Timeline of Microsoft

This is a timeline of Microsoft, a multinational computer technology corporation.

Full timeline

Year	Month and date	Event type	Details
1972	N/A	Company	Bill Gates and Paul Allen first founded Traf-O-Data, which only existed from 1972 until 1975.
1975	April 4	Company	Bill Gates and Paul Allen founded Microsoft.[1] As a result of Microsoft's founding, Traf-O-Data became defunct.
1975	April 4	Products	Microsoft released its first product which is called the Altair BASIC.
1978	November 1	International	The company's first international office was founded on November 1, 1978, in Japan, entitled "ASCII Microsoft" (now called "Microsoft Japan").
1980	August	Products	Microsoft signs a contract with IBM to develop an operating system for IBM's first personal computer. This, in turn, was the beginning for both the Bundling of Microsoft Windows, and Wintelism, as IBM personal computers and Intel were also bundled with each other.
1980	August	Products	Having purchased a license for Version 7 Unix from AT&T in 1979, Microsoft announced on August 25, 1980, that it would make it available for the 16-bit microcomputer market, named Xenix.
1981	July 27	Products	Microsoft buys the rights for QDOS from Seattle Computer Products (without telling SCP that it had a lucrative contract with IBM). This would later become MS-DOS.[2]
1981	August 12	Company	IBM announces the release of the IBM Personal Computer, which becomes the dominant personal computer. As DOS was the only operating system available on the PC when it was introduced in New York City, this paves way to the future domination by the MS-DOS operating system.[3][4]
1982	April	International	Microsoft formally launches its International Division and sets up subsidiaries in Europe and elsewhere, finding local agents to handle its business interests[4]
1982	November	Products	Microsoft releases Microsoft Flight Simulator version 1.0, and marks the beginning of one of the longest-running PC video game series of all time.
1983	January	Products	Compaq releases its first PC-compatible machine with IBM compatible clones, which hurt IBM but helped Microsoft (as it had to license DOS from Microsoft), but any application developed to run on the PC could still run on Compaq machines.[4]
1983	January 26	Competition	Lotus Software releases Lotus 1-2-3, a spreadsheet program that becomes the IBM PC's first killer application, and which established the spreadsheet standard for the PC. By the late 1980s, it would eventually lose out to Microsoft Excel.[4]
1983	May 30	Products	Microsoft announces Multi-Tool Word, which later becomes Microsoft Word.[4]
1983	November 10	Products	Bill Gates first introduced the first version of Microsoft Windows and it is planned to be released 2 years later.[5]
1984	January 24	Competition	Steve Jobs introduces the original Macintosh, the first mass-market computer with a graphical user interface. Microsoft would later adopt many of its features into Windows.[citation needed]
1985	September	Products	Microsoft releases Microsoft Excel, which would compete with, and later overtake, Lotus 1-2-3.[4]
1985	November 20	Products	Microsoft launches the first version of its Windows operating system, Windows 1.0, which runs on top of MS-DOS and had a primitive GUI.[6]
1986	February	Company	Microsoft moves its headquarters to a suburban campus in Redmond, Washington.[6]
1986	March 13	Company	Microsoft goes public with an IPO, raising $61 million at $21 a share.[6]
1987	April 2	Products	Microsoft announces OS/2.[citation needed]
1987	December 9	Products	Microsoft releases Windows 2.0.[citation needed]
1988	March	Competition, Legal	Apple sues Microsoft, contending that Microsoft's Windows 2.03 program violated Apple's copyrights on the Macintosh interface.[7]
1990	May 22	Products	Microsoft launches Windows 3.0.[citation needed] It gives the user virtual memory, improved graphics, and the ability to multitask.
1990	November 19	Products	Microsoft releases Microsoft Office, which bundles together Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, and Microsoft PowerPoint for the first time.[8]
1991	September	Company	Microsoft creates Microsoft Research. It declares that it would support research without regard to product cycles.[9][10]
1992	April 6	Products	Microsoft releases Windows 3.1.
1993	March 22	Products	Microsoft releases Microsoft Encarta, the first digital multimedia encyclopedia.[citation needed]
1993	July 27	Products	Microsoft releases Windows NT 3.1, the first version of Windows available only to business users.
1994	September 24	Products	Microsoft releases Windows NT 3.5.
1995	May 30	Products	Microsoft releases Windows NT 3.51, the last version of Windows to not have a Start Menu.
1995	August 24	Products	Microsoft releases Windows 95, which features a new interface with a novel start button.[6] Microsoft also debuted The Microsoft Network, a search engine and web portal for a wide variety of products and services.[11]
1995	December 15	Products	Microsoft announces partnership with NBC (National Broadcasting Company) to create a new 24-hour cable news television station, MSNBC.[12]
1996	October 22	Company	Microsoft launches Expedia, an online travel company, as its first Internet property.[13]
1996	May	Products	Microsoft launches the Internet Gaming Zone, which would later become the MSN Gaming Zone.[14]
1997	August 6	Competition, Partnerships	Apple Inc announces that it will enter in a partnership with Microsoft. Microsoft releases Microsoft Office for Macintosh, ships Internet Explorer as the default browser for the Macintosh, and invests $150 million in Apple.[15]
1998	June 25	Products	Microsoft releases Windows 98.[16] It includes support for USB devices, back and forward navigation buttons, the address bar in Windows Explorer, and the Windows Driver Model.
1998	N/A	International	Microsoft launches its Indian headquarters, which becomes its second-largest after its US headquarters.[17]
1998	May 18	Legal	United States v. Microsoft Corp., an antitrust trial, begins against Microsoft, with the US Department of Justice suing Microsoft for illegally thwarting competition in order to protect and extend its software (for reasons including bundling Internet Explorer with Microsoft Windows and requiring personal computer manufacturers to agree to adopt a uniform "boot-up" or "first screen" sequence specified by Microsoft).[18]
1999	July 22	Products	Microsoft releases MSN Messenger, an IM client.[19]
2000	January 13	Team	Bill Gates hands over his CEO position to Steve Ballmer.[20]
2000	September 14	Products	Microsoft releases Windows ME.[citation needed] It has improved support for digital media.
2001	May	Acquisitions	Microsoft acquires Ensemble Studios.[21]
2001	October 25	Products	Microsoft releases Windows XP.[citation needed]
2001	November 15	Products	Microsoft launches the first Xbox.[22]
2002	February 13	Products	Microsoft launches the .NET initiative, which creates an entirely new API for Windows programming, and includes a new programming language C#.[citation needed]
2002	November 1	Legal	The Department of Justice reaches an agreement with Microsoft to settle the United States v. Microsoft Corp. case. The proposed settlement required Microsoft to share its application programming interfaces with third-party companies and appoint a panel of three people who will have full access to Microsoft's systems, records, and source code for five years in order to ensure compliance. [23]
2003	June 23	Products	Microsoft announces Windows Mobile.[citation needed]
2005	November 22	Products	Microsoft launches the Xbox 360.[24]
2006	May 14	Company	Microsoft launches adCenter, an online advertising service that provides pay per click advertising. Until then, all the ads displayed on the MSN search engine were supplied by Overture (and later Yahoo!).[25]
2007	January 30	Products	Microsoft releases Windows Vista to the general public.[26] and was made available for purchase and download from Microsoft's website.[27]
2008	June 27	Team	Bill Gates retires as chief software architect and devotes more of his time to philanthropy.[6]
2008	September 2	Competition	Google launches Google Chrome, a browser that would cut into the web browser operating share of Internet Explorer.[28]
2009	October 22	Products	Microsoft launches Windows 7 to the general public.[29]
2009	May 28	Products	Microsoft unveils Microsoft Bing, a search engine to replace MSN.[30]
2010	February	Products	Microsoft launches Microsoft Azure, its foray into cloud computing.[31]
2010	March	Competition	Google lifts censorship on issues sensitive to the Chinese government, and is blocked by China, allowing the way for domination by alternative search engines, including Baidu.[32]
2010	November	Products	Microsoft announces Windows Phone, a family of mobile operating systems as the replacement successor to Windows Mobile.[33]
2011	May 10	Acquisitions	Microsoft acquires Skype for $8.5 billion.[34]
2012	October 26	Products	Microsoft launches Microsoft Surface, a series of Windows-based personal computing devices designed and manufactured by Microsoft under its hardware division.[35]
2013	September	Acquisitions	Microsoft acquires Nokia in an attempt to expand its presence in mobile.[36]
2013	November 22	Products	Microsoft launches the Xbox One.[37]
2013	December 13	Competition	Valve announces SteamOS, an operating system to compete with Windows.[38]
2014	February 4	Team	Satya Nadella succeeded Steve Ballmer as CEO of Microsoft.[39]
2014	April	Products	Microsoft announces Cortana, an intelligent personal assistant.[40]
2014	September	Company	Microsoft reassigns half of its staff in Microsoft Research to a new group called MSR NeXT, to focus on products with greater impact to the company rather than pure research.[41]
2014	September	Products	The Windows Insider program is announced, which allows users to test Windows 10 and provide feedback to Microsoft developers.[42] As of 2015, the program had over 7 million users.[43]
2014	September	Acquisitions	Microsoft buys Mojang for $2.5 billion[44][45]
2014	October 31	Services	Microsoft discontinues MSN Messenger and invites users to Skype.[46][47]
2015	January 21	Products	HoloLens, the world's first holographic headset is announced and Microsoft announces that Windows 10 will be a free upgrade for customers with Windows 7, Windows 8.1 or Windows Phone 8.1 (excluding enterprise).[48][49]
2015	July 29	Products	Microsoft releases Windows 10, which acts as a "universal" application architecture across multiple Microsoft product families.[50]
2015	September 23	International	Microsoft announces partnership with Baidu, making Baidu the default homepage for users of its Microsoft Edge browser in China, and which introduces Baidu search applications to Windows 10.[51]
2015	October 26	Retail	The first flagship Microsoft Store opens in New York City[52]
2015	November 19	Company	Microsoft, alongside ARM Holdings, Dell, Intel, Cisco Systems, and Princeton University, founded the OpenFog Consortium, to promote interests and development in fog computing.[53]
2016	February 3	Acquisitions	Microsoft announced to buy SwiftKey, a startup based out of London that makes keyboard apps for Android and iOS devices.[54]
2016	February 24	Acquisitions	Microsoft announces to buy Xamarin, a company that allows developers to build fully native apps across several platforms from a single shared code base.[55]
2016	June 13	Acquisitions	Microsoft announces the acquisition of LinkedIn at $26.2 billion ($60 per user).[56][57][58]
2016	October 26	Products	The Surface Studio and Surface Dial are announced[59]
2016	November 2	Products	Microsoft Teams, a cloud-based team collaboration tool, is launched as part of Office 365[60]
2017	June 29	Acquisitions	Microsoft bought Israeli cloud startup Cloudyn, a company that helps customers manage their cloud billing across multiple clouds.[61]
2018	August	Company	Microsoft partners with a Japanese company, Toyota Tsusho, to create fish farming tools using the Microsoft Azure application suite for IoT technologies that are related to the management of water.
2019	November 2	Services	Microsoft releases a new version of Microsoft Edge.[62] Also, a new logo of Microsoft Edge was introduced.[63]
2020	February 12	Products	Microsoft announced the beta version of Windows 10X.[64]
2020	June 26	Company	Microsoft has announced that all stores will be closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[65]
2020	November 10	Products	Microsoft launches the Xbox Series X and Series S.
2021	May 18	Products	Microsoft cancels Windows 10X, which was planned to be released in 2021. The company said that they would be "accelerating the integration of key foundational 10X technology into other parts of Windows and products at the company".[66]
2021	October 5	Products	Microsoft releases Windows 11, the first major release since 2015, with a new logo.
2023	October 13	Acquisitions	Microsoft acquires Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion. Franchises include Warcraft, Diablo, Overwatch, Call of Duty, and Candy Crush.
2025	May 5	Services	Skype is retired in favor of Microsoft Teams.