Microsoft Corporation is a multinational computer technology corporation that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of software products for computing devices. Headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA, its most profitable products are the Microsoft Windows operating system and the Microsoft Office suite of productivity software.
微软是一家研发、制造、发放软件许可和支持众多适用于电脑 的软件产品的跨国电脑技术公司。总部位于美国华盛顿州的雷蒙 德。该公司最具收益的产品是微软的Windows操作系统和微软办 公软件套装Office。
The company was founded to develop and sell BASIC interpreters for the Altair 8800. Microsoft rose to dominate the home computer operating system market with MS-DOS in the mid-1980s, followed by the Windows line of operating systems. Its products have all achieved near-ubiquity in the desktop computer market. One commentator notes that Microsoft’s original mission was “a computer on every desk and in every home, running Microsoft software?” Microsoft possesses footholds in other markets, with assets such as the MSNBC cable television network, the MSN Internet portal, and the Microsoft Encarta multimedia encyclopedia. The company also markets both computer hardware products such as the Microsoft mouse as well as home entertainment products such as the Xbox, Xbox 360，Zune and MSN TV. The company’s initial public stock offering (IPO) was in 1986; the ensuing rise of the company’s stock price has made four billionaires and an estimated 12,000 millionaires from Microsoft employees.
这家公司最初创立是为研发和销售埃尔塔8800的BASIC解码 器。微软在80年代中期通过MS - DOS开始逐渐主宰家用电脑操作 系统市场，随后便出现了 Windows系列操作系统。微软的产品在台 式电脑市场几乎无处不在。一名评论员曾说到微软最初的任务就是 使“每家每户的台式电脑运行的都是微软的软件”。微软在也有涉 足其他商业领域，比如拥有像MSNBC这样的有线电视网络、MSN 网络门户，还有微软的多媒体电子百科全书。这家公司的业务还包 括生产电脑硬件,包括微软鼠标和像Xbox、Xbox360、Zune和MSN 电视等家用娱乐产品。这家公司首次公开募股是在1986年，随后微 软公司股价迅速上涨，瞬间制造了 4位亿万富翁和约1.2万名百万 富翁。
Throughout its history the company has been the target of criticism, including monopolistic business practices and anti-competitive strategies including refusal to deal and tying. The US Justice Department and the European Commission, among others, have ruled against Microsoft for various antitrust violations accordingly in today’s political-cultural climate of mixed economies and “public interest of society”.
纵观微软的历史，该公司常成为被声讨的对象。声讨的原因包 括微软在商务上实行垄断和反竞争战略,其中包括拒绝交易以及捆 绑销售。尤其值得一提的是，在现今政治经济混为一谈的文化氛围 和“社会公众的利益”大局下，美国司法部和欧洲委员会裁定微软违反了多项反垄断法。
In 1989, Microsoft introduced a office suite, Microsoft Office. The software bundled separate office productivity applications, such as Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel. On May 22, 1990 Microsoft launched Windows 3.0. The new version of Microsoft’s operating system boasted such new features as streamlined user interface graphics and improved protected mode capability for the Intel 386 processor; it sold over 100,000 copies in two weeks. Windows at the time generated more revenue for Microsoft than OS/2, and the company decided to move more resources from OS/2 to Windows. In the ensuing years, the popularity of OS/2 declined, and Windows quickly became the favored PC platform.
1989年微软开始引进一套办公软件——微软Office。这个 软件包括了几个单独的Office办公应用，比如Microsoft Word 和Microsoft Excel。1990年5月 22 日微软发布了 Windows 3.0。这个新版本的微软操作系统拥有更高效的用户图形界面 和改良过的可以用于因特尔386处理器的保护模式。新系统在 两周内就售出10万份拷贝。此时Windows已经比OS/2系统 为微软赚到了更多的钱，于是这家公司决定将更多的OS/2资 源拿来运用到Windows上。在接下来的几年中，OS/2系统的 流行程度下降，而Windows则迅速成为最受欢迎的个人电脑平台。
During the transition from MS-DOS to Windows, the success of Microsoft^ product Microsoft Office allowed the company to gain ground on appli-cation-software competitors, such as WordPerfect and Lotus 1-2-3. According to The Register，Novell, an owner of WordPerfect for a time, alleged that Microsoft used its inside knowledge of the DOS and Windows kernels and of undocumented Application Programming Interface features to make Office perform better than its competitors. Eventually, Microsoft Office became the dominant business suite, with a market share far exceeding that of its competitors.
在从MS-DOS到Windows的转变过程中，微软的Office 软件获得的成功使得该公司在与应用软件领域的对手竞争时获得了一席之地，其竞争对手包括 WordPerfect和莲花1 - 2-3。根据诺威尔公司，WorderPerfect曾经的东家的言论，微软使用了 DOS 和Windows内核的内部技术以及特有的未认证的应用编程接口，使得Office比其竞争者表现更为 卓越。最终微软Office在商务套装中独占鳌头，拥有远超其对手的市场占有额。
On February 1，2008, Microsoft made an unsolicited bid to purchase internet services competitor Yahoo! for up to $44.6 billion, though this offer was rejected on February 10. On May 3，2008，
2008年2月1日，微软主动提出要以446亿美元收购其网络服务业务的竞争对手雅虎，尽管收购 提案在2月10日被拒绝。2008年5月3日，微软撤回了该项收购提案。