with additional information.
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Introduction to Microsoft By Zack, Jannus and Steve
Wikipedia is written collaboratively by an international (and mostly anonymous) group of
volunteers. Anyone with internet access can write and make changes to Wikipedia articles.
There are no requirements to provide one’s real name when contributing; rather, each
writer’s privacy is protected unless they choose to reveal their identity themselves. Since its
creation in 2001, Wikipedia has grown rapidly into one of the largest reference web sites,
attracting around 65 million visitors monthly as of 2009. There are more than 75,000 active
contributors working on more than 14,000,000 articles in more than 260 languages. As of
today, there are 3,062,069 articles in English. Every day, hundreds of thousands of visitors
from around the world collectively make tens of thousands of edits and create thousands of
new articles to augment the knowledge held by the Wikipedia encyclopedia. (See also:
Wikipedia:Statistics.)
Creative Commons
Creative Commons (CC) is a non-profit organization devoted to expanding the range of
creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share. The organization has
released several copyright-licenses known as Creative Commons licenses. These licenses
allow creators to communicate which rights they reserve, and which rights they waive for
the benefit of recipients or other creators.
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Introduction to Microsoft By Zack, Jannus and Steve
Introduction
Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT, HKEX: 4338) is a multinational computer technology
corporation that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of software
products for computing devices.[8] Headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA, its most
profitable products are the Microsoft Windows operating system and the Microsoft Office
suite of productivity software.
The company was founded to develop and sell BASIC interpreters for the Altair 8800.
Microsoft rose to dominate the home computer operating system market with MS-DOS in
the mid-1980s, followed by the Windows line of operating systems. Its products have all
achieved near-ubiquity in the desktop computer market. One commentator notes that
Microsoft's original mission was "a computer on every desk and in every home, running
Microsoft software."[9] Microsoft possesses footholds in other markets, with assets such as
the MSNBC cable television network, the MSN Internet portal, and the Microsoft Encarta
multimedia encyclopedia. The company also markets both computer hardware products
such as the Microsoft mouse as well as home entertainment products such as the Xbox,
Xbox 360, Zune and MSN TV.[8] The company's initial public stock offering (IPO) was in 1986;
the ensuing rise of the company's stock price has made four billionaires and an estimated
12,000 millionaires from Microsoft employees.[10][11][12]
Throughout its history the company has been the target of criticism, including monopolistic
business practices and anti-competitive strategies including refusal to deal and tying. The
U.S. Justice Department and the European Commission, among others, have ruled against
Microsoft for various antitrust violations accordingly in today's political-cultural climate of
mixed economies and "public interest of society".[13][14]
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Introduction to Microsoft By Zack, Jannus and Steve
History
Main article: History of Microsoft
See also: History of Microsoft Windows
1975–1984: Founding
Following the launch of the Altair 8800, William Henry Gates III, (known as Bill Gates) called
the creators of the new microcomputer, Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems
(MITS), offering to demonstrate an implementation of the BASIC programming language for
the system. After the demonstration, MITS agreed to distribute Altair BASIC.[15] Gates left
Harvard University, moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico where MITS was located, and
founded Microsoft there. The company's first international office was founded on
November 1, 1978, in Japan, titled "ASCII Microsoft" (now called "Microsoft Japan").[15] On
January 1, 1979, the company moved from Albuquerque to a new home in Bellevue,
Washington.[15] Steve Ballmer joined the company on June 11, 1980, and later succeeded
Bill Gates as CEO.[15]
Among pre-IBM-PC products were the software package TASC (The AppleSoft Compiler),
which compiled a BASIC program into Apple machine language, and the hardware Microsoft
Softcard, an add-on Z80 processor card for the Apple II and compatible computers which
allowed the use of the CP/M operating system instead of Applesoft and Apple DOS. In 1980,
Microsoft entered the operating system business with its own version of Unix, called Xenix,
which it licensed to various computer vendors.
DOS (Disk Operating System) was the operating system that brought the company its first
real success. On August 12, 1981, after negotiations with Digital Research failed, IBM
awarded a contract to Microsoft to provide a version of the CP/M operating system, which
was set to be used in the upcoming IBM Personal Computer (PC). For this deal, Microsoft
purchased a CP/M clone called 86-DOS from Seattle Computer Products, which IBM
renamed to PC-DOS. Later, the market saw a flood of IBM PC clones after Columbia Data
Products successfully cloned the IBM BIOS, and by aggressively marketing MS-DOS to
manufacturers of IBM-PC clones, Microsoft rose from a small player to one of the major
software vendors in the home computer industry.[16][17][18][19][20][21][22] The company
expanded into new markets with the release of the Microsoft Mouse in 1983, as well as a
publishing division named Microsoft Press.[15]
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Introduction to Microsoft By Zack, Jannus and Steve
1985–1994: IPO, OS/2 and Windows
In August 1985, Microsoft and IBM partnered in the development of a different operating
system called OS/2.[23] On November 20, 1985, Microsoft released its first retail version of
Microsoft Windows, originally a graphical extension for its MS-DOS operating system.[15]
On March 13, 1986 the company went public with an initial public offering (IPO), with a
starting initial offering price of $21.00 and ending at the first day of trading as at US $28.00.
The ensuing rise of the stock price has made four billionaires and an estimated 12,000
millionaires from Microsoft employees.[11][24][25] In 1987, Microsoft eventually released
their first version of OS/2 to OEMs.[26]
IPO
Microsoft's Initial Public Offering occurred on March 14, 1986. The stock closed at $27.75
per share after peaking at $29.25 shortly after the opening. Microsoft's two founders, Gates
and Allen, were made instant millionaires. Gates owned 45% of the company's 24.7 million
outstanding shares and Allen roughly 25%.[27] Gates' stake was therefore $234 million and
Microsoft's total-value $520million ($1.01 billion in present-day terms[28]), at that time.[29]
Post-IPO
The sign at a main entrance to the Microsoft corporate campus. The Redmond Microsoft
campus today includes more than 750,000 m² (approx. 8 million square feet) and over
30,000 employees.[30]In 1989, Microsoft introduced its flagship office suite, Microsoft
Office. The software bundled separate office productivity applications, such as Microsoft
Word and Microsoft Excel.[15] On May 22, 1990 Microsoft launched Windows 3.0.[31] The
new version of Microsoft's operating system boasted such new features as streamlined user
interface graphics and improved protected mode capability for the Intel 386 processor; it
sold over 100,000 copies in two weeks.[32] Windows at the time generated more revenue
for Microsoft than OS/2, and the company decided to move more resources from OS/2 to
Windows.[33] In the ensuing years, the popularity of OS/2 declined, and Windows quickly
became the favored PC platform.
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During the transition from MS-DOS to Windows, the success of Microsoft's product
Microsoft Office allowed the company to gain ground on application-software competitors,
such as WordPerfect and Lotus 1-2-3.[34][35] According to The Register, Novell, an owner of
WordPerfect for a time, alleged that Microsoft used its inside knowledge of the DOS and
Windows kernels and of undocumented Application Programming Interface features to
make Office perform better than its competitors.[36] Eventually, Microsoft Office became
the dominant business suite, with a market share far exceeding that of its competitors.[37]
In 1993, Microsoft released Windows NT 3.1, a business operating system with the Windows
3.1 user interface but an entirely different kernel.[34]
1995–2005: Internet and legal issues
In 1995, Microsoft released Windows 95, a new version of the company's flagship operating
system which featured a completely new user interface, including a novel start button; more
than a million copies of Microsoft Windows 95 were sold in the first four days after its
release.[34] The company also released its web browser, Internet Explorer, with the
Windows 95 Plus! Pack in August 1995 and subsequent Windows versions.[38]
On, May 26, 1995, following Bill Gates's internal "Internet Tidal Wave memo",[39] Microsoft
began to expand its product line into computer networking and the World Wide Web. On
August 24, 1995, it launched a major online service, MSN (Microsoft Network), as a direct
competitor to AOL. MSN became an umbrella service for Microsoft's online
services.[15][34][40] The company continued to branch out into new markets in 1996,
starting with a joint venture with NBC to create a new 24/7 cable news station,
MSNBC.[34][41] Microsoft entered the personal digital assistant (PDA) market in November
with Windows CE 1.0, a new built-from-scratch version of their flagship operating system,
specifically designed to run on low-memory, low-performance machines, such as handhelds
and other small computers.[42] Later in 1997, Internet Explorer 4.0 was released for both
Mac OS and Windows, marking the beginning of the takeover of the browser market from
rival Netscape. In October, the Justice Department filed a motion in the Federal District
Court in which they stated that Microsoft had violated an agreement signed in 1994, and
asked the court to stop the bundling of Internet Explorer with Windows.[15]
The year 1998 was significant in Microsoft's history, with Bill Gates appointing Steve Ballmer
as president of Microsoft but remaining as Chair and CEO himself.[15] The company
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released Windows 98, an update to Windows 95 that incorporated a number of Internetfocused features and support for new types of devices.[15] On April 3, 2000, a judgment was
handed down in the case of United States v. Microsoft,[13] calling the company an "abusive
monopoly"[43] and forcing the company to split into two separate units. Part of this ruling
was later overturned by a federal appeals court, and eventually settled with the U.S.
Department of Justice in 2001.
In 2001, Microsoft released Windows XP, the first version that encompassed the features of
both its business and home product lines. Before XP was released, Microsoft had to
maintain both the NT and the 9x codebase. XP introduced a new graphical user interface,
the first such change since Windows 95.[15][44] In late 2001, with the release of the Xbox,
Microsoft entered the multi-billion-dollar game console market dominated by Sony and
Nintendo.[15] Microsoft encountered turmoil in March 2004 when antitrust legal action was
brought against it by the European Union for abusing its current dominance with the
Windows operating system (see European Union Microsoft antitrust case), eventually
resulting in a judgment to produce new versions of its Windows XP platform—called
Windows XP Home Edition N and Windows XP Professional N—that did not include its
Windows Media Player, as well as a fine of €497 million ($613 million).[45][46]
2006–present: Vista and other transitions
The entrance sign of Microsoft at a German Campus.On June 27, 2008, Bill Gates retired
from day-to day activities in the company, following a two year transition period from his
role as Chief Software Architect, which was taken by Ray Ozzie, but remained the company's
chairman, head of the Board of Directors and would act as an adviser on key projects.[47]
Windows Vista, released in January 2007, is Microsoft's latest operating system and had sold
300 million copies by December 2008.[48] Microsoft Office 2007, released at the same time,
features a "Ribbon" user interface which is a significant departure from its predecessors.
Relatively strong sales of both titles helped to produce a record profit in 2007.[49]
On February 1, 2008, Microsoft made an unsolicited bid to purchase Internet services
competitor Yahoo! for up to $44.6 billion,[50] though this offer was rejected on February 10.
On May 3, 2008, Microsoft withdrew their offer.[51]
Microsoft announced on February 21, 2008 that it will share information about its products
and technology to make it easier for developers to create software that works with its
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products.[52] and followed that up by providing such information.[53] However, the
European Union continued to demonstrate its dissatisfaction with the company for its lack
of compliance with the March 2004 judgment and subsequently, on February 27, 2008
imposed a fine of €899 million ($1.4 billion), then the largest fine in the history of EU
competition policy.[54]
In its January 2009 report of financial results, Microsoft announced layoffs of up to 5,000
employees in response to slowing economic activity due to the ongoing financial crisis.[55]
On February 12, 2009, Microsoft announced its intent to open a small chain of Microsoftbranded retail stores. David Porter, a former executive at Wal-Mart and DreamWorks, was
named corporate vice president of Retail Stores.[56][57]
NBC Universal and Microsoft Corporation have teamed up in an effort to sell NBC Universal's
broadcast and cable advertising using Admira, the software giant's automated planning and
buying tool.[58]
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Product divisions
To be more precise in tracking performance of each unit and delegating responsibility,
Microsoft reorganized into seven core business groups—each an independent financial
entity—in April 2002. Later, on September 20, 2005, Microsoft announced a rationalization
of its original seven business groups into the three core divisions that exist today: the
Windows Client, MSN and Server and Tool groups were merged into the Microsoft Platform
Products and Services Division; the Information Worker and Microsoft Business Solutions
groups were merged into the Microsoft Business Division; and the Mobile and Embedded
Devices and Home and Entertainment groups were merged into the Microsoft
Entertainment and Devices Division.[59][60]
Platform Products and Services Division
The current logo of Microsoft Windows, the company's signature product.This division
produces Microsoft's flagship product, the Windows operating system. It has been produced
in many versions, including Windows 3.1, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows 2000,
Windows Me, Windows Server 2003, Windows XP and Windows Vista. Almost all IBM
compatible personal computers come with Windows preinstalled. The current desktop
version of Windows is Windows Vista. The online service MSN, the cable television station
MSNBC and the Microsoft online magazine Slate are all part of this division. (Slate was
acquired by The Washington Post on December 21, 2004.) At the end of 1997, Microsoft
acquired Hotmail, the most popular webmail service, which it rebranded as "MSN Hotmail."
In 1999, Microsoft introduced MSN Messenger, an instant messaging client, to compete
with the popular AOL Instant Messenger. Along with Windows Vista, MSN Messenger
became Windows Live Messenger.[8]
Microsoft Visual Studio is the company's set of programming tools and compilers. The
software product is GUI-oriented and links easily with the Windows APIs, but must be
specially configured if used with non-Microsoft libraries. The current version is Visual Studio
2008. The previous version, Visual Studio 2005 was a major improvement over its
predecessor, Visual Studio.Net 2003, named after the .NET initiative, a Microsoft marketing
initiative covering a number of technologies. Microsoft's definition of .NET continues to
evolve. As of 2004, .NET aims to ease the development of Microsoft Windows-based
applications that use the Internet, by deploying a new Microsoft communications system,
Indigo (now renamed Windows Communication Foundation). This is intended to address
some issues previously introduced by Microsoft's DLL design, which made it difficult, even
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impossible in some situations, to manage, install multiple versions of complex software
packages on the same system (see DLL-hell), and provide a more consistent development
platform for all Windows applications (see Common Language Infrastructure). In addition,
the Company established a set of certification programs to recognize individuals who have
expertise in its software and solutions. Similar to offerings from Cisco, Sun Microsystems,
Novell, IBM, and Oracle Corporation, these tests are designed to identify a minimal set of
proficiencies in a specific role; this includes developers ("Microsoft Certified Solution
Developer"), system/network analysts ("Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer"), trainers
("Microsoft Certified Trainers") and administrators ("Microsoft Certified Systems
Administrator" and "Microsoft Certified Database Administrator").[8]
Microsoft offers a suite of server software, titled Windows Server System. Windows Server
2003, an operating system for network servers, is the core of the Windows Server System
line. Another server product, Systems Management Server, is a collection of tools providing
remote-control abilities, patch management, software distribution and a hardware/software
inventory. Other server products include:
Microsoft SQL Server, a relational database management system;
Microsoft Exchange Server, for certain business-oriented e-mail and scheduling features;
Small Business Server, for messaging and other small business-oriented features; and
Microsoft BizTalk Server, for business process management.[8]
Business Division
Front entrance to building 17 on the main campus of the company's Redmond campus.The
Microsoft Business Division produces Microsoft Office, which is the company's line of office
software. The software product includes Word (a word processor), Access (a personal
relational database application), Excel (a spreadsheet program), Outlook (Windows-only
groupware, frequently used with Exchange Server), PowerPoint (presentation software),
and Publisher (desktop publishing software). A number of other products were added later
with the release of Office 2003 including Visio, Project, MapPoint, InfoPath and OneNote.[8]
The division also develops financial and business management software for companies.
These products include products formerly produced by the Business Solutions Group, which
was created in April 2001 with the acquisition of Great Plains. Subsequently, Navision was
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Introduction to Microsoft By Zack, Jannus and Steve
acquired to provide a similar entry into the European market, resulting in the planned
release of Microsoft Dynamics NAV in 2006. The group markets Axapta and Solomon,
catering to similar markets, which is scheduled to be combined with the Navision and Great
Plains lines into a common platform called Microsoft Dynamics.[8]
Entertainment and Devices Division
The Xbox 360, Microsoft's second system in the gaming console market.Microsoft has
attempted to expand the Windows brand into many other markets, with products such as
Windows CE for PDAs and its "Windows-powered" Smartphone products. Microsoft initially
entered the mobile market through Windows CE for handheld devices, which today has
developed into Windows Mobile 6. The focus of the operating system is on devices where
the OS may not directly be visible to the end user, in particular, appliances and cars.
The company produces MSN TV, formerly WebTV, a television-based Internet appliance.
Microsoft used to sell a set-top Digital Video Recorder (DVR) called the UltimateTV, which
allowed users to record up to 35 hours of television programming from a direct-to-home
satellite television provider DirecTV. This was the main competition in the UK for British Sky
Broadcasting's (BSkyB) SKY + service, owned by Rupert Murdoch. UltimateTV has since been
discontinued, with DirecTV instead opting to market DVRs from TiVo Inc. before later
switching to their own DVR brand.[8]
Microsoft sells computer games that run on Windows PCs, including titles such as Age of
Empires, Halo and the Microsoft Flight Simulator series. It produces a line of reference
works that include encyclopedias and atlases, under the name Encarta. Microsoft Zone hosts
free premium and retail games where players can compete against each other and in
tournaments.
Microsoft entered the multi-billion-dollar game console market dominated by Sony and
Nintendo in late 2001,[61] with the release of the Xbox. The company develops and
publishes its own video games for this console, with the help of its Microsoft Game Studios
subsidiary, in addition to third-party Xbox video game publishers such as Electronic Arts and
Activision, who pay a license fee to publish games for the system. The Xbox also has a
successor in the Xbox 360, released on November 22, 2005 in North America and other
countries.[62][63] With the Xbox 360, Microsoft hopes to compensate for the losses
incurred with the original Xbox. However, Microsoft made some decisions considered
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controversial in the video gaming community, such as releasing the console with high failure
rates, selling two different versions of the system, one without the hard disk drive and
providing limited backward compatibility with only particular Xbox titles.[64][65]
In addition to the Xbox line of products, Microsoft also markets a number of other
computing-related hardware products as well, including mice, keyboards, joysticks, and
gamepads, along with other game controllers, the production of which is outsourced in
most cases. As of November 15, 2007, Microsoft announced the purchase of Musiwave,
Openwave's mobile phone music sales business.[66]
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Economic impact
One of Bill Gates' key visions for the company was to "to get a workstation running our
software onto every desk and eventually in every home."[43][67][68] Because of their huge
market share in home and business operating systems, they play an important role in the
economics of software.[according to whom?][citation needed]
Microsoft has footholds in other markets besides operating systems and office suites, with
assets such as the MSNBC cable television network, the MSN Internet portal, and the
Microsoft Encarta multimedia encyclopedia. The company also markets both computer
hardware products such as the Microsoft mouse and home entertainment products such as
the Xbox, Xbox 360, Zune and MSN TV.[8]
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User culture
Technical reference for developers and articles for various Microsoft magazines such as
Microsoft Systems Journal (or MSJ) are available through the Microsoft Developer Network
(MSDN). MSDN also offers subscriptions for companies and individuals, and the more
expensive subscriptions usually offer access to pre-release beta versions of Microsoft
software.[69][70] In recent years, Microsoft launched a community site for developers and
users, titled Channel9, which provides many modern features such as a wiki and an Internet
forum.[71] Another community site that provides daily videocasts and other services,
On10.net, launched on March 3, 2006.[72]
Most free technical support available through Microsoft is provided through online Usenet
newsgroups (in the early days it was also provided on CompuServe). There are several of
these newsgroups for nearly every product Microsoft provides, and often they are
monitored by Microsoft employees. People who are helpful on the newsgroups can be
elected by other peers or Microsoft employees for Microsoft Most Valuable Professional
(MVP) status, which entitles people to a sort of special social status, in addition to
possibilities for awards and other benefits.[73]
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Corporate affairs
Corporate structure
The company is run by a Board of Directors consisting of ten people, made up of mostly
company outsiders (as is customary for publicly traded companies). Current members of the
board of directors are: Steve Ballmer, James Cash, Jr., Dina Dublon, Bill Gates, Raymond
Gilmartin, Reed Hastings, David Marquardt, Charles Noski, Helmut Panke, and Jon
Shirley.[74] The ten board members are elected every year at the annual shareholders'
meeting, and those who do not get a majority of votes must submit a resignation to the
board, which will subsequently choose whether or not to accept the resignation. There are
five committees within the board which oversee more specific matters. These committees
include the Audit Committee, which handles accounting issues with the company including
auditing and reporting; the Compensation Committee, which approves compensation for
the CEO and other employees of the company; the Finance Committee, which handles
financial matters such as proposing mergers and acquisitions; the Governance and
Nominating Committee, which handles various corporate matters including nomination of
the board; and the Antitrust Compliance Committee, which attempts to prevent company
practices from violating antitrust laws.[75][76]
There are several other aspects to the corporate structure of Microsoft. For worldwide
matters there is the Executive Team, made up of sixteen company officers across the globe,
which is charged with various duties including making sure employees understand
Microsoft's culture of business. The sixteen officers of the Executive Team include the
Chairman and Chief Software Architect, the CEO, the General Counsel and Secretary, the
CFO, senior and group vice presidents from the business units, the CEO of the Europe, the
Middle East and Africa regions; and the heads of Worldwide Sales, Marketing and Services;
Human Resources; and Corporate Marketing. In addition to the Executive Team there is also
the Corporate Staff Council, which handles all major staff functions of the company,
including approving corporate policies. The Corporate Staff Council is made up of employees
from the Law and Corporate Affairs, Finance, Human Resources, Corporate Marketing, and
Advanced Strategy and Policy groups at Microsoft. Other Executive Officers include the
Presidents and Vice Presidents of the various product divisions, leaders of the marketing
section, and the CTO, among others.[77][8]
Stock
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Introduction to Microsoft By Zack, Jannus and Steve
Microsoft Corp (NYSE:MSFT) stock price (source: ZenoBank.com)When the company
debuted its IPO in March 13, 1986, the stock price was US $21.[78][79] By the close of the
first trading day, the stock had closed at $28, equivalent to 9.7 cents when adjusted for the
company's first nine splits.[79] The initial close and ensuing rise in subsequent years made
several Microsoft employees millions.[11] The stock price peaked in 1999 at around US $119
(US $60.928 adjusting for splits).[79] While the company has had nine stock splits, the first
of which was in September 18, 1987, the company did not start offering a dividend until
January 16, 2003.[79][80] The dividend for the 2003 fiscal year was eight cents per share,
followed by a dividend of sixteen cents per share the subsequent year.[80] The company
switched from yearly to quarterly dividends in 2005, for eight cents a share per quarter with
a special one-time payout of three dollars per share for the second quarter of the fiscal
year.[80]
Despite the company's ninth split on February 2, 2003 and subsequent increases in dividend
payouts, the price of Microsoft's stock largely remained steady for the next several
years,[80][81] with a rise in stock price around the release of Windows Vista and a fall
during the economic crisis of 2008.
Diversity
Flags raised in front of the Microsoft Sammamish Campus in Issaquah, Washington. The flag
on the left is the flag of Microsoft's gay and lesbian employees group GLEAM.In 2005,
Microsoft received a 100% rating in the Corporate Equality Index from the Human Rights
Campaign, a ranking of companies by how progressive the organization deems their policies
concerning LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual) employees. Partly through the work
of the Gay and Lesbian Employees at Microsoft (GLEAM) group, Microsoft added gender
expression to its anti-discrimination policies in April 2005, and the Human Rights Campaign
upgraded Microsoft's Corporate Equality Index from its 86% rating in 2004 to its current 100%
rating.[82][83]
In April 2005, Microsoft received wide criticism for withdrawing support from Washington
state's H.B. 1515 bill that would have extended the state's current anti-discrimination laws
to people with alternate sexual orientations.[84] Microsoft was accused of bowing to
pressure from local evangelical pastor Ken Hutcherson who met with a senior Microsoft
executive and threatened a national boycott of Microsoft's products.[85] Microsoft also
revealed they were paying evangelical conservative Ralph Reed's company Century
Strategies a $20,000 monthly fee.[86] Over 2,000 employees signed a petition asking
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Introduction to Microsoft By Zack, Jannus and Steve
Microsoft to reinstate support for the bill.[87] Under harsh criticism from both outside and
inside the company's walls, Microsoft decided to support the bill again in May 2005.[87][88]
Microsoft hires many foreign workers as well as domestic ones, and is an outspoken
opponent of the cap on H1B visas, which allow companies in the United States to employ
certain foreign workers. Bill Gates claims the cap on H1B visas make it difficult to hire
employees for the company, stating "I'd certainly get rid of the H1B cap."[89]
Logos and slogans
In 1987, Microsoft adopted its current logo, the so-called "Pac-Man Logo", designed by Scott
Baker. According to the March 1987 Computer Reseller News Magazine, "The new logo, in
Helvetica italic typeface, has a slash between the o and s to emphasize the "soft" part of the
name and convey motion and speed." Dave Norris, a Microsoft employee, ran an internal
joke campaign to save the old logo, which was green, in all uppercase, and featured a
fanciful letter O, nicknamed the blibbet, but it was discarded.[90]
Microsoft's logo with the "Your potential. Our passion." tagline below the main corporate
name, is based on the slogan Microsoft had as of 2008. In 2002, the company started using
the logo in the United States and eventually started a TV campaign with the slogan, changed
from the previous tagline of "Where do you want to go today?."[91][92][93]
Microsoft "blibbet" logo, used 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?"[91][92]
Microsoft logo as of 2009, with the current slogan "Your potential. Our passion."[92]
Environmental record
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Microsoft was ranked the 2nd worst company for the environment out of 18 companies
rated in Greenpeace's Greener Electronics guide in June, 2008. It received a score of 2.2/10,
placing it ahead of only Nintendo.[94]
Microsoft has taken actions to become more environmentally friendly.[95] Some examples
include:
Microsoft's newest building on its campus in Hyderabad, India was built as an
environmentally friendly structure. Microsoft Research India developed a project called
Digital Green in 2008, which aims to educate farmers in India on how to use azolla - an
aquatic fern fed to cows, yielding increased milk production.[96][97]
Microsoft has phased out the use of polyvinyl chloride plastic in its packaging material, due
to environmental concern, and to match actions by competitors.[98] Polyvinyl chloride, also
referred to as PVC or vinyl, can release toxins into the environment during production and if
it is burned after production. These toxins are synthetic chemicals that can be linked to
cancer, and issues with the reproductive and immune systems. In six months time,
Microsoft was able to eliminate approximately 361,000 pounds of polyvinyl packaging by
transitioning to a packaging utilizing polyethylene terephthalate plastic (PET). The company
claims to be examining eco-friendly packaging made of corn starch, sugar, and vegetable
oil.[98]
The company has installed over 2,000 solar panels spanning 30,000 square feet (2,800 m2)
on top of its buildings in its Silicon Valley campus.[99] These panels supply 480 kilowatts of
power, generating approximately 15 percent of the total energy needed by the campus and
cutting the greenhouse gasses that would otherwise be produced to supply that power.[95]
Microsoft has created one of the worlds largest private bus systems (the "Connector") as
mass transit system in the Seattle area. Employees, interns, vendors and contractors are
encouraged to use regional public mass transit (such as King County Metro and Sound
Transit) with subsidised fares. For on-campus transportation, the "Shuttle Connect" uses a
large fleet of hybrid cars, saving over 20,000 galons of fuel per year.[95][100]
The company uses an irrigation system at its Redmond campus that senses upcoming
weather changes, saving 11 million gallons of water per year.[101] The company has
received a silver certification from the U.S. Green Building Council's LEED program for
environmental design.[95]
Beginning in June 2008, Microsoft has added compost bins in all cafeterias on its Redmond
campus, and replaced all polystyrene plates and cups and plastic flatware with
Page 20 of 37
Introduction to Microsoft By Zack, Jannus and Steve
biodegradable alternatives. In the first two months after this transition, the Redmond
campus reduced its non-compost trash output by 50%.
Criticism
Main article: Criticism of Microsoft
Anti-competitive
Since the 1980s, Microsoft has been the focus of much controversy in the computer
industry.[102] The majority of criticism has been for its business tactics, often described
with the motto "embrace, extend and extinguish." Microsoft initially embraces a competing
standard or product, then extends it to produce their own version which is then
incompatible with the standard, which in time extinguishes competition that does not or
cannot use Microsoft's new version.[103] These and other tactics have resulted in lawsuits
brought by companies and governments, and billions of dollars in rulings against
Microsoft.[104][13][46] In January 2009, Opera Software ASA filed a complaint to the
European Commission stating that Microsoft's inclusion of Internet Explorer with Windowsbased personal computers is a violation of European competition laws.[105]
Page 21 of 37
Introduction to Microsoft By Zack, Jannus and Steve
Freedom and privacy
Free software proponents point to the company's joining of the Trusted Computing Platform
Alliance (TCPA) as a cause of concern. A group of companies that seek to implement an
initiative called Trusted Computing (computing in which a computer is not only secured for
its owner, but also secured against its owner as well), TCPA is decried by critics as it allows
software developers and platform controllers to enforce indiscriminate restrictions over
how consumers use software, and over how computers behave.[106][107]:23[108][109]
“Large media corporations (including the movie companies and record companies),
together with computer companies such as Microsoft and Intel, are planning to make your
computer obey them instead of you.”
Richard Stallman, founder of the Free Software Foundation[110]
Advocates of free software also take issue with Microsoft's promotion of Digital Rights
Management (DRM) and total cost of ownership (TCO) comparisons with its "Get the facts"
campaign. Digital Rights Management is a technology that allows content providers to
impose restrictions on the methods by which digital media is used on consumer hardware;
and subsequently, detractors contend that such technology may infringe on fair use and
other rights, especially given that it restricts legal activities such as re-mixing or
reproduction of material for use in slide shows or the resale of the goods by the
customer.[111][112]
Page 22 of 37
Introduction to Microsoft By Zack, Jannus and Steve
Misrepresentation
The "Get the facts" campaign argues that Windows Server has a lower TCO than Linux and
lists a variety of studies in order to prove its case.[113] Proponents of Linux unveiled their
own study arguing that, contrary to one of Microsoft's claims, Linux has lower management
costs than Windows Server.[114] Another study by the Yankee Group claims that upgrading
from one version of Windows Server to another costs a significant fraction (a quarter to a
third) of the switching costs from Windows Server to Linux, even for large enterprises, and
that the other major reasons for a switch away from Windows servers were the increased
security and reliability of Linux servers and a chance to escape the Microsoft "lock-in."[115]
In 2004, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) of the UK warned Microsoft that an ad
from the campaign which claimed that "Linux was ... 10 times more expensive than
Windows Server 2003", was "misleading", as the hardware chosen for the Linux server was
needlessly expensive.[116] The ASA's complaint was that "the measurements for Linux were
performed on an IBM zSeries [mainframe], which was more expensive and did not perform
as well as other IBM series." The comparison was to Windows Server 2003 running on two
900 MHz Intel Xeon CPUs.[117]
David Meyer writing on Zdnet.com pointed out that, "Microsoft has a long history of
applying for, and being granted patents for, inventions that many argue--and can sometimes
demonstrate--were based on earlier work carried out by others, or based on a common,
self-evident idea."[118] This was in response to its 2008 patent application for the ability to
progress in page-up or page-down increments with a single keystroke — a method that has
been pervasive for decades.[119]
Page 23 of 37
[Type text]
Resources
Here is a list of what we feel are the top websites to help new users of Twitter get started.
Table 1 ‐ Top Web Sources
Top Web Source
Microsoft On
The Issues
Microsoft
Privacy & Safety
Microsoft
launches Win 7
Windows 7
Launch Shows
WIndows 7
Would Improve
Over Vista
Microsoft News
Microsoft
Microsoft News
Microsoft News
Source
Microsoft
Microsoft
The
Straights
Times
Microsoft
Watch
Microsoft
Watch
Topix
Seattle
Times
Computer
Hope
CMS Wire
URL
http://microsoftontheissues.com/cs/blogs/mscorp/archive/2009/10/21/white-spaces-deliveringbroadband-to-america.aspx
http://blogs.technet.com/privacyimperative/archive/2009/10/21/empowering-families-in-the-digitalage.aspx
http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking%2BNews/Tech%2Band%2BScience/Story/STIStory_445625.ht
ml
http://www.microsoftwatch.com/content/web_services_browser/windows_7_launch_shows_microsofts_warm-andfuzzy_side.html
http://www.microsoftwatch.com/content/windows_7/how_microsoft_ensured_that_windows_7_would_improve_over_vi
sta.html
http://www.topix.net/computers/microsoft
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/microsoft/
http://www.computerhope.com/news/microsoft.htm
http://www.cmswire.com/news/topic/microsoft
Page 24 of 37
Introduction to Microsoft By Zack, Jannus and Steve
& Articles
The Microsoft
Blog
Seattle pi
Blogs
http://blog.seattlepi.com/microsoft/
Page 25 of 37
[Type text]
Index
B
I
O
IPO · 18
Oracle Corporation · 12
M
P
Microsoft · 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11,
12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19,
20, 21, 22, 23, 26, 27, 28, 29,
30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37
Presidents · 17
Board of Directors · 17
C
CFO · 17
F
X
Finance Committee · 17
Xbox · 13
Page 26 of 37
Introduction to Microsoft By Zack, Jannus and Steve
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