25 Facts Partners Should Know About Microsoft
1. Microsoft originally started as Micro-soft. The hyphen was removed in 1976.
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2. The company was founded in New Mexico in 1975, moved to Bellevue in 1979 and settled in at Redmond headquarters in 1986.
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3. The company only brought in $16,000 in its first year. Four years later, it was pulling in $1 million.
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4. In 1981 the company bought Quick and Dirty Operating System (QDOS) for $50,000. Renamed MS DOS, it was licensed to IBM for the first PC.
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5. Before the marketing people got hold of it, Windows was going to be called "Interface Manager."
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6. In 2009, revenues equaled more than $58.43 billion.
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7. In April 2009 Microsoft reported its first loss in 23 years.
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8. Microsoft estimates that 95 percent of its revenue stems from partner activity.
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9. Number of partners in the Microsoft Partner Program: 390,000.
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10. The corporate suits in Redmond did some organizational shuffling, sending longtime channel chief Allison Watson over to the U.S. Business & Marketing organization.
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11. Watson will essentially swap positions with Jon Roskill, previously in marketing, who will take over as corporate vice president of the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Group.
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12. Microsoft last month announced that it is now officially retiring its old partner competency metrics with the rollout of the new Microsoft Partner Network.
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13. Microsoft employs more than 88,000 people worldwide.
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14. The company has acquired nearly 150 companies in its more than three decades of operation.
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15. Last year Microsoft announced that it surpassed its 10,000th patent.
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16. Microsoft spends nearly half of its legal budget on patent cases.
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17. In 2004, former Windows guru Jim Allchin wrote a memo blasting development leadership, stating ‘we lost our way’ with development of what would eventually become Vista.
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18. He wrote: "I would buy a Mac today if I was not working at Microsoft."
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19. More than 2,600 customers participated in user research and usability studies for Windows 7.
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20. The Office 2010 beta program had more than 9 million downloads.
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21. That’s more than six times the size of the 2007 Microsoft Office beta program.
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22. Microsoft found that 75 percent of Office 2010 beta users said they planned to buy Office 2010 within six months.
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23. Many analysts say that SharePoint integration with office is this latest iteration’s biggest differentiator.
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24. The Radicati Group expects Windows SharePoint Services to grow by an average annual rate of 7 percent through 2013.
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25. In June Apple’s market capitalization beat out Microsoft’s—proof to many that Apple is more valuable than Microsoft.