Microsoft Corporation was founded in 1975 by William H. Gates III. The company, which was inspired by Gates, had a vision of computers powered by software developed by the company being a way of life. The goal was to integrate computers into people's everyday lives. The company started out in Gates' garage with primitive technology and unlimited aspiration. Today the company has grown to be the world's number one software developer and manufacturer. The company offers a very diverse line of products ranging from home user applications to high tech business software. Microsoft develops and manufactures a full line of games, web publishi

As the CEO of my firm, I have a very involved decision to make. I feel that the wisest decision would be to not acquire Microsoft. Microsoft is a company that is a pioneer of software and is fully established and in order to be able to take them over, my company needs to be able to continue what Microsoft started. My company does not have the type of funds to be able to take over Microsoft, nor do we have the market cap to cover a stock for stock purchase. However, there is one consideration that I may make, that is, to form a joint venture with Microsoft. I feel that this will benefit us both in many ways. First, our technology can be combined in order to make the worlds top software developer and manufacturer that will occupy every sector of the software industry. Our manufacturing plants can be consolidated and re-structured to cut costs, wile adapting to manufacture the new software line that my company would introduce. Our management team can be re-structured as well so that strategic planning and decision-making will better implement our new ideas and technological advances. Finally, our market share will be greatly increased because of the ability to be exposed to countries that we are not currently involved in.

This brings me to the topics of competition and threats. True there is competition in the world of software, lots of it. The biggest competitor with Microsoft is a company called Red Hat. Red Hat manufactures a platform known as Linux. Linux is strictly business application software that is used by large corporations for implementing inventory systems, databases, and the like. Another source of competition comes from a company known as Novell. Novell is known for Novell Netware. This is business application software that is used mainly in financial institutions like banks and brokerage firms. This software is used for logging transactions at banks and brokerage firms, while maintaining an internal network within the company. Red Hat and Novell only occupy about forty to fifty percent of the market share combined. One should keep in mind that behind these two software platforms is Microsoft's NT Server Client software powering the servers that allow the companies to use this software! Basically, even thought there is competition, Microsoft still is able to gain a piece of the market share by being one step ahead of its competition.

ng, and most importantly, it's number one piece of software, Windows 2000 and ever-popular Office 2000. The world basically runs on Microsoft software. The software is shipped with 7

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Approximate Word count = 1733
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)