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- Activision Blizzard. Activision Blizzard is Microsoft's most recent and most expensive acquisition. The tech giant kicked off 2022 by shelling out $68.7 billion to buy the video game company in a deal expected to close sometime in 2023.
- LinkedIn. Microsoft made headlines in 2016 after it paid $26 billion for LinkedIn, the professional social networking platform founded by Reid Hoffman, Konstantin Guericke, Jean-Luc Vaillant, Allen Blue and Eric Ly.
- GitHub. GitHub is a software development platform that Microsoft shelled out $7.5 billion in stock to buy in 2018. GitHub, which functions as a code repository service, was founded just ten years earlier by Tom Preston-Werner, P. J. Hyett, Scott Chacon and Chris Wanstrath.
- Mojang (Minecraft) In 2014, Microsoft announced that it had reached a $2.5 billion deal to buy Mojang, the Swedish video game company behind Minecraft.
Microsoft is a software company. It makes money by selling its software for use on computers. Learn more about Microsoft in this article from HowStuffWorks.
What Companies Does Microsoft Own? By Jeremy Bowman – Updated Mar 21, 2024 at 1:08PM. Key Points. Microsoft has been a major player in technology. Acquisitions have been a key part of its...
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Artificial intelligence drives Microsoft to new heights, as the smartphone market cools.
•As of writing, Microsoft is now the world's most valuable company by market capitalization, beating out Apple.
•If the trend continues, it could see Microsoft hit an eyewatering $3 trillion market capitalization, as Apple continues to dip on fears that the phone market could become saturated.
•The diversification of Microsoft's business offerings, as well as hype driven by its investments in artificial intelligence, are helping reach new heights.
Microsoft and Apple have been locked in a tussle for the top spot over the past few weeks, with both companies hovering around $2.8 trillion in market capitalization. As of writing, Microsoft just hit $2.9 trillion, as Apple's dips a little further on fears that the smartphone market may cool in the coming years. Apple had some good news of its own, however, with analysts revealing that sidestepped Samsung to become the #1 smartphone shipper of 2023, taking 23 per cent of the global market share to Samsung's 17 per cent. Samsung has lost significant ground in China, which was credited with its decline.
Despite these wins, investors seem to be concerned that Apple is increasingly banking on its smartphone dominance, and hasn't yet found its way to the kind of diversification Microsoft enjoys. Microsoft is also riding a wave of artificial intelligence hype, buoyed further today by the reveal of its Copilot Pro subscription service, which could become an incredibly lucrative source of revenue for the service.
For a better idea of how Microsoft's portfolio looks, take a look at this infographic from EconomyApp from Twitter (X). Based on Microsoft's Q1 FY24, you can see just how increasingly diversified Microsoft's business operation looks, with platforms like Xbox, Windows, Office, LinkedIn, and Bing all seeing strong growth. This is also before Microsoft includes Activision-Blizzard into the mix, which will see revenues from Call of Duty, Candy Crush, and World of Warcraft factored in for the first time. It could make Xbox leapfrog Windows as a revenue stream for Microsoft, which would be a true sign of the times for the company.
All of the major tech companies are looking for new sources of income in a rapidly changing world. Apple seems to be banking on VR with its expensive face computer the Vision Pro, alongside Meta. Both companies are investing billions in this area, yet investors increasingly seem to think that consumers don't want to wear a computer on their head. Hmm.
Microsoft ditched large swaths of its own metaverse plays, from HoloLens to Windows Mixed Reality in recent years. Much of the engineering clout has flipped over to artificial intelligence instead, and so far, it looks as though it's paying dividends (literally). Whether it's all just hype or well and truly the industry-shaking innovation that Windows was back in the day remains to be seen, but at least for right now, it seems that investors are banking on "yes."
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- LinkedIn. Type of business: Professional social network site. Acquisition price: $27.0 billion. Acquisition date: Dec. 8, 2016. Annual revenue (FY 2021): $10.3 billion.
- Skype Technologies S.A.R.L. Type of business: Telecommunications application. Acquisition price: $8.5 billion. Acquisition date: May 10, 2011. Skype Technologies, which is currently headquartered in Luxembourg, was founded in 2003 by Niklas Zennström of Sweden and Janus Friis of Denmark.
- GitHub. Type of business: Software development platform. Acquisition price: $7.5 billion. Acquisition date: Oct. 25, 2018. GitHub was founded in 2007 when Chris Wanstrath created the first “commit,” a term used to describe the action of storing a file’s hierarchy and content in a digital repository.
- Mojang. Type of business: Video game studio. Acquisition price: $2.5 billion. Acquisition date: Sept. 15, 2014. Mojang, the Sweden-based video game studio best known for producing the popular game Minecraft, was founded in 2009 by Markus “Notch” Persson.
May 10, 2024 · Microsoft sells computing devices, cloud systems and services, software, and other products to consumers and businesses. The company's Intelligent Cloud segment is the largest source of profit,...
Microsoft is a technology company whose mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. We strive to create local opportunity, growth, and impact in every country around the world. Our platforms and tools help drive small business productivity, large business competitiveness, and public-sector efficiency.
