In what year did Microsoft go public?

Microsoft went public in 1986, when it launched its initial public offering on the NASDAQ exchange. The IPO took place on March 13, 1986, marking the transformation of Bill Gates and Paul Allen’s software company into a publicly traded corporation.

Microsoft sold about 2.5 million shares at an offering price of $21 each and raised approximately $61 million. Strong demand pushed the stock higher on its first trading day, helping establish Microsoft as one of the most important young technology companies in the personal-computer boom.

The timing followed major growth from MS-DOS, which Microsoft had licensed to IBM and other computer makers, and the release of Windows 1.0 in 1985. A frequent mistake is choosing 1985 because Windows 1.0 launched that year. Microsoft’s public debut came the following year. Later stock splits dramatically increased the number of shares represented by the original IPO stock.