13 March 1986: Microsoft goes public
Microsoft listed its shares at $21 each, raising about $61 million. Bill Gates had been reluctant to go public at all. The company's operating system software was already on millions of IBM-compatible PCs. Over the following decades, the stock split repeatedly and early investors became millionaires many times over. Few IPOs have ever rewarded patient investors so handsomely.
The lesson: Owning a great business for decades can matter far more than the price you pay on day one.
What it meant for investors
$1,000 in Microsoft at the start of 1990 → $800,000 today, vs $19,429 in the S&P 500.
We start the clock at the start of 1990, the first year in our price data after the event. That is 800.0 times the money, and $780,571 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1990 | $0.6 | $800,000 | $19,429 |
| 1995 | $3.00 | $160,000 | $14,783 |
| 2000 | $40.00 | $12,000 | $4,626 |
green = beat the S&P 500 · red = lost money
What if you bought Microsoft? Every starting year and the full story →
More Microsoft history
- 30 January 2007: Windows Vista launches to consumers
- 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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