Microsoft's Sales Milestone in the 1980s

On 13/03/1986, Microsoft launched its initial public offering on the Nasdaq stock exchange, becoming a publicly traded company under the ticker symbol MSFT. The offering priced shares at $21 each, adjusted to $0.10 per share after later stock splits, and raised approximately $61 million. Microsoft offered about 2.5 million shares to the public, valuing the company at roughly $777 million at the time of the listing. The IPO took place nearly eleven years after the company was founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen in 1975. Following the public debut, Microsoft’s stock price rose significantly during its first day of trading, closing above the initial offering price. The IPO created several millionaires among Microsoft employees and significantly increased the net worth of Bill Gates, who retained a large ownership stake and became one of the youngest billionaires in the United States within a year as the stock appreciated. The newly raised capital supported expansion of Microsoft’s operating system and applications businesses, including continued development of MS-DOS, Windows, and productivity software. Microsoft’s transition to a public company also formalized corporate governance and reporting requirements, while enabling broader investor participation in the growing personal computer software market. The company remained listed on Nasdaq and continued expanding throughout the late 1980s, with growth tied to IBM compatible PCs and increasing adoption of Microsoft software.