Company history, part 3: 1980-1982

For Microsoft, 1980 was the start of a decade of new technologies. The company introduced the Z-80 SoftCard, Steve Ballmer joins the team and Microsoft represents the UNIX-based operating system for 16-bit processors.

1981 was the year for the company to enter the operating system market, the company was reorganized into a corporation, and revenue increased to $ 17 million.

For Microsoft, 1982 was the year in which the new chapter on company operations was announced, a new logo was introduced, and this year the first fax appeared in the company.

The previous parts of the cycle: 1975-1976 , 1977-1979
')

1980

January 1, 1980
Microsoft Consumer Products announces Typing Tutor, the first client-oriented application.

April 2, 1980
The company introduces the Z-80 SoftCard , an expansion card designed for the Apple II computer, which allows Apple II users to run CP / M applications with a minimum of changes.

June 11, 1980
Steve Ballmer joins the company to work in financial transactions and legal business matters.

August 25, 1980
Microsoft announces XENIX OS , a UNIX-based operating system for 16-bit microprocessors.

Number of employees and profit for 1980

Sales at the end of the year were $ 8,000,000. The number of employees increased to 40 people.

Other products released in 1980

• Basic Compiler 5.3,
• TRS-DOS COBOL and Basic,
• muLISP and muMATH,
• TRS-80 Editor / Assember,
• XMacro-86 Cross Assembler,
• COBOL-80 Compiler 4.0,
• BASIC Interpreter for Z8000,
• Olympic Decathlon (game),
• M / SORT,
• FORTRAN & COBOL for Apple II,
• RAMcard (memory expander for the Apple II)

Other events of 1980

• Apple Computer has entered the stock exchange with 4.6 million shares, the largest yield since Ford Motor Co. in 1956;
  
• Novell, Inc. was established ;
  
• President Carter declares a boycott of the Moscow Olympic Games, in response to the entry of Soviet troops into Afghanistan;
  
• in Washington, a volcano erupted on Mount St. Helens;
• the film “Ordinary People” ( Ordinary People ) with Mary Tyler Moore gets an Oscar for best film;
• The Call Me song of the Blondie Group tops the Billboard Top Chart.

1981

April 9, 1981
The company's first semi-annual conference takes place in the new building of the Athletic Club built in Bellevue .

June 25, 1981
Microsoft is undergoing reorganization as a privately held corporation. Bill Gates becomes president and chairman, and Paul Allen executive vice president. Microsoft becomes Microsoft, Inc.

August 12, 1981
IBM introduces its first Personal Computer (PC) with MS-DOS version 1.0 along with BASIC, COBOL, Pascal, and other Microsoft products. This event was the company's entry into the operating system market. The Microsoft Adventure game adapted specifically for the PC falls into the list of IBM-compatible programs.

October 1, 1981
Microsoft Building (Northup Building) is rented at 10700 Northup Way, (PO Box 97200) Bellevue, Washington, 98004.

December 8, 1981
Microsoft announces signing an agreement with The Santa Cruz Operation, Inc. about the XENIX operating system. This agreement allows you to create additional services for XENIX customers, mainly for pre and post-sales support, maintenance and documentation.

Number of employees and profit for 1981

Ended the seventh year of the company. Sales revenue at the end of the year was $ 17,331,000. The total number of employees was 129 people.

Famous people who came to the company this year

Tandy Trower, Jeff Raikes, Chris Peters and 100th   employee Ellen Aycock. Chris Larson switched to full-time work after several years of contract work.

Other events of 1981

• Osborne Computer introduced Osborne 1 , the first laptop;
  
• On January 20, Ronald Reagan becomes the 40th president of the United States; on March 30, he and three more people will be injured during the attempt;
  
• an agreement between the United States and Iran allowed the release of 52 hostages held in Tehran since 1979;
  
• Pope John Paul (John Paul) II was wounded during the attempted assassination of May 14;
  
• President Reagan proposes Sandra Day O'Connor, the first woman, to become a Supreme Court judge;
  
• The US Centers for Disease Control (US Centers for Disease Control) officially announces the beginning of the AIDS epidemic;
  
• The best-selling novels in 1981 are: Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie and Rabbit is Rich by John Updike. John Updike also won the 1982 Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award for this novel.
  
• John Lennon and Yoko Ono receive a Grammy Award for Best Album for Double Fantasy. The best song is Bette Davis Eyes by Jackie DeShannon and Donna Weiss. The best new artist was Sheena Easton.
  
• The highest-grossing films of the year: In Search of the Lost Ark ($ 115 million), Superman 2 ($ 65 million), On Golden Pond ($ 61 million), Arthur ($ 42 million) and Stripes ($ 40 million).
  
• The film academy chose the best film of the year Chariots of Fire, and the public chose the worst film of the year and became “Tarzan, the Monkey Man” with Bo Derek and Richard Harris in the lead roles.
  
• Henry Fonda receives an Oscar for best role in the film On Golden Pond, the best actress becomes Katherine Hepborn, also for On Golden Pond.
  
• Egyptian President Anwar Sadat was assassinated at the age of 63 years.
  

1982

March 24, 1982
Microsoft UK Ltd. is founded . (UK), the first international subsidiary.

June 25, 1982
James C. Towne becomes president and head of operations of the company (President and Chief Operating Officer). In July, he will be taken over by all the affairs that Bill Gates did and he will become the executive vice president responsible for all the software development of the company. Gates will remain chairman of the board. James C. Towne previously served as vice president and general manager of the equipment division at Tektronix . Next year he will be replaced by Jon Shirley .

June 28, 1982


Microsoft presents a new company logo, a new design and a full set of materials to support retail sales partners.

July 6, 1982
Microsoft becomes a trademark in the United States (No. 1,200,236 in Int.Cls 9 and 42 (computer programs and computer programming services).

July 16, 1982
The company buys the first fax machine for office use. This is the Panafax 1200 with group I and II compatibility.

July 16, 1982
The local area network of the Microsoft Local Area Network (MILAN) has been launched , which connects all computers, including the DEC 2060 , two PDP-11 / 70s , VAX 11/250 and many MC68000 machines with XENIX on board. This system simplifies email delivery to the workplace (Bill Gates gets the address billg ).

August 1, 1982
The company releases Microsoft Multiplan v1.0 for MS-DOS.

September 1, 1982
Microsoft is announcing its symbolic mathematic package muMATH / muSIMP for IBM PC Personal Computer. This package also comes out for Apple II, TRS-80 and CP / M-80 systems.

October 1, 1982
Semi Allen is diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease (malignant lymphomatosis), curable in a form. While he is on special care, he limits his work in the company. After the treatment ended, in 1983 Paul Allen returned to the company.

Number of employees and profit for 1982

Ended the eighth year of the company. Sales revenue at the end of the year was $ 24,486,000. The total number of employees was 220 people.

Other products released in 1982

• Cobol 4.6,
  
• Typing Tutor II for Apple II,
  
• Softcard premium
  
• Flight Simulator for MS-DOS
  

Other 1982 Events

• the first artificial heart: the world's first heart transplant was performed on an ongoing basis. The operation was performed by Dr. Barney B. Clark at the University of Utah Medical Center, Salt Lake City.
  
• Baby Bells formed : American Telephone and Telegraph ( AT & T ) agreed to split into 22 companies after an antitrust lawsuit filed by the Justice Department. The ATT Bell System is in turn divided up by the US government into 7 parts known as Baby Bells.
  
• Hinckley was found not guilty of the attempted assassination of Reagan because of his insane mental state;
  
• Israel sends troops into Lebanon on July 6. The reason is an assassination attempt on the Israeli ambassador in London. Israel’s plans include creating a buffer zone between northern Israel and Lebanon. The invasion becomes an attempt to destroy the Palestine Liberation Organization.
  
• Good news for those who are on a diet: in 1982 Diet Cola and sugar substitutes appeared;
  
• Oscar for best film gets “Gandhi”;
  
• In Soviet Russia, the new communist leader - Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev dies at the age of 75 and Yuri Andropov becomes the new leader. Brezhnev died of arteriosclerosis of the brain.
  
• less than four months after the release of the IBM PC, Time Magazine calls the computer “Man of the Year”! Never before and after this, the inanimate object was not called this title;
  
• In the fall of 1982, seven people die from Tylenol capsules (headache medication), in which an unknown criminal added cyanide. A nation in panic, and the company Johnson and Johnson quickly recalls 30 million bottles;
  
• the universal rights amendment triumphs: the draft law on the equal rights of women aims to protect against gender discrimination;
  
• A new newspaper called USA Today for the first time comes out in color;
  
• Falkland Islands War: Argentina attacks British-occupied islands. Two months later, Argentina surrenders to the British troops on June 14;
  
• Princess Monaco Grace dies in a car crash. Her daughter, seventeen-year-old Stephanie survives and receives only injuries.
  

The article is based on the translation of the following articles on channel9.msdn.com:

• The History Of Microsoft 1980 channel9.msdn.com/shows/History/The-History-of-Microsoft-1980
• The History Of Microsoft 1981 channel9.msdn.com/shows/History/The-History-of-Microsoft-1981
• The History Of Microsoft 1982 channel9.msdn.com/shows/History/The-History-of-Microsoft-1982

In addition to the text, on these sites you can watch videos with materials relating to the topic.
To be continued.