What does Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) have in common with manholes? Well, actually there is a connection, but in order to keep you intrigued, we will not tell you right now. As you probably already figured out from the title, aside from this, we have prepared a couple of other interesting things about Microsoft. But in the meantime, let’s talk a bit about the company.
Photo Credit: substack
It’s not a secret that Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) is the largest software company in terms of revenue, and is also one of the most valuable companies in the world. It was founded in 1975 by Bill Gates and Paul Allen, the former currently being the richest man in the world. The first office of the company was in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and it moved to its current location in Redmond, Washington in 1986.
Even though Microsoft developed it’s first operational system, Xenix, in 1980, it managed to succeed and became well-known after signing a contract with IBM for delivering their version of CP/M OS for IBM’s Personal Computer the same year. However, this OS was actually not an original product developed by Microsoft. The company acquired a clone of the CP/M from Seattle Computer Products company and gave it their brand name “MS-DOS”. The MS-DOS rapidly gained popularity and made Microsoft the top company in the field of operating systems.
Since 1980, Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) has gone through many events which marked its history, but one thing remained unchanged: its position as one of the leaders on the software market. Aside from software, the Xbox console, and the Surface tablet have appeared among the company’s product line. At the same time, Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)’s leading products: Windows and Microsoft Office software, have gone through many changes and improvements as well, and now are also leaders in their segments.
While everything we mentioned above is more or less well-known information, there is a bunch of facts that fly under the radar. However, they are interesting and we would like to share them with you.
Check out 7 facts you might not know about Microsoft:
Microsoft has acquired 150 companies
There are often stories in the news about mergers and acquisitions. Microsoft, being a big company engaged in software development has also purchased a bunch of companies, about 150 to be more specific. One of the latest acquisitions of Microsoft is Skype, and Hotmail, Yammer are also in the list.
Office for Mac
Photo Credit: Pelle Wessman
Apple is currently one of the main rivals of Microsoft. However, in 1989 Microsoft released its Office suite, but it was developed for Apple’s Macintosh Computers before being released for Microsoft’s own Windows OS.
Windows instead of Interface Manager
Photo Credit: Szilveszter Farkas
Windows is the most popular OS in the world, and one of the keys of its success is in a good marketing strategy. One of the first steps made by the marketing department before the release of Microsoft’s OS, was changing the name from “Interface Manager” to “Windows”, and it was a very good decision.
WinVer 1.4
Photo Credit: Razza Mathadsa
If you have a PC which runs on Windows, you most likely have had trouble with viruses. It would be interesting for you to know, that first virus for Windows was released in 1992 and was called WinVer 1.4.
Bill Gates became a billionaire at 31
Photo Credit: Domain Barnyard
The co-founder of Microsoft, Bill Gates, has been on the list of the richest people for decades, everyone knows that. But an interesting fact is that Mr. Gates managed to become a billionaire at the age of 31 years old, while a couple of years before that he told his teachers from his university that he would become a millionaire by the age of 30.
Microsoft has over 10,000 patents
As a big company that invests a lot in Research & Development, Microsoft owns more than 10,000 patents, being one of the largest patent holders in the U.S.
Why are manholes round?
Photo Credit: Horia Varlan
We are going to disappoint you as we will not actually give you the answer to this question, not because we don’t know it, but because it’s not relevant to the story. However, it is not a random question, it became popular after Microsoft started asking it during job interviews.
Interestingly, they don’t expect the interviewees to give straight answers to this question, but rather to show their ways of thinking. It could be a genuine information, or just a legend, but it’s definitely certain, that Microsoft engages people it’s planning to hire in different tricky situations to let them express creativity and originality. Other big companies are also using the same interview style.
