Microsoft first sold shares to the public in its initial public offering in 1986.
Microsoft’s IPO took place on March 13, 1986, with shares offered at $21 each. The company had been founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen in 1975 and had grown rapidly by licensing software for personal computers.
Its partnership with IBM helped make MS-DOS a major PC operating system, while Microsoft’s later Windows products broadened its reach. The IPO gave the public an opportunity to own part of the business and helped create substantial wealth for employees and early investors.
Microsoft later became a major force in productivity software through Office, enterprise computing through Windows Server, and cloud services through Azure. Its 1986 IPO is distinct from its much later market-value milestones. Microsoft did not begin as a cloud company; its original growth was closely linked to PC software and operating-system licensing.