The company also produces a wide range of other software for desktops and servers, and is active in areas including Internet search, the video game industry, the digital services market, and mobile phones.
In May 2011, Microsoft acquired Skype Technologies for $8.5 billion in its largest acquisition to date.As of 2013, Microsoft is market dominant in both the IBM PC-compatible operating system and office software suite markets. Since the 1990s, it has increasingly diversified from the operating system market and has made a number of corporate acquisitions. The company's 1986 initial public offering, and subsequent rise in its share price, created three billionaires and an estimated 12,000 millionaires from Microsoft employees. It rose to dominate the personal computer operating system market with MS-DOS in the mid-1980s, followed by Microsoft Windows. It is also one of the world's most valuable companies.Microsoft was founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen on April 4, 1975, to develop and sell BASIC interpreters for Altair 8800. It is the world's largest software maker measured by revenues. Its flagship hardware products are the Xbox game consoles and the Microsoft Surface tablet lineup.
Its best known software products are the Microsoft Windows line of operating systems, Microsoft Office office suite, and Internet Explorer web browser. Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, that develops, manufactures, licenses, supports and sells computer software, consumer electronics and personal computers and services.