Which company’s stock began trading publicly on March 13, 1986?

Microsoft’s stock began trading publicly on March 13, 1986.

Microsoft held its initial public offering on the Nasdaq exchange in 1986. The company priced its shares at $21 each, and the offering made founders Bill Gates and Paul Allen extremely wealthy as Microsoft’s software business continued to expand.

Microsoft had been founded in 1975 and became closely associated with the personal-computer revolution through operating systems and productivity software. MS-DOS and later Windows became central products, while Microsoft Office became a standard suite for businesses, schools, and households.

The company later expanded into servers, enterprise software, gaming through Xbox, professional networking through LinkedIn, and cloud computing through Azure. Microsoft’s market capitalization reflects investors’ valuation of the entire public company, not just Windows. Its original IPO price is also not comparable directly with modern prices without accounting for stock splits.