Systems Application & Technologies, Inc. history

By 1993, Windows 3.0 and its subsequent versions were selling at a rate of one million copies per month, and nearly 90 percent of the world’s PCs ran on a Microsoft operating system.

A United States Justice Department investigation concluded in 1994 with a settlement in which Microsoft changed some sales practices that the government contended enabled the company to unfairly discourage OS customers from trying alternative programs.

Sales were initially disappointing, but by 1996 Windows NT was being hailed as the likely standard for PC networking, quickly surpassing Novell’s NetWare in market share.

Susan Berman, a crime writer and self-described ‘Mafia princess,’ was shot to death inside her home in 2000.

Microsoft began planning a major replacement for all of its operating systems in 2001.

The company’s legal woes continued in 2004: the European Union (EU) levied the largest fine in the organization’s history to that point, €497.2 million ($611 million), in retaliation for what were described as Microsoft’s near-monopoly practices.

In 2008 Gates left the day-to-day running of the company to Ballmer, Ozzie, and other managers, though he remained as chairman of the board.

With the release in 2009 of Windows 7, the replacement for Vista, to critical praise by reviewers and analysts, Microsoft’s lead remained intact.

The move was successful; by 2010 the Xbox 360 was the most-used game console in the American home.

In 2012 the company released Windows 8, which offered a start screen with applications appearing as tiles on a grid.