Microsoft History: The Deals Behind Its Rise and Comeback ‪@storieswithstick‬

Microsoft’s history is a story of licensing deals, desktop dominance, a smartphone setback, and a new path through the cloud. Follow the decisions behind BASIC, DOS, Windows, Office, Azure, and AI in this illustrated 12:20 explainer. How did Microsoft become essential to PCs without building every computer? Why did its desktop strengths fail to secure a comparable smartphone ecosystem? And how did services beyond Windows reshape the business? This selective history follows Bill Gates and Paul Allen’s software beginnings, the IBM deal, compatibility and distribution, the browser antitrust case, the phone-business difficulties, and the shift under Satya Nadella. It also explains the OpenAI partnership and its April 2026 update: partnership and licensing are different from ownership. CHAPTERS 00:00 Software into an empire 00:27 Gates and Allen 00:57 BASIC and Microsoft’s founding 01:53 Why licensing rights mattered 02:12 IBM, DOS, and compatible PCs 03:53 Windows and Office 05:13 Windows 95 and distribution 05:44 Browser wars and antitrust 06:48 Ballmer, enterprise software, and Xbox 07:18 The smartphone struggle 08:29 Nadella and the Azure foundation 09:02 How cloud computing changed the business 09:57 LinkedIn and GitHub 10:26 OpenAI and Copilot 11:21 The changing OpenAI partnership 11:47 Licenses, distribution, and adaptation Which turning point mattered most: the IBM deal, Windows, or the cloud? Share your choice in the comments. Like and subscribe for more technology histories explained clearly. SOURCES Microsoft in 1975 https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sho... The DOS source-code history https://computerhistory.org/blog/micr... Microsoft’s 50-year timeline https://news.microsoft.com/microsoft-50/ US antitrust case and settlement https://www.justice.gov/atr/usdoj-ant... Azure general availability, 2010 https://blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2010... Microsoft and OpenAI’s 2023 partnership extension https://blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2023... Microsoft and OpenAI’s April 2026 update https://blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2026... The latest event discussed is the April 2026 partnership update. This video offers a selective overview rather than a catalog of every Microsoft product or event. #microsoft #techhistory #businesshistory #storytelling