2. MICROSOFT
Overview
Microsoft is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Redmond,
Washington. Its best known software products are the Microsoft Windows line of operating
systems, Microsoft Office suite, and Internet Explorer and Edge web browsers. Its flagship
hardware products are the Xbox game consoles and the Microsoft Surface tablet lineup. It is the
world's largest software maker by revenue, and one of the world's most valuable companies.
Microsoft was founded by Paul Allen and Bill Gates on April 4, 1975. It rose to dominate the
personal computer operating system market with MS-DOS in the mid-1980s, followed by
Microsoft Windows.
The company's 1986 initial public offering, and subsequent rise in its share price, created three
billionaires and an estimated 12,000 millionaires among Microsoft employees. Since the 1990s,
it has increasingly diversified from the operating system market and has made a number of
corporate acquisitions. In May 2011, Microsoft acquired Skype Technologies for $8.5 billion in
its largest acquisition to date.
Windows Versions
Product name Latest version Release date
Windows 1.0 1.01 November 20, 1985
Windows 2.0 2.03 December 9, 1987
Windows 2.1 2.11 May 27, 1988
Windows 3.0 3 May 22, 1990
Windows 3.1 3.1 April 6, 1992
Windows For Workgroups 3.1 3.1 October 1, 1992
Windows NT 3.1 NT 3.1.528 July 27, 1993
Windows For Workgroups 3.11 3.11 August 11, 1993
Windows 3.2 3.2 November 22, 1993
Windows NT 3.5 NT 3.5.807 September 21, 1994
Windows NT 3.51 NT 3.51.1057 May 30, 1995
Windows 95 4.0.950 August 24, 1995
Windows NT 4.0 NT 4.0.1381 July 31, 1996
Windows 98 04-Oct-98 June 25, 1998
Windows 98 SE 04-Oct-22 May 5, 1999
Windows 2000 NT 5.0.2195 December 15, 1999
Windows ME 4.90.3000 September 14, 2000
Windows XP
NT January 5,
2600
October 25, 2001
Windows XP 64-bit Edition NT 5.2.3790 March 28, 2003
Windows Server 2003 NT 5.2.3790 April 24, 2003
Windows XP Professional x64 Edition NT 5.2.3790 April 25, 2005
Windows Fundamentals for Legacy
PCs
NT January 5,
2600
July 8, 2006
3. Windows Vista NT 6.0.6002
November 30, 2006 (volume
license)
January 30, 2007 (retail)
Windows Home Server NT 5.2.4500 November 4, 2007
Windows Server 2008 NT 6.0.6002 February 27, 2008
Windows 7 NT 6.1.7601 October 22, 2009
Windows Server 2008 R2 NT 6.1.7601 October 22, 2009
Windows Home Server 2011 NT 6.1.8400 April 6, 2011
Windows Server 2012 NT 6.2.9200 September 4, 2012
Windows 8 NT 6.2.9200 October 26, 2012
Windows 8.1 NT 6.3.9600 October 17, 2013
Windows Server 2012 R2 NT 6.3.9600 October 17, 2013
Windows 10 NT 10.0.10586 July 29, 2015
Windows Server 2016Windows 2.0 NT 10.0.10586 TBA
NOTE:
Version no longer supportive Current Stable Version
Version still Supportive Latest Preview Version for future release
4. LINKEDIN
Overview
LinkedIn is a business-oriented social networking service. Founded on December 14, 2002, and
launched on May 5, 2003, it is mainly used for professional networking. As of 2015, most of the
site's revenue came from selling access to information about its users to recruiters and sales
professionals. As of March 2016, LinkedIn has more than 433 million accounts, out of which
more than 106 million are active.
Based in the United States, the site is, as of 2013, available in 24 languages, including Arabic,
Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch, Swedish, Danish,
Romanian, Russian, Turkish, Japanese, Czech, Polish, Korean, Indonesian, Malay, and Tagalog.
In January 2016, the company had around 9,200 employees.
LinkedIn's CEO is Jeff Weiner, previously a Yahoo! Inc. executive. Founder Reid Hoffman,
previously CEO of LinkedIn, is Chairman of the Board.
It is funded by Sequoia Capital, Greylock, Bain Capital Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners
and the European Founders Fund. LinkedIn reached profitability in March 2006. Through
January 2011, the company had received a total of $103 million of investment.
As of 2015, LinkedIn has more than 400 million members in over 200 countries and territories.
5. ACQUISITION
On June 13, 2014, Microsoft announced it would acquire LinkedIn for $196 a share, a total
value of $26.2 billion and the largest acquisition made by Microsoft to date. The acquisition will
be an all-cash, debt-financed transaction.
Microsoft will allow LinkedIn to "retain its distinct brand, culture and independence", with
Weiner to remain as CEO, who will then report to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.While
Facebook’s acquisition of WhatsApp received many positive reviews from industry experts,
some were still unsure whether the deal would prove to be smart move or not.
CEO of Microsoft, Reid Hoffman, chairman of the board, co-founder and controlling shareholder
of LinkedIn, and Weiner both fully support this transaction.
But Microsoft Chief Executive Satya Nadella has bought something more precious than what
some patronizingly call a social network for job-seekers. Microsoft has just bought one of the
world’s most influential, specialized, highly read, constantly-updated (and occasionally
annoying) digital media companies.
“The acquisition is a big one for both sides.”
6. Why LinkedIn?
For Microsoft, it’s bringing a key, missing piece into the company’s strategy to build out more
services for enterprises, and give it a key way to compete better against the likes of Salesforce.
LinkedIn’s wider social network, pegged as it is to groups of employees and employers, will give
Microsoft a sales channel to sell more of its products, and will serve as a complement to those
that it already offers for collaboration and communication.
There are other elements of LinkedIn’s business that are interesting to consider in light of this
acquisition. LinkedIn acquired Lynda.com, for example, to spearhead a move into offering
online learning tools to users — expanding on their bigger hope of being the go-to place for
overall professional development. Now, with Microsoft, you can see how Lynda might be
employed to help sell Microsoft software products, and provide assistance in learning to use
them. This is also an area that Microsoft is already highlighting as a positive in the deal
Analysts believe Microsoft saw the opportunity to integrate LinkedIn with its Office product
suite to help better integrate the professional network system with its products. This new deal
means Microsoft can embed LinkedIn with Skype, its email system and other enterprise products
so that, in the words of one Silicon Valley expert, it will be able ‘to recreate the connective tissue
for enterprises.’
7. Road Ahead
LinkedIn has 433 million users, more than a quarter of whom are in the US. Two new members
join every second – when LinkedIn was founded in California in 2003, 4,500 members joined
after its first month. There are 106 million monthly unique visitors to the website and in the first
quarter of 2016 there were 45 billion page views, up from 37 billion the previous quarter.
But it’s not just the numbers that matter. Much of the company’s value derives from content. Its
2015 revenue was $2.9 billion, which was a 35% increase on the previous year. Just as valuable
– perhaps even more so – is the data that the site amasses. It knows where people work, their
skills, ambitions, which they went to school with and what interest groups people share.
LinkedIn knows about people better than Microsoft does. Or did.
