Microsoft

Microsoft is an American corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA. Microsoft supports the invention of, manufactures, and licenses goods and services related to computing.

Who Started Microsoft?

Childhood friends, Paul Allen and Bill gates are the co-founders of Microsoft. The pair were total computer geeks in an age when any access to computers was hard to come by. Allen and Gates skipped classes to live and breathe in their school's computer room. Eventually, they hacked the school's computer but instead of expulsion, the duo were offered unlimited computer time in exchange for helping to improve the computer's performance. Bill Gates and Paul Allen even ran their own small company called Traf-O-Data and sold a computer to the city of Seattle for counting city traffic.

Bill Gates Harvard Drop Out

In 1973, Bill Gates left Seattle to attend Harvard University as a pre-law student. However, Gate's first love never left him, as he spent most of his time in Harvard's computer center where he kept improving his programming skills. Soon Paul Allen moved to Boston as well, pressuring Gates to quit Harvard so that the team could work full-time together on their projects. Bill Gates was uncertain of what to do, however, fate stepped in.

The Birth of Microsoft

In January 1975, Paul Allen read an article about the Altair 8800 microcomputer in Popular Electronics magazine. He showed the article to Bill.

Bill Gates called MITS, the makers of the Altair, and offered his and Paul Allen's services to write a version of the new BASIC programming language for the Altair.

In eight weeks, Allen and Gates were able to demonstrate their program to MITS, who agreed to distribute and market the product under the name of Altair BASIC.

The Altair deal inspired Gates and Allen to form their own software company, and Microsoft was started on April 4, 1975, with Bill Gates as the first CEO.

Where Did The Name Microsoft Come From?

On July 29, 1975, Bill Gates used the name "Micro-soft" in a letter to Paul Allen to refer to their partnership. The name was registered with the secretary of state of New Mexico on November 26, 1976.

In August 1977, the company opened their first international office in Japan, called ASCII Microsoft.

In 1981, the company incorporated in the state of Washington and became Microsoft Inc. Bill Gates was the President of the Company and the Chairman of the Board, and Paul Allen was the Executive VP.

Micosoft Products

• Windows
• Microsoft Office
• Internet Explorer
• Xbox
• Microsoft Mouse
• Microsoft's Operating Systems 

Bill Gates Philanthropist

Bill Gates and his wife, Melinda, have endowed the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation with more than $28.8 billion (as of January 2005) to support philanthropic initiatives in the areas of global health and learning.