30 January 2007: Windows Vista launches to consumers
Microsoft released Windows Vista to consumers after more than five years of development. Instead of a triumph, it became a byword for sluggish performance, nagging security pop-ups and driver headaches. Many businesses simply waited for the next version. Microsoft's monopoly kept the profits flowing anyway, but Vista helped make the company look stodgy just as Apple and Google were becoming cool.
The lesson: A dominant business can survive a flop product; the danger is mistaking that resilience for excellence.
What it meant for investors
$1,000 in Microsoft at the start of 2007 → $16,000 today, vs $4,789 in the S&P 500.
We start the clock at the start of 2007, the year it happened. That is 16.0 times the money, and $11,211 more than a plain index fund made over the same years.
What Microsoft teaches: A great business bought at a silly price can still deliver a lost decade; Microsoft's profits grew for years while its 2000 valuation slowly deflated.
| Bought in | Price then | Worth today | S&P 500 would be |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 | $30.00 | $16,000 | $4,789 |
| 2008 | $35.00 | $13,714 | $4,626 |
| 2010 | $30.00 | $16,000 | $6,071 |
green = beat the S&P 500 · red = lost money
What if you bought Microsoft? Every starting year and the full story →
More Microsoft history
- 13 March 1986: Microsoft goes public
- 4 April 1975: Microsoft is founded in Albuquerque
- 25 April 2019: Microsoft reaches a $1 trillion market value
- 27 June 2008: Bill Gates' last day as a full-time Microsoft employee
- 4 July 1996: Hotmail declares independence from your ISP
- 12 July 2006: EU fines Microsoft for dragging its feet
Could you have called it at the time? The wheel picks the year, you pick the position, ten seconds a pick.
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