The Ledger
Every statement that passed quotation and attribution checks. Mix any filter with any other: certainty 1/5, debate potential 5/5, or both at once.
why aren't all 99 resolved? a statement only gets an assessment when the public record can support or contradict it. opinions and what-ifs never can, and 0 checkable ones are still open, waiting for their date. predictions held up or didn't; assertions are supported or contradicted. on every card: ▮▮▮▮▮ certainty · ▮▮▮▮▮ debate potential. speakers are clickable
Gilbert: Xbox Live achieved 40 million subscribers by 2012
“This is a group of people that went and created Xbox Live that by 20 12 had forty million subscribers.”
Gilbert: Releasing Office for iPad was among Nadella's first CEO moves
“The year later, we did ship it actually right after Satya became CEO. That was one of the first things he did.”
Gilbert: Microsoft held over 90% share of PC operating system sales
“The fact is that they had over 90% of PC operating system sales.”
Gilbert: Three-Quarters of Corporate PCs Still Ran XP in 2009
“Even as late as 2009, so three and a half years after launch, something like that, three quarters of corporate PCs are still running XP and had never upgraded to Vista.”
Rosenthal: Microsoft Extended XP OEM Sales Two Years Post-Vista
“Microsoft OEMs were so unhappy because consumers didn't want to buy Vista machines. Microsoft had to extend the ability for their OEM partners to keep selling XP machines to consumers for another two years after this.”
Rosenthal: Microsoft Intelligent Cloud generated $88B in fiscal 2023 revenue
“In fiscal, twenty-twenty-three, Intelligent Cloud did eighty-eight billion dollars in revenue.”
Rosenthal: Ray Ozzie began recruiting for Project Red Dog in January 2006
“And so in January, 2006, Ray with Steve Bomber's full blessing goes and starts recruiting for a secret project within Microsoft incubated outside any of the existing divisions.”
Gilbert: Microsoft offered $24B to acquire Facebook in 2007
“Microsoft puts an offer on the table. It's a very complex deal structure, but effectively what it does is it lets Facebook shareholders cash out over a long period of time as the company's value grew. So you're not taking all your money off the table today. An…”
Gilbert: Windows Phone's Metro UI Design Originated from Microsoft Zune
“We're defining a really breakthrough new user interface called Metro that actually came from the Zune, which is funny that that's its lineage.”
AOL bought browser maker Booklink for $30M during Microsoft licensing talks
“They start negotiating. They're talking about a, call it, two million dollar license deal. And all of a sudden, AOL comes in and buys the whole company of Booklink for thirty million dollars.”
Rosenthal: Ballmer's famous 2000 stage dance occurred during breakup threat
“The crazy dancing on stage. I love this company. That was in September of 2000. When they thought they were gonna get broken up.”
Gilbert: Internet Explorer held roughly 90% market share in November 2001
“At this moment in time, Internet Explorer has right around 90% market share.”
Half of Microsoft's revenue came from Japan by 1979
“And by the next year, in 1979, half of Microsoft's revenue is coming from Japan, which is wild.”
A team of only 65 people shipped Microsoft Windows 3.1
“I mean, it was 65 people that shipped Windows 3.1.”
Apple licensing Microsoft BASIC in 1977 was their first commercial deal
“And that's the first deal that happens between the companies. I mean, there's so many deals done both directions, commercial deals, equity deals, legal disputes in both directions. And this is the very first time that they do something together.”
The first version of Microsoft Excel was built for the Macintosh
“Far and away, the first thing to point out is the first version of Microsoft Excel was for the Mac.”
Microsoft generated $381,000 in revenue in 1977
“They end in 1977 with 381,000 dollars in revenue, despite zero for the first, like, 11 months of the year.”
Microsoft generated $16,000 in 1975 and $22,000 in 1976
“Microsoft does 16,000 dollars in revenue that year from their 30 dollars a pop the basics that are getting sold with the Altair, which is great, especially the first year that they're starting. And the next year in 1976, everybody's so excited about this new m…”
Regulators forced Microsoft to end per-processor OEM licensing in 1994
“Now, this is, of course, the way that regulators would look at it in 1994, and that would get Microsoft in some hot water, and they had to agree to stop doing this practice.”
Bill Gates and Paul Allen's founding equity split was 60/40
“Initially, it's sixty-forty ownership. Bill is 60%. Paul is 40%. Later, it gets changed to Bill is 64%, and Paul is 36%.”
Dave Cutler is still writing code at Microsoft today
“Like, he's still writing code at Microsoft today, which is amazing.”
Microsoft's MITS contract required best efforts to commercialize BASIC
“And that clause is that MITS must use its best efforts to license, promote, And commercialize the basic broadly in the marketplace, and that any failure to do so by MITS would be grounds for termination of the contract by Microsoft.”
Microsoft's first application bundle launched on the Mac in 1985
“So in 1985, in January, the bundle is released, and it was originally called the Business Pack for Microsoft. And it started on the Mac.”
Only 360 people built Microsoft Windows 95
“There's only 360 people that built Windows 95, so it's still kind of a small team”
Excel copied Lotus 1-2-3's keyboard shortcuts to preserve user muscle memory
“So a lot of the keyboard shortcuts in Excel to this day are there because they were originally the Lotus one, two, three shortcuts, and they wanted people to have the same muscle memory that just worked.”
Steve Ballmer took over engineering management to ship Windows 1.0
“Steve Bomber gets drafted to come in and be the dev manager for the final push to release Windows one point out, which is hilarious.”
Microsoft revenue jumped from $25M in 1982 to $98M in FY1984
“I believe that for calendar year, 1982, Microsoft's revenue was twenty five million dollars, and I think this must have been when they switched to fiscal year end and June 30th. So Microsoft's fiscal year end starting then and up through now is June 30th. So t…”
Steve Jobs showed Bill Gates the Mac project in 1981
“Steve Jobs Shows Bill Gates the Mac project in 1981. Three years before it ships. And Microsoft and Apple signed an agreement to work together on applications for it in 1982.”
Microsoft had 75 million Windows users before Windows 95 shipped
“I mean, even before Windows 95 shipped, they had seventy five million Windows users.”
Microsoft's lifetime BASIC revenue from MITS was capped at $180,000
“And the kicker on this contract is that the total Amount of lifetime revenue that Microsoft can make from the Basic. From MITS is capped at a 180,000 dollars.”
Microsoft generated $5M in revenue and $2M–$3M profit in 1980
“And Dave's remarking at this point in 1980, they're doing five million in revenue, two to three million in profit.”
Microsoft announced Windows in 1983 prior to the Mac's launch
“Starting in 1983, they're like, we gotta Do our own graphical operating system, or at least user interface, and this is the origins of the Windows product, and they actually announced it in November of 1983 before the Mac ends up shipping, which their partner …”
The PC market grew at a 98% CAGR from 1975 to 1986
“From 1975 to 1986, 11 years prior to their IPO, so founding to IPO, PCs grew
At a compound annual growth rate of 98%.”
Microsoft's 30-person staff outnumbered IBM's entire Project Chess team
“The Microsoft team of 30, which the whole company of Microsoft pivots to, like, work on the IBM PC Partnership is bigger than the project chess team in Boca.”
Microsoft is the exclusive cloud infrastructure provider for OpenAI
“Microsoft is the exclusive cloud infrastructure provider for OpenAI, which runs, as far as we know, solely on NVIDIA infrastructure, but they buy it all through Microsoft.”
TVI was the only venture capital investor in Microsoft before its IPO
“But TVI, technology venture investors, they had the unique honor and what made them single-handedly really part of the then top tier of venture capital firms is they were the only venture capital investor in Microsoft.”
TVI invested $1 million for a 5% pre-IPO stake in Microsoft
“One million dollars to own five percent of the company. I don't believe they raised another dollar until the IPO.”
Gilbert: Microsoft treats product management as marketing and program management as engineering
“Microsoft considers product management a marketing function. So it's owned in the marketing org and is much more go to market oriented, whereas Microsoft's program manager is in the engineering org. It's on the same comp ladder and same promotion ladder as eng…”
Gilbert: Amazon, Microsoft, and Google hold 40%, 22%, and 10% cloud share
“Amazon's got 35, maybe 40%. Microsoft's got 20 to 22%. Google's somewhere around 10%.”
Gilbert: NVIDIA trades at 3x Apple's P/S and 2x Microsoft's
“Nvidia has literally three times the price to sales ratio of Apple, or price to revenue as Apple, and nearly two x Microsoft.”
Xbox Game Pass generates $2 billion to $3 billion annually
“Microsoft is now up to eighteen million subscribers to Game Pass, which to your point, I think there's like a cheap version at 10 and then a more expensive version at 15. So every year as an annuity is generating two to three billion dollars on Game Pass.”
Johns: Texas Instruments generates higher operating margins than Microsoft
“Who has higher operating margins, Texas Instruments or Microsoft, right? Because I ask it, you know, the answer is, it's TI.”
Mauboussin: Microsoft Was the Only 2001 Top 10 Company Remaining in 2021
“So Microsoft is the only company that made the list both times.”
Rosenthal: Microsoft generated $27 billion in operating income in 2013
“Microsoft's operating income in 2013 was twenty seven billion dollars.”
Gilbert: Gates Promoted Mobile and Tablet Computing in 2001 Windows XP Launch
“One of which was Bill Gates was always talking about mobile computing, so much so that in the key slide in the Windows XP presentation, one of the big bullet points is mobile computing. All the way back in 2001, and Gates thought natural user interfaces was go…”
Rosenthal: Ray Ozzie named Microsoft Chief Software Architect in June 2006
“So in June, 2006, when Bill announces his coming retirement, Ray gets named as his successor in the official chief software architect role.”
Gilbert: Windows Mobile Permitted Handset Makers to Modify Operating System Code
“The handset makers could modify the code of Windows Mobile. So, when you bought a handset, first and foremost, you were trusting the product quality of the people at the handset maker, and they had several OS's that they could buy and effectively start from.”