Who owns Microsoft?

Two Computer Geeks – Being Nerds to Billionaires

Paul and Bill started their computer journey in their school itself, as they both learned that the school’s computer was not safe enough and hence was provided with responsibility and elevated access to help fix the computer. This journey went out and Paul Gilbert, Allen, and Bill started their small company Traf-O-Data which sold computers to the City of Seattle for Counting City Traffic.

Eventually, Paul Allen and Bill Gates co-founded Microsoft, were avid computer geeks in an age when access to computers was hard to come by.

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The Birth of Microsoft:

It all began in the New Year 1975 when Allen read an article in Popular Electronics magazine about the Altair 8800 microcomputer and was keen to discuss it with Gates. Both were excited and stepped into the bigger called, when Gates called MITS, makers of the Altair, and offered his and Allen’s services to write a version of the new BASIC programming language for the Altair.

Both were keen to prove their worth and after eight weeks of hard work, Allen and Gates demonstrated their program to MITS, which was a success indeed. It was then agreed to distribute and market the product under the name Altair BASIC. This deal struck the two brilliant minds to start something big, Gates and Allen were inspired to form their own software company. Microsoft began on April 4, 1975, in Albuquerque, New Mexico—the home of MITS—with Gates as the first CEO.

Where the Name ‘Microsoft’ Came From?

Gates used the name “Micro-Soft”, on July 29, 1975, came from Allen’s suggestion —in a letter to Allen referring to their partnership. The name, a portmanteau of “microcomputer” and “software,” was registered with the New Mexico secretary of state on Nov. 26, 1976. “Micro-Soft” came into existence to rock the world.

In August 1977, within a year, the company opened its first international branch located in Japan, which was called ASCII Microsoft. In 1979, the company moved to Bellevue, Washington. Within two years later it incorporated under the name Microsoft Inc. Gates was President of the company and Chairman of the board and Allen was Executive Vice President.

Let’s take a look at the insider of the stakeholder of this billion dollar enterprise…..

Individual Shareholders:

Here are the top 3 Individual Insider Shareholders:

Satya Nadella:

Satya joined Microsoft, 29 years ago in 1992 and has grown to great heights by handling various leadership positions in Microsoft Consumer and Enterprise Businesses. From 2014, Satya is CEO of Microsoft till now.
He owns 1,337,768 shares of Microsoft stock, which represents 0.02% of overall equity.
Nadella was the game changer while he was the executive vice president of Microsoft’s Cloud and Enterprise group, where he led the transformation to the cloud infrastructure and services business, which has outperformed the market and led Microsoft to continue as a lead and beat in Cloud Competition.
Microsoft remains one of the world’s biggest cloud services providers with its AZURE platform.
Prior to Microsoft, Nadella was a technology staff at Sun Microsystems.

Bradford L. Smith:

Brad joined as a General Counsel in 2003 at Microsoft. His significant contribution has been for almost a decade and a half to lead on decade leading work to resolve the company’s antitrust controversies with governments around the world.
Brad has now grown to become the Chief Legal Officer and President of Microsoft.
Brad Smith owns 845,058 shares of Microsoft stock, representing 0.01% of total equity.
Smith serves as chief legal officer and leads the company’s initiatives on public issues of cybersecurity, privacy, and environmental sustainability.
Prior to Microsoft, he was a partner at Covington and Burling in Washington, D.C.

Jean-Philippe Courtois:

Jean is one of the longest-serving members of Microsoft possibly. Joined in 1984, has played numerous positions line France Microsoft CEO, President of Microsoft EMA and International.
Jean owns 600,510 shares of Microsoft, representing 0.01% of total equity.
Currently, serving as Executive Vice President and President, Microsoft Global Sales, Marketing, and Operations.

Top 3 Institutional Shareholders:

Vast majority of Microsoft’s shares at about 70.7% of total shares outstanding.

Vanguard Group Inc.

Vanguard Group owns 640.2 million shares of Microsoft, representing 8.4% of total shares outstanding as one of the leaders. This is as per company’s 13F records for the year ending March 31, 2020.
Vanguard is a Mutual fund and ETF Management company with about $6.2 trillion in Global Assets under management.
The Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (VOO) is among the company’s largest exchange-traded funds with about $151 billion and Microsoft is the leading Holding in this ETF representing 5.5%.

BlackRock Inc.

BlackRock owns 517.6 million shares of Microsoft, representing 6.8% of total equity, as per company’s 13F records for the year ending March 31, 2020.
BlackRock is primarily a mutual fund and ETF management company with approximately $6.47 trillion in AUM.
The iShares Core S&P 500 ETF is among BlackRock’s largest ETFs with approximately $198.7 billion in AUM and Microsoft is the largest holding in this ETF of 6.2%.

State Street Corp.

State Street owns 314.8 million shares of Microsoft, representing 4.2% of total equity, as per the company’s 13F records for the year ending March 31, 2020.
State Street manages mutual funds, ETFs, and other investments with $3.1 trillion in AUM.
The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust is among State Street’s largest ETFs with approximately $276 billion in AUM, Microsoft is the largest holding in it representing 6.2%.

P.S: As of 2019, Bill Gates owns about 100 milion stocks which adds upto 1.34% equity of the Microsoft.

Board Members of Microsoft:

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Does Bill Gates owns Microsoft?

As of 2019, Bill Gates owns about 100 milion stocks which adds upto 1.34% equity of the Microsoft.

When was Microsoft founded?

Microsoft was founded in 1975 by Bill Gates and Paul Allen.

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The Birth of Microsoft:

Where the Name ‘Microsoft’ Came From?