Microsoft is a technology company that was founded in 1975 by Bill Gates and Paul Allen. Its headquarters is located in Redmond, Washington. The company mainly develops licenses and supports software products, devices, and services. The segments of Microsoft include personal computing, intelligent cloud, business processes and productivity and its products include software development tools, server management tools, video games, business applications, server applications, and productivity applications. Microsoft also makes personal computers, phones, intelligent devices, gaming consoles, entertainment consoles and tablets. Currently, 124000 employees work for Microsoft and the company has an annual revenue of $94 Billion per year. The present CEO of Microsoft is Satya Nadella.

When Microsoft was founded, it specifically made BASIC interpreters for Altair 8800. In mid-80s, Microsoft took over the home computing services and launched Windows operating systems. The company also became prominent in office computing with its release of Microsoft Office. After that, it diversified into video game industry with Xbox and entered digital services market with Windows Phone OS, MSN and Zune.

Subsequently, Microsoft has acquired 207 companies so far. Other than that, it has stakes in 64 companies and divestments in 25. 107 of the Microsoft acquisitions are based in United States. The details and prices of most of the mergers have not been disclosed by the company.

Microsoft has an average of buying 6 companies since its first acquisition of Forethought in 1987. Between 2005 and 2008, Microsoft purchased an average of 10 companies each year. 18 firms were acquired by Microsoft in 2006 including Colloquis, Winternals Software, ProClarity, Massive Incorporated, Lionhead Studios and Onfolio. Nine of the Microsoft acquisitions are more than $1 billion. These include LinkedIn, Mojang, Nokia, Yammer, Visio Corporation, Navision, Fast Search & Transfer, aQuantive, and Skype. The last acquisition made by Microsoft was AOL in 2005. Others are listed below.