Microsoft acquisition hoax
Bogus 1994 press release / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Microsoft acquisition hoax is a bogus 1994 press release suggesting that the information technology company Microsoft had acquired the Roman Catholic Church. It is considered to be the first Internet hoax to reach a mass audience.[1][2]
The hoax comprises part of a cycle of "Microsoft jokes" in which Microsoft Corporation is portrayed as a wealthy but evil monopoly built on bloated or unreliable desktop software, planned obsolescence of products, corporate takeovers of once-innovative rivals and litigiousness. While multiple books have been devoted to the subject,[3][4] the jokes most commonly circulated online as Internet memes.