We all know that Microsoft was taken to court for possibly monopolizing several aspects of the software market by acquiring company after company that they were supposedly competing with on the market. This became one of the most news worthy court cases in the history of the computer industry, and when it was first brought to our attention, it dropped like a bomb. But the point here is not to bash Microsoft as a company, but to look at what companies Microsoft actually acquired before to further increase their dominance on the software market. It should be pointed out that it is of course not illegal to acquire companies in order to increase your market share; however, there are rules to follow which Microsoft was apparently breaking.

The fact that Microsoft has acquired over 264 companies throughout the years doesn’t exactly make them a small player on the market, but we already knew that. I find it very interesting and inspiring to look through what companies they have acquired since it gives me a deeper understanding, somewhat, to what they are up to over there. Even though Microsoft might not use the acquired company’s full technologies, buying a business is usually done just to obtain a core function or service which they want to incorporate into their own.

Of course we all knew that Microsoft had the cash to buy a lot of companies, and it falls right in line with how the business started with them buying the unfinished DOS operating system for $50,000, which then was labeled as the most profitable deal ever made. The number of companies acquired is just staggering, and I have a hard time comprehending the massive amount of technology that lies at Microsoft’s feet. Now if we could just get one of these infographics for Apple as well, and we could match them up to see in what areas Microsoft and Apple are really competing head on. Robin Richards (@ripetungi) certainly did an awesome job compiling this information and putting it together on this infographic.