MSFT Overview - by Better Trades

Originating in 1975, as the brainchild of its founding father, William Henry Gates III, Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) was established to develop and market BASIC interpreters for the Altair 8800. BASIC, an acronym for Beginner’s All-Purpose Symbolic Instruction Code, was improved upon by Gates to provide computer access to non-science students. When computers were first introduced, they usually required writing custom software for its use, which usually came from scientists and mathematicians. Upon the introduction of personalized computers in the early 1970s, BASIC became the widespread language for operating systems.

The Altair 8800 was first developed in 1975 as a microcomputer, one possessing a microprocessor as its central processing unit, which is credited to leading to the personal computer revolution by the early 1980s. The makers of the Altair, Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems (MITS), was a company that was originally formed to produce small kits for model rocket enthusiasts.

After Gates demonstrated the usage of the BASIC programming language for the Altair system, he left Harvard University and moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico, where MITS was located, and founded Microsoft.

The company’s first major success came from Microsoft’s creation of their Disk Operating System (DOS) in 1981. having been rewarded a contract from International Business Machines Corp. (IBM), a leading computer technology and IT consulting firm, Microsoft provided a version of CP/M, Control Program for Microcomputers, operating system that would be placed in IBM’s upcoming personal computers.

Headquartered in Redmond, Washington, Microsoft develops, manufactures, licenses and supports a wide range of software products for various computing devices worldwide. In addition to providing products for operating systems, Microsoft offers software for business solution applications, information worker productivity applications, and high-performance computing applications, server applications in distributed computing environments and software development tools and video games.

Microsoft currently operates in five business segments, Client, Server and Tools, the Online Services Business, the Microsoft Business Division, and the Entertainment and Devices Division.

The first division within the company is the Client unit, which is primarily responsible for the overall engineering, architecture and delivery of all technical products related to the Windows product line. The Client segment is also in charge of acquiring and maintaining working relationships with PC manufacturers and distributors.

Products within the Client segment involve Windows Vista, including Home, Home Premium, Ultimate, Business, and Enterprise Starter Edition and Windows XP Professional and Home. The units also have Media Center Edition, Tablet PC Edition, and other standard Windows operating systems, which include Windows 3.1, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows Me and Windows Server 2003.

The company’s Server and Tools segment provides integrated server infrastructure, products, services, solutions and software that support applications and tools built on the Windows Server operating system. The segment’s products and services include databases, server platforms, security software, storage, service-oriented platforms and management and operations software.

Microsoft’s products within Server and Tools encompass Forefront Security products, Microsoft SQL Server, Visual Studio, Biz Talk Server, Microsoft Enterprise Services, System Center products, Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) and other products and services.

Its Online Services Business provides an online advertising platform, which is the main catalyst for generating revenues, with offerings for both publishers and advertisers. The unit also consists of personal communication services, such as email and instant messaging along with online information gathering.

The Online Services Business offers Live Search, MSN, MapPoint, MSN Internet Access, MSN Premium Web Services, which consists of MSN Internet Software Subscription, MSN Hotmail Plus and MSN Software Services, Windows Live, MSN Mobile Services, AvenueA Razorfish media agency services, Atlas online tools for advertisers and the Drive PM ad network for publishers.

Within the Microsoft Business Division, the company offers such products as the Microsoft Office system and Microsoft Dynamics business solutions. The Dynamics portion of the business unit offers solutions for supply chain management, customer relationship management, financial management, and analytics applications for small and mid-sized operations, large organizations and global enterprises.

The Business Division generated nearly 80% of is revenues from sales to businesses, while the other 20% comes from sales directly to customers. The products in this division include Microsoft Project, Microsoft Office Accounting, Microsoft Visio, Microsoft Office Microsoft Office Live Meeting, Microsoft Dynamics AX, Microsoft Exchange Server, Microsoft Dynamics SL, Microsoft Exchange Hosted Services, Microsoft Office Communication Server, Microsoft Dynamics CRM, SharePoint Server, Microsoft Dynamics GP, Microsoft Dynamics NAV, and Microsoft Dynamics Retail Management System.

Lastly, and one of the more popular divisions within the company, the Entertainment and Devices Division, is Microsoft’s newest of all its units and is responsible for developing, producing, and marketing the Xbox video game system. Products included from this segment are Xbox 360 console and games, Xbox Live, Zune, Mediaroom, Windows Mobile software platform and numerous consumer software and hardware products.

With so many divisions competing in numerous business segments, Microsoft has an enormous amount of competitors spread throughout several industries and sectors. Included in them are, Apple Computer (AAPL), Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), IBM (IBM), Oracle (ORCL), McAfee (MFE), Symantec (SYMC), Adobe (ADBE), Nintendo, Sony (SNE), Nokia (NOK), Google (GOOG) and Yahoo! (YHOO).

By Better Trades