List of mergers and acquisitions by Microsoft

Microsoft has made fourteen acquisitions worth over one billion dollars: Skype Technologies (2011), aQuantive (2007), Fast Search & Transfer (2008), Navision (2002), Visio Corporation (2000), Yammer (2012), Nokia's mobile and devices division (2013), Mojang (2014), LinkedIn (2016), GitHub (2018), Affirmed Networks (2020), ZeniMax Media (2020), Nuance Communications (2021), and Activision Blizzard (2022).

[3] Hotmail, a free webmail service founded in 1996 by Jack Smith and Sabeer Bhatia,[4] had more than 8.5 million subscribers earlier that month.

However, execs failed to negotiate a deal, with Xbox co-inventor Kevin Bachus explaining "They just laughed their asses off.

Visio, a software company, was founded in 1990 as Axon Corporation, and had its initial public offering in November 1995.

[18] On September 2, 2013, Microsoft announced its intent to acquire the mobile hardware division of Nokia (which had established a long-term partnership with Microsoft to produce smartphones built off its Windows Phone platform)[19] in a deal worth 3.79 billion euros, along with another 1.65 billion to license Nokia's portfolio of patents.

Steve Ballmer considered the purchase to be a "bold step into the future" for both companies, primarily as a result of its recent collaborations.

[22] On June 13, 2016, Microsoft announced it planned to acquire the professional networking site LinkedIn for $26.2 billion, to be completed by the end of 2016.

On January 18, 2022, Microsoft announced its intent to acquire Activision Blizzard, an American video game holding company, for $68.7 billion in cash.

[26] The deal has been approved by both companies' board of directors and was finalized on October 13, 2023, with the total cost of the acquisition amounting to $75.4 billion, following international government regulatory review of the action.