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Essay on Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is one of the top American computer software companies. Microsoft develops and sells a wide variety of software products to businesses and consumers and has auxiliary offices in more than 60 countries. The company’s Windows operating systems for personal computers are the most widely used operating systems in the world. Microsoft has its headquarters in Redmond, Washington. In the mid-1990s Microsoft began to expand into the media, entertainment, and communications industries, launching MSN in 1995 and MSNBC in 1996. Also in 1996 Microsoft introduced Windows CE, an operating system for handheld personal digital assistants (PDAs). In 1997 Microsoft paid $425 million to acquire Web TV Networks, a manufacturer of low-cost devices to connect televisions to the Internet. That same year Microsoft invested $1 billion in Comcast Corporation, a U.S. cable-television operator, as part of an effort to expand the availability of high-speed connections to the Internet. In June 1998 Microsoft released Windows 98, which featured integrated Internet capabilities. In the following month Gates appointed Steve Balmier, executive vice president of Microsoft, as the company’s president, giving him supervision of most day-to-day business operations of the company. Gates retained the title of chairman and chief executive officer (CEO).( Gruley, Bryan, and John R. Wilke. 1998)
In June 2001 an appeals court upheld Jackson’s findings that Microsoft had monopoly authority and that the company used anticompetitive business practices to protect its Windows monopoly. However, the appeals court threw out the trial court’s ruling that Microsoft had illegally integrated Internet Explorer into Windows, returning the issue to a lower court for review under a different legal standard. The appeals court also reversed Jackson’s order to break up the company, in part because of the judge’s failure to hold a proper hearing on the remedy and in part because of comments he made to reporters outside the courtroom about the merits of the case....
