Microsoft Corporation

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Microsoft is an American multi-national technology company, headquartered in Redmond, Washington. It develops, manufactures, licenses, supports and sells computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and services.
Its best-known software products are the Microsoft Windows line of operating systems, the Microsoft Office suite, and the Internet Explorer and Edge web browsers. Its flagship hardware products are the Xbox video game consoles and the Microsoft Surface lineup of touchscreen personal computers.
As of 2016, Microsoft is the world's largest software maker by revenue, and one of the world's most valuable companies.

Corporate Political Engagement Rating:[1] Transparency International    C  

Climate Policy Rating:[2] InfluenceMap  C+
Microsoft appears to be positively engaged on climate policy globally, but retains membership to trade associations that oppose ambitious climate policy. A senior executive is a board member of the National Association of Manufacturers; Microsoft has direct membership of BusinessEurope, the US Chamber of Commerce and the Business Council of Australia, all of which consistently obstruct ambitious climate policy. Report

Brands

ToDo: Acquisitions

Company

Shareholders

Total float: 98.6%
Source: MarketScreener.svg, Mar.2020

Timeline

  • Dec.2016: LinkedIn was acquired by Microsoft.

Articles

/Documents/2017.12-InfluenceMap-Trade-Association-Report.pdf

  • Jan.10.2020: Skype audio graded by workers in China with 'no security measures'. The recordings were simply accessed by Microsoft workers through a web app running in Google’s Chrome browser. Workers had no cybersecurity help to protect the data from criminal or state interference, and were even instructed to do the work using new Microsoft accounts all with the same password. =A Microsoft programme to transcribe and vet audio from Skype and Cortana, its voice assistant, ran for years with “no security measures”. Microsoft’s decision to outsource some of the work vetting English recordings to companies based in Beijing raises the additional prospect of the Chinese state gaining access to recordings. The grading programme went further than those run by other multinationals such as Amazon, Apple and Google. Microsoft contractors were also revealed to be listening to calls made using the Skype telephone service. Vice revealed that an experimental feature enabling live text translation of Skype calls was vetted by humans, raising the prospects of individuals making sensitive calls without knowing that their conversations were effectively bugged. Alex Hern, The Guardian.

References

  1. ^ Corporate Political Engagement Index 2018. The new index of 104 multi-national companies, many of whom regularly meet with govt, has found nearly 75% are failing to adequately disclose how they engage with politicians. Only one company received the highest grade, with the average grade being "E" – representing poor standards in transparency. Transparency International UK, Nov.2018.
  2. ^ The A-List of Climate Policy Engagement. Which global companies lead in strategic lobbying for the ambitions of Paris? Rankings measure how a corporation or trade association behaves towards 2°C aligned climate and energy policy. Influence Map, Apr.2018.