14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft is a money-making machine and if you had any doubts about it, here are some very interesting stats: the company has reached $1 trillion in total cumulative revenues the previous quarter, a milestone that only the software giant and rival Apple has managed to achieve until now.
As far as Apple is concerned, the iPhone maker actually surpassed the $1 trillion mark last year, but in this case, it was the hardware products that contributed to the accelerated growth. As writer Jeff Reifman explains, despite the fact that Apple exceeded the $1 trillion milestone faster than Microsoft, the software giant still has bigger profit.
In the case of Microsoft, the lifetime profit is at $265.2 billion, while Apple has generated “only” $261.6 billion.
No party because of offshore accounts?
‘So why no announcement?’ you might ask. And this question does make sense because reaching such a milestone is in most of the cases a reason for celebration. But this time, Microsoft remained tight-lipped and according to Reifman, it’s all because the company just wanted to avoid criticism for storing part of the money in offshore accounts.
“You might expect a company to announce a milestone like this and bask in this incredible accomplishment — but not Microsoft. It chose to stay silent as it faces increased public scrutiny for holding $108.3 billion in earnings offshore (an incredible 41% of its all time profit) and its history of tax dodging at home in Washington State,” Reifman wrote.
As compared to Microsoft, search giant Google is far behind and its cumulative earnings have only reached $96.3 billion.
And… there’s more. Microsoft and Amazon have generated revenues of no less than $1.5 trillion “and helped create more than 161,220 millionaires but the wealthy here pay the lowest share of taxes in the entire country.”
At this point, Bill Gates is the richest man in the world with a net worth of $79.2 billion, and he’s not only incredibly rich, but also one of the world’s biggest philanthropists, fighting to cure polio and malaria in poor countries.