The company purchased more than ten companies a year between 20, and it acquired 18 firms in 2006, the most in a single year, including Onfolio, Lionhead Studios, Massive Incorporated, ProClarity, Winternals Software, and Colloquis. Since Microsoft's first acquisition in 1987, it has purchased an average of six companies a year. Microsoft has not released financial details for most of these mergers and acquisitions. Of the companies that Microsoft has acquired, 107 were based in the United States. Microsoft has subsequently acquired over 225 companies, purchased stakes in 64 companies, and made 25 divestments. After the offering, Microsoft had a market capitalization of $519.777 million. The stock, which eventually closed at US$27.75 a share, peaked at $29.25 a share shortly after the market opened for trading. The company's initial public offering was held on March 14, 1986. The company has diversified in recent years into the video game industry with the Xbox, the Xbox 360, the Xbox One, and the Xbox Series X as well as into the consumer electronics and digital services market with Zune, MSN and the Windows Phone OS. Microsoft would also come to dominate the office suite market with Microsoft Office.

Established on April 4, 1975, to develop and sell BASIC interpreters for the Altair 8800, Microsoft rose to dominate the home computer operating system market with MS-DOS in the mid-1980s, followed by the Microsoft Windows line of operating systems. Microsoft is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions.

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