Market

Revenue US$ 6.99 billion (2012)[1] Operating income US$ 2.71 billion (2012)[1] Profit US$ 1.71 billion (2012)[1] Total assets US$ 7.53 billion (2012)[1] Total equity US$ 6.57 billion (2012)[1] Employees 150,000 (2012)[1] Divisions Infosys BPO, Infosys China Website www.infosys.com Infosys Limited formally Infosys Technologies (BSE: 500209, NSE: INFY, NASDAQ: INFY) is an Indian global technology services company headquartered in Bangalore, India. It is ranked #27 in the list of top companies of India in Fortune India 500 list in 2011.[2][3] It has offices in 29 countries and development centers in India, US, China, Australia, UK, Canada, Japan and many other countries. The company provides business consulting, technology, engineering and outsourcing services to help clients in over 30 countries.

Timeline

1981-Infosys was founded by N. R. Narayana Murthy, Nandan Nilekani, N. S. Raghavan, S. Gopalakrishnan, S. D. Shibulal, K. Dinesh and Ashok Arora. 1983-It moved to Bangalore in 1983 . 1987-Infosys got its first foreign client, Data Basics Corporation from the US, in 1987. 1992-It opened its first overseas sales office in Boston, US. This was followed by offices in Milton Keynes (1996), Toronto (1997), France and Hong Kong (2000), UAE and Argentina (2001), Netherlands, Singapore and Sweden (2002). Currently it has 64 offices and 68 development centres in India and abroad.

Acclaims
Infosys has revenues of US$ 6.825 billion (LTM Q3-FY12).[4] Infosys delivers IT-enabled business solutions to enable Global 2000 companies to build their enterprises of tomorrow. Infosys ranked among the most innovative companies in a Forbes survey,[5] leading technology companies in a report by The Boston Consulting Group [6] and top ten green companies in Newsweek's Green Rankings.[7] Infosys was voted India's most admired company in The Wall Street Journal Asia 200 [8] every year since 2000. The corporate governance practices were recognized by The Asset Platinum award [9] and the IR Global Rankings.[10]

In 2001, it was rated by Business Today.[11] Infosys was rated best employer to work for in 2000, 2001, and 2002 by Hewitt Associates. In 2007, Infosys received over 1.3 million applications and hired fewer than 3% of applicants.[12] Infosys won the Global MAKE (Most Admired Knowledge Enterprises) award for the years 2003, 2004 and 2005, and is inducted into the Global Hall of Fame for the same.[13] Infosys was also ranked as the 15th most trusted brand in India by The Brand Trust Report in 2011.[14] Infosys is ranked #27 in the list of top companies of India in Fortune India 500.

Growth & Contractions

Infosys has experienced a decade of growth fuelled by outsourcing of jobs from the US, and are now turning to acquisitions in Europe so as to expand into Europe. It may help Bengaluru-based Infosys achieve a target of getting 40 percent of its sales from Europe, up from about 22%. Infosys' stock declined 14% in the year 2011, valuing Infosys at U+20B9 1.36 lakh crore. In 2008, Infosys decided against further pursuing a plan to buy Axon after its bid was trumped by New Delhi-based HCL Technologies. In 2006, Infosys spent $115 million to purchase Citigroup's stake in Progeon, a back-office service provider controlled by Infosys.

Current share holding

Life Insurance Corporation of India has 5.17%. Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, a sovereign wealth fund owned by Abu Dhabi, and the Government of Singapore also hold significant shareholdings as on December 2011. The remaining public shares are owned by financial institutions and individual investors.[18]

Initiatives
Infosys has the largest corporate university in India and one of the largest in the world, in the Global Education Center campus at Mysore.[19]

Infosys Foundation
In 1996, Infosys established the Infosys Foundation, operating in the areas of health care, social rehabilitation and rural uplift, education, arts and culture. Since then, this foundation has spread its activities from its headquarters in Karnataka to the Indian states of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Kerala, Orissa and Punjab in a phased manner.A dedicated team at the Foundation identifies programs in the areas of Healthcare, Education, Culture, Destitute Care and Rural Development.[20]

Academic Entente (AcE)

Since 2004, Infosys has embarked on a series of initiatives to consolidate and formalise its academic relationships worldwide under the umbrella of a program called AcE Academic Entente.Infosys' Global Academic Relations team forges Academic Entente (AcE) with best-in-class global academic and partner institutions. It explores co-creation opportunities between Infosys and academia through case studies, student trips and speaking engagements. They also collaborate on technology, emerging economies, globalization, and research. Some initiatives include research collaborations, publications, conferences and speaking sessions, campus visits and campus hiring.[21] Infosys houses the largest corporate education center in the world in Mysore. The facility can accommodate 14,000 candidates at one time.[22]

InStep
InStep is Infosys' flagship global internship program. The program students from management, technical and liberal arts backgrounds. InStep fosters a multi-cultural environment within the organization and provides strategy and research projects. The InStep program is also part of AcE activities.It offers live projects to interns from universities around the world.[23]

Catch them Young Program

In 1997, Infosys started the "Catch them Young Program", to expose urban youth to information technology by conducting a summer vacation program. The program is aimed at developing an interest and understanding of computer science and information technology. This program is targeted at students in Grade IX level.[24] However, the "Catch Them Young program" has been discontinued after 2009.[25]

Wharton Infosys Business Transformation Award

In 2002, the Wharton Business School of the University of Pennsylvania and Infosys started the Wharton Infosys Business Transformation Award. This technology award recognises enterprises and individuals who have transformed their businesses and the society leveraging information technology. Past winners include Samsung, Amazon.com, Capital One, RBS and ING Direct. However, the Wharton Business Transformation award has been discontinued post 2007.[26]

U.S. visa controversy

The company in April, 2012, came under investigation for using B-1 visas for Indian employees on the job in the United States. The visas are intended for conference and business-meeting travel, as John Miller of CBS This Morning reported. A consultant for the firm and, now, whistleblower Jay Palmer, described on air his observation of, for example,

an internal web site designed, it appeared, to guide Infosys employees on how to avoid visa difficulties (words not to use: "work" e.g.); and of native-Indian employees clearly working, not meeting or conferencing, in the U.S. Paying lower wages and no U.S. taxes for Indian nationals, the company was able to underbid on jobs for its Fortune-500 U.S. clients, he asserted. Miller put the story in the context of the limits on H-1B visas for immigrant workers when no U.S. workers are available to do the work. Forbes further put it in context of a recent initiative by "a host of India[n] computer consulting firms convinc[ing the Indian] ... government to consider taking the U.S to the World Trade Organization for the added fines associated with H1-B [sic] visas". Infosys said in a statement read on air by CBS that Palmers allegations make for an interesting story, but it is not the facts. A judge and jury, according to the report in Forbes of the CBS coverage, "will have the final say on Palmers accusations later this summer in an Alabama civil court case".[27]

Board of directors
per Annual Report 2010-11 for the year ended March 31, 2011, with changes a/o August, 2011 (announced in April), detailed in AR[28] and a/o June, 2011[29]; also, directors listed on March 31, 2012 financial statement[30]

S. Gopalakrishnan - executive co-chairman[30] S.D. Shibulal - ceo and managing director[30] Marti G. Subrahmanyam - lead independent director; professor of finance at the Stern School of Business at New York University Deepak M. Satwalekar - independent director; former ceo of HDFC Standard Life Insurance Co.; consultant to the World Bank and others[30][31] Omkar Goswami - independent director; economist and business journalist for Business India[30] Sridar A. Iyengar - independent director; operating partner, Bessemer Venture Partners; formerly KPMG[30][32] David L. Boyles - independent director; retired banker; IT consultant[30][33] Prof. Jeffrey S. Lehman - independent director; deputy chancellor and ceo, New York University Shanghai; previously dean, Peking University School of Transnational Law, Shenzhen, China; University of Michigan Law School, Cornell University[30] K.V. Kamath - chairman of the board[30] R. Seshasayee - independent director; executive vice chairman Ashok Leyland, chartered accountant[30][34] Ann M. Fudge, independent director; former CEO of Young & Rubicam and member of U.S. President Barack Obama's National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform[29][30] Ravi Venkatesan - independent director; former executive Microsoft India, Cummins Inc.[30][35] K. Dinesh - director and head, communications design group, information systems, and quality & production

T.V. Mohandas Pai - director and head, administration, education & research, finance, human resources development and Infosys Leadership Institute Srinath Batni - director and head, delivery excellence[30] V. Balakrishnan, chief financial officer[29][30] B. G. Srinivas, senior vice president and head, Banking and Financial Services[29][30] Ashok Vemuri, senior vice president and head,manufacturing, product engineering, product lifecycle and engineering solutions and strategic global sourcing[29][30]

Founders
N.R. Narayana Murthy,[28] Nandan Nilekani, N. S. Raghavan,[citation needed] Gopalakrishnan, Shibulal, Dinesh,[28] and Ashok Arora[citation needed] were the founders of the company. In the August, 2011, changes to the board, Murthy retired as chairman and chief mentor and Gopalakrishnan stepped down as ceo and managing director while staying on the board.[

Q1 performance was the expected letdown after the prior Q4's record high total revenues and earnings per share. The annual March slowdown was more pronounced than I expected when looking at YoY results. Both net income and earnings per share dipped slightly YoY, which suggests a base is not being built during the transition to battle Apple, Google, et al. in the leading edge technology race. This is the first time both have decreased YoY since the QE September 2009. The good news is a negative trend was reversed. Gross margin increased, after setting a multi-year low in the prior quarter. However, the operating margin decreased, mostly the result in the dip in revenues and a general increase in operating expenses. Net margin dropped to a 7-quarter low. This isn't the high growth, high margin Microsoft grandpa used to talk about. All segment revenues dropped, with lower-margin Entertainment & Devices plunging. This ruined the quarter and occurs every Q1 after the Q4 annual Holiday peak. Higher-margin Windows & Windows Live segment revenues slightly decreased, as did Business and Servers & Tools. This was the reason for the increase in gross profit margin.

CEO Steve Ballmer kept his game face on while touting the future, "Were driving toward exciting launches across the entire company, while delivering strong financial results. With the upcoming release of new Windows 8 PCs and tablets, the next version of Office, and a wide array of products and services for the enterprise and consumers, we will be delivering

exceptional value to all our customers in the year ahead." You go guy! Mighty Microsoft needs to step up more in 2012. Management has marshaled their mega resources so the Empire can strike back. Total assets are now a record $118.01 billion. Apple, HP, and IBM are the other exclusive members of the Big Tech $100 Billion Club. However, the revolution is in progress. The mobile and open-source rebels have made tremendous gains and are at the gates. Microsoft Income Statement Calendar Q1 2012 Microsoft reported total revenues of $17.41 billion, net income of $5.11 billion, and earnings per share of $0.60. From the prior calendar quarter Q4 2011, these were -17%, -23%, and -23%. From the prior calendar year Q1 2011, these were up +6%, -2%, and -2%, respectively. Gross margin increased QoQ and YoY to 77.30%. Operating margin dipped QoQ but increased YoY to 36.62%. Net margin dropped QoQ and YoY to 29.34%. Cash flow from operations per share increased cyclically to a record $1.13. Microsoft Balance Sheet Calendar Q1 2012 Total assets increased to a record $118.01 billion. The capital ratio increased to a multi-year high of 58.18%. The current ratio is a very liquid 65.13%. Microsoft is very liquid with strong capital and has $59.53 billion in

cash reserves (cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities). Add noncurrent investments and the reserves are $68.60 billion. Return on assets are a 10-quarter low of 21.37%, which is still excellent. The debt ratio is stable and reasonable at 10.12% of total assets.

Microsoft Business Outlook Microsoft is revising operating expense guidance downward and now offers a range of $28.3 billion to $28.7 billion for the full year ending June 30, 2012. Microsoft also offers preliminary fiscal year 2013 operating expense guidance of $30.3 billion to $30.9 billion, representing 6% to 8% growth from the mid-point of fiscal year 2012 guidance. . Microsoft is a multinational computer technology corporation. The history of Microsoft began on April 4, 1975, when it was founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen in Albuquerque. [1] Its current best-selling products are the Microsoft Windows operating system and the Microsoft Office suite of productivity software. Starting in 1980, Microsoft formed an important partnership with IBM that allowed them to bundle Microsoft's operating system with computers that they sold, paying Microsoft a royalty for every sale. In 1985, IBM requested that Microsoft write a new operating system for their computers called OS/2; Microsoft wrote the operating system, but also continued to sell their own alternative, which proved to be in direct competition with OS/2. Microsoft Windows eventually overshadowed OS/2 in terms of sales. When Microsoft launched several versions of Microsoft Windows in the 1990s, they had captured over 90% market share of the world's personal computers. The company has now become largely successful. As of 2008, Microsoft has a global annual revenue of US$ 60.42 billion and nearly 90,000 employees in 105 countries. It develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of software products for computing devices.[2][3][4]

19751985: The founding of Microsoft

Microsoft staff photo from December 7, 1978. From left to right: Top: Steve Wood, Bob Wallace, Jim Lane. Middle: Bob O'Rear, Bob Greenberg, Marc McDonald, Gordon Letwin. Bottom: Bill Gates, Andrea Lewis, Marla Wood, Paul Allen. The idea that would spawn Microsoft germinated when Paul Allen showed Bill Gates the January 1, 1975 issue of Popular Electronics that demonstrated the Altair 8800.[5] Allen and Gates saw potential to develop an implementation of the programming language BASIC for the system.[6] Bill Gates called the creators of the new microcomputer, MITS (Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems), offering to demonstrate the implementation in order to win a contract with the company. Allen and Gates had neither an interpreter nor an Altair system, yet in the eight weeks before the demo they developed an interpreter. When Allen flew to Albuquerque, New Mexico to meet with MITS, the interpreter worked and MITS agreed to distribute Altair BASIC.[7] Allen and Gates left Boston, moved to Albuquerque (where MITS was located), and co-founded Microsoft there. Gross income of the young company was $1 million in 1975. Allen came up with the original name of Micro-Soft (a portmanteau of microcomputer and software), as recounted in a 1995 Fortune magazine interview with Allen and Gates.[8] Hyphenated in its early incarnations, on November 26, 1976 the company was registered under that name with the Secretary of State of New Mexico. The company's first international office was founded on November 1, 1978, in Japan, entitled "ASCII Microsoft" (now called "Microsoft Japan"), and on November 29, 1979, the term, "Microsoft" was first used by Bill Gates.[9] On January 1, 1979, the company moved from Albuquerque to a new home in Bellevue, Washington.[9] Steve Ballmer joined the company on June 11, 1980, and would later succeed Bill Gates as CEO.[9] The company restructured on June 25, 1981, to become an incorporated business in its home state of Washington (with a further change of its name to "Microsoft, Inc."). As part of the restructuring, Bill Gates became president of the company and Chairman of the Board, and Paul Allen became Executive Vice President.[9] Microsoft's early products were different variants of Microsoft BASIC which was the dominant programming language in late 1970s and early 1980s home computers such as Apple II (Applesoft BASIC) and Commodore 64 (Commodore BASIC), and were also provided with early versions of the IBM PC as the IBM Cassette BASIC. The first operating system publicly released by the company was a variant of Unix in 1980. Acquired from AT&T through a distribution license, Microsoft dubbed it Xenix, and hired Santa Cruz Operation in order to port/adapt the operating system to several platforms.[10][11] This Unix variant would become home to the first version of Microsoft's word processor, Microsoft Word. Originally titled "Multi-Tool Word", Microsoft Word became notable for its concept of "What You See Is What You Get", or WYSIWYG. Word was also the first application with such features as the ability to display bold text. It was first released in the spring of 1983, and free demonstration copies of the application were bundled with the November 1983 issue of PC World, making it the first program to

be distributed on-disk with a magazine.[12] However, Xenix was never sold to end users directly although it was licensed to many software OEMs for resale. It grew to become the most popular version of Unix, measured by the number of machines running it[13] (note that Unix is a multi-user operating system, allowing simultaneous access to a machine by several users). By the mid-1980s Microsoft had gotten out of the Unix business, except for an interest in SCO.[10] DOS (Disk Operating System) was the operating system that brought the company its real success. International Business Machines (IBM) first approached Microsoft about its upcoming IBM Personal Computer (IBM PC) in July 1980.[14] On August 12, 1981, after negotiations with Digital Research failed, IBM awarded a contract to Microsoft to provide a version of the CP/M operating system, which was set to be used in the IBM PC. For this deal, Microsoft purchased a CP/M clone called 86-DOS from Tim Paterson of Seattle Computer Products for less than US$100,000, which IBM renamed to PC-DOS. Microsoft did not have an operating system when they closed the deal with IBM and IBM hadn't done their homework. Due to potential copyright infringement problems with CP/M, IBM marketed both CP/M and PC-DOS for US$240 and US$40, respectively, with PC-DOS eventually becoming the standard because of its lower price.[15][16] 35 of the company's 100 employees worked on the IBM project for more than a year. When the IBM PC debuted, Microsoft was the only company that offered operating system, programming language, and application software for the new computer.[14] Around 1983, in collaboration with numerous companies, Microsoft created a home computer system, MSX, which contained its own version of the DOS operating system, entitled MSX-DOS; this became relatively popular in Japan, Europe and South America.[7] [17][18] Later, the market saw a flood of IBM PC clones after Columbia Data Products successfully cloned the IBM BIOS, quickly followed by Eagle Computer and Compaq.[19] [20][21][22] The deal with IBM allowed Microsoft to have control of its own QDOS derivative, MS-DOS, and through aggressive marketing of the operating system to manufacturers of IBM-PC clones Microsoft rose from a small player to one of the major software vendors in the home computer industry.[23] With the release of the Microsoft Mouse on May 2, 1983, Microsoft continued to expand its product line in other markets. This expansion included Microsoft Press, a book publishing division, on July 11 the same year, which debuted with two titles: Exploring the IBM PCjr Home Computer by Peter Norton, and The Apple Macintosh Book by Cary Lu.[9]

19851991: The rise and fall of OS/2

Ireland became home to one of Microsoft's international production facilities in 1985, and on November 20 Microsoft released its first retail version of Microsoft Windows (Windows 1.0), originally a graphical extension for its MS-DOS operating system.[9] In August, Microsoft and IBM partnered in the development of a different operating system called OS/2. OS/2 was marketed in connection with a new hardware design proprietary to IBM, the PS/2.[25] On February 16, 1986, Microsoft relocated to Redmond, Washington. Around one month later, on March 13, the company went public with an IPO, raising

US$61 million at US$21.00 per share. By the end of the trading day, the price had risen to US$28.00. In 1987, Microsoft eventually released their first version of OS/2 to OEMs.[26] Meanwhile, Microsoft began introducing its most prominent office products. Microsoft Works, an integrated office program which combined features typically found in a word processor, spreadsheet, database and other office applications, saw its first release as an application for the Apple Macintosh towards the end of 1986.[7] Microsoft Works would later be sold with other Microsoft products including Microsoft Word and Microsoft Bookshelf, a reference collection introduced in 1987 that was the company's first CD-ROM product.[9][27] Later, on August 8, 1989, Microsoft would introduce its most successful office product, Microsoft Office. Unlike the model of Microsoft Works, Microsoft Office was a bundle of separate office productivity applications, such as Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel and so forth. While Microsoft Word and Microsoft Office were mostly developed internally, Microsoft also continued its trend of rebranding products from other companies, such as Microsoft SQL Server on January 13, 1988, a relational database management system for companies that was based on technology licensed from Sybase.[9] On May 22, 1990 Microsoft launched Windows 3.0.[7] The new version of Microsoft's operating system boasted such new features as streamlined graphic user interface GUI and improved protected mode ability for the Intel 386 processor; it sold over 100,000 copies in two weeks.[7][28] Windows at the time generated more revenue for Microsoft than OS/2, and the company decided to move more resources from OS/2 to Windows.[29] In an internal memo to Microsoft employees on May 16, 1991, Bill Gates announced that the OS/2 partnership was over, and that Microsoft would henceforth focus its platform efforts on Windows and the Windows NT kernel. Some people, especially developers who had ignored Windows and committed most of their resources to OS/2, were taken by surprise, and accused Microsoft of deception. This changeover from OS/2 was frequently referred to in the industry as "the head-fake".[30][31] In the ensuing years, the popularity of OS/2 declined, and Windows quickly became the favored PC platform. 1991 also marked the founding of Microsoft Research, an organization in Microsoft for researching computer science subjects, and Microsoft Visual Basic, a popular development product for companies and individuals.[9]

19921995: Domination of the corporate market

During the transition from MS-DOS to Windows, the success of Microsoft's product Microsoft Office allowed the company to gain ground on application-software competitors, such as WordPerfect and Lotus 1-2-3.[7][32] Novell, an owner of WordPerfect for a time, alleged that Microsoft used its inside knowledge of the DOS and Windows kernels and of undocumented Application Programming Interface features to make Office perform better than its competitors.[33] Eventually, Microsoft Office became the dominant business suite, with a market share far exceeding that of its competitors.[34] In March 1992, Microsoft released Windows 3.1 along with its first promotional campaign on TV; the software sold over three million copies in its first two months on the market.[9][7] In October, Windows for Workgroups 3.1 was released with integrated networking abilities such as peer-to-peer file

and printing sharing.[7] In November, Microsoft released the first version of their popular database software Microsoft Access.[7] By 1993, Windows had become the most widely used GUI operating system in the world.[7] Fortune Magazine named Microsoft as the "1993 Most Innovative Company Operating in the U.S."[35] The year also marked the end of a five-year copyright infringement legal case brought by Apple Computer, dubbed Apple Computer, Inc. v. Microsoft Corp., in which the ruling was in Microsoft's favor, the release of Windows for Workgroups 3.11, a new version of the consumer line of Windows, and Windows NT 3.1, a server-based operating system with a similar user interface to consumer versions of the operating system, but with an entirely different kernel.[7] As part of its strategy to broaden its business, Microsoft released Microsoft Encarta on March 22, 1993, the first encyclopedia designed to run on a computer.[9] Soon after, the Microsoft Home brand was introduced - encompassing Microsoft's new multimedia applications for Windows 3.x., Microsoft changed its slogan to "Where do you want to go today?" in 1994 as part of an attempt to appeal to nontechnical audiences in a US$100 million advertising campaign.[7] Microsoft continued to make strategic decisions directed at consumers. The company released Microsoft Bob, a graphical user interface designed for novice computer users, in March 1995. The interface was discontinued in 1996 due to poor sales; Bill Gates later attributed its failure to hardware requirements that were too high for typical computers; Microsoft Bob is widely regarded as Microsoft's most unsuccessful product.[36][37] DreamWorks SKG and Microsoft formed a new company, DreamWorks Interactive (in 2000 acquired by Electronic Arts which named it EA Los Angeles), to produce interactive and multimedia entertainment properties.[9] On August 24, 1995, Microsoft released Microsoft Windows 95, a new version of the company's flagship operating system which featured a completely new user interface, including a novel start button; more than a million copies of Microsoft Windows 95 were sold in the first four days after its release.[7] Windows 95 was released without a web browser as Microsoft had not yet developed one. The success of the Internet caught them by surprise and they subsequently approached Spyglass to license their browser as Internet Explorer. Spyglass went on to later dispute the terms of the agreement, as Microsoft was to pay a royalty for every copy sold. However, Microsoft sold no copies of Internet Explorer, choosing instead to bundle it for free with the operating system. Internet Explorer was first included in the Windows 95 Plus! Pack that was released in August 1995.[38] In September, the Chinese government chose Windows to be the operating system of choice in that country, and entered into an agreement with the Company to standardize a Chinese version of the operating system.[7] Microsoft also released the Microsoft Sidewinder 3D Pro joystick in an attempt to further expand its profile in the computer hardware market.[7]

19951999: Foray into the Web and other ventures

On, May 26, 1995, Bill Gates sent the "Internet Tidal Wave" memorandum to Microsoft executives. The memo described Netscape with their Netscape Navigator as a "new competitor 'born' on the Internet." The memo outlines Microsoft's failure to grasp the Internet's importance, and in it Gates assigns "the Internet this highest level of importance" from then on.[39] Microsoft began to expand its product line into computer networking and the World Wide Web. On August 24, 1995, it launched a major online service, MSN (Microsoft Network), as a direct competitor to AOL. MSN became an umbrella service for Microsoft's online services, using Microsoft Passport (now called Windows Live ID) as a universal login system for all of its web sites.[9][7][40] The company continued to branch out into new markets in 1996, starting with a joint venture with NBC to create a new 24-hour cable news television station, MSNBC. The station was launched on July 15, 1996 to compete with similar news outlets such as CNN.[7][41] Microsoft also launched Slate, an online magazine edited by Michael Kinsley, which offered political and social commentary along with the cartoon Doonesbury.[9] In an attempt to extend its reach in the consumer market, the company acquired WebTV, which enabled consumers to access the Web from their televisions.[9] Microsoft entered the personal digital assistant (PDA) market in November with Windows CE 1.0, a new built-from-scratch version of their flagship operating system, designed to run on low-memory, low-performance machines, such as handhelds and other small computers.[42] 1996 saw the release of Windows NT 4.0, which brought the Windows 95 GUI and Windows NT kernel together.[43] While Microsoft largely failed to participate in the rise of the Internet in the early 1990s, some of the key technologies in which the company had invested to enter the Internet market started to pay off by the mid-90s. One of the most prominent of these was ActiveX, an application programming interface built on the Microsoft Component Object Model (COM); this enabled Microsoft and others to embed controls in many programming languages, including the company's own scripting languages, such as JScript and VBScript. ActiveX included frameworks for documents and server solutions.[7] The company also released the Microsoft SQL Server 6.5, which had built-in support for internet applications. [7] Later in 1997, Microsoft Office 97 as well as Internet Explorer 4.0 were released, marking the beginning of the takeover of the browser market from rival Netscape, and by agreement with Apple Computer, Internet Explorer was bundled with the Apple Macintosh operating system as well as with Windows.[7] Windows CE 2.0, the handheld version of Windows, was released this year, including a host of bug fixes and new features designed to make it more appealing to corporate customers.[42] In October, the Justice Department filed a motion in the federal district court in which they stated that Microsoft had violated an agreement signed in 1994, and asked the court to stop the bundling of Internet Explorer with Windows.[9] The year 1998 was significant in Microsoft's history, with Bill Gates appointing Steve Ballmer as president of Microsoft but remaining as Chair and CEO himself.[9] The company released an update to the consumer version of Windows, Windows 98.[9] Windows 98 came with Internet Explorer 4.0 SP1 (which had Windows Desktop Update bundled), and included new features from Windows 95 OSR 2.x including the FAT32 file system, and new features designed for Windows 98, such as support for multiple displays.[44] Microsoft launched its Indian headquarters as well, which would eventually become the company's

second largest after its U.S. headquarters.[7] Finally, a great deal of controversy took place when a set of internal memos from the company were leaked on the Internet. These documents, colloquially referred to as "The Halloween Documents", were widely reported by the media and go into detail of the threats that free software / open source software poses to Microsoft's own software, previously voiced mainly by analysts and advocates of open source software. The documents also allude to legal and other actions against Linux as well as other open source software.[45][46] While Microsoft acknowledges the documents, it claims that they are merely engineering studies. Despite this, however, some believe that these studies were used in the real strategies of the company.[47]

20002005: Legal issues, XP, and .NET

Microsoft, in 2000, released new products for all three lines of the company's flagship operating system, and saw the beginning of the end of one its most prominent legal cases. On February 17, 2000, Microsoft released an update to its business line of software in Windows 2000, which some[who?] considered to be a significant improvement over previous versions. It provided a high level of stability similar to that of its Unix counterparts due to its usage of the Windows NT kernel, and matching features found in the consumer line of the Windows operating system including a DOS emulator that could run many legacy DOS applications.[7] On April 3, 2000, a judgment was handed down in the case of United States v. Microsoft, [48] calling the company an "abusive monopoly"[49] and forcing the company to split into two separate units. Part of this ruling was later overturned by a federal appeals court, and eventually settled with the U.S. Department of Justice in 2001. On June 15, 2000, the company released a new version of its hand-held operating system, Windows CE 3.0.[42] The main change was the new programming APIs of the software. Previous versions of Windows CE supported only a small subset of the WinAPI, the main development library for Windows, and with Version 3 of Windows CE, the operating system now supported nearly all of the core functionality of the WinAPI. The next update to the consumer line, Windows Me (or Windows Millennium Edition), was released on September 14, 2000.[9] It sported several new features such as enhanced multimedia abilities and consumer-oriented PC maintenance options, but is often regarded as one of the worst versions of Windows due to installation problems and other issues.[37][50] Windows XP introduced a new interface, along with many other new features. This screenshot shows Windows XP Professional. Microsoft released Windows XP and Office XP in 2001, a version that aimed to encompass the features of both its business and home product lines. The release included an updated version of the Windows 2000 kernel, enhanced DOS emulation abilities, and many of the home-user features found in previous consumer versions. XP introduced a new graphical user interface, the first such change since Windows 95.[9][51] The operating system was the first to require Microsoft Product Activation, an anti-piracy mechanism that requires users to activate the software with Microsoft within 30 days. Later, Microsoft would enter the multi-billion-dollar game console market dominated by Sony and Nintendo, with the

release of the Xbox.[9] The Xbox finished behind the dominant PlayStation 2 selling 24 million units compared to the PlayStation 2's 136 million however they managed to outsell the Nintendo Gamecube which sold 21 million units. Microsoft launched their second console, the Xbox 360, in 2005 - which has turned out to be a lot more successful than their first console. It has sold 40 million units as of 2010 and it has outsold Sony's PlayStation 3 which has so far sold 35 million units. However, despite beating them with their last Xbox console Microsoft so far has been outsold by the Nintendo Wii which introduced motion control and opened up a new market for video games. Microsoft later used their popular controller-free Kinect to increase the popularity of the Xbox; this was an incredible success, as the Kinect was the fastest selling consumer electronics product in history. In 2002, Microsoft launched the .NET initiative, along with new versions of some of its development products, such as Microsoft Visual Studio.[9] The initiative has been an entirely new development API for Windows programming, and includes a new programming language, C#. Windows Server 2003 was launched, featuring enhanced administration abilities, such as new user interfaces to server tools.[7] In 2004, the company released Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005, a version of Windows XP designed for multimedia abilities, and Windows XP Starter Edition, a version of Windows XP with a smaller feature set designed for entry-level consumers.[9] However, Microsoft would encounter more turmoil in March 2004 when antitrust legal action would be brought against it by the European Union for allegedly abusing its market dominance (see European Union Microsoft antitrust case). Eventually Microsoft was fined 497 million (US$613 million), ordered to divulge certain protocols to competitors, and to produce a new version of its Windows XP platformcalled Windows XP Home Edition N that did not include its Windows Media Player.[52][53] Microsoft was also ordered to produce separate packages of Windows after South Korea also landed a settlement against the company in 2005. It had to pay out US$32 million and produce more than one version of Windows for the country in the same vein as the European Union-one with Windows Media Player and Windows Messenger and one without the two programs.[54]

2005present: Vista, Windows 7 and other transitions

In guise of competing with other Internet companies such as the search service Google, in 2005 Microsoft announced a new version of its MSN search service.[55] Later, in 2006, the company launched Microsoft adCenter, a service that offers pay per click advertisements, in an effort to further develop their search marketing revenue.[56] Soon afterward, Microsoft created the CodePlex collaborative development site for hosting open source projects. Activity grew quickly as developers from around the world began to participate, and by early 2007 commercial open source companies, such as Aras Corp,.[57] began to offer enterprise open source software exclusively on the Microsoft platform. On June 15, 2006 Bill Gates announced his plans for a two year transition period out of a day-to-day role with Microsoft until July 31, 2008. After that date, Gates will continue in his role as the company's chairman, head of the Board of Directors and act as an adviser on key projects. His role as Chief Software Architect will be filled immediately by Ray Ozzie,

the Chief Technical Officer of the company as of June 15, 2006.[58] Bill Gates stated "My announcement is not a retirement its a reordering of my priorities."[59] Formerly codenamed "Longhorn" in the early development stages, Windows Vista was released to consumers on January 30, 2007.[60][61] Microsoft also released a new version of its Office suite, called Microsoft Office 2007, alongside Windows Vista. Windows Server 2008 and Visual Studio 2008, the next versions of the company's server operating system and development suite, respectively, were released on February 27, 2008.[62] Windows Vista was criticised for being heavy and needing large amounts of power to run the desktop widgets and the Aero theme. Many people continued to use Windows XP for many years after, due to its stability and low processing needs. On December 19, 2007, Microsoft signed a five year, $500 million contract with Viacom that included content sharing and advertisements. The deal allowed Microsoft to license many shows from Viacom owned cable television and film studios for use on Xbox Live and MSN. The deal also made Viacom a preferred publisher partner for casual game development and distribution through MSN and Windows. On the advertisement side of the deal, Microsoft's Atlas ad-serving division became the exclusive provider of previously unsold advertising inventory on Viacom owned web sites. Also, Microsoft also purchased a large amount of advertising on Viacom owned broadcasts and online networks. Finally, Microsoft will also collaborate on promotions and sponsorships for MTV and BET award shows, two Viacom owned cable networks.[63] In 2008, Microsoft wanted to purchase Yahoo (first completely, later partially) in order to strengthen its position on the search engine market vis--vis Google.[64][65] The company rejected the offer, saying that it undervalued the company. In response, Microsoft withdrew its offer.[citation needed] In 2009, the opening show of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) was hosted by Steve Ballmer for the first time. In past years, it has been hosted by Bill Gates. In the show, Ballmer announced the first public Beta Test of Windows 7 for partners and developers on January 8, but also for the general public on January 10. On June 26, 2009 Microsoft started taking pre-orders at a discounted price for Windows 7 which was launched on October 22, 2009. Windows 7 has several editions, which acknowledge the rise of netbook computers with reduced processing power. On May 10, 2011, Microsoft Corp. acquired Skype Communications, S. r.l for US $8.5 billion[66].

Financial performance
By remaining focused on our strategy and helping customers to save money, Tesco has weathered the economic storm well. 52 weeks ended 25 February 2012 (unaudited) Group sales (inc. VAT)* Group revenue (exc. VAT) Group trading profit Group trading profit (pre Bank PPI** provision increase and Hungary sales tax) Underlying profit before tax Underlying profit before tax (pre Bank PPI provision increase and Hungary sales tax) Group profit before tax Underlying diluted earnings per share Diluted earnings per share Dividend per share Change vs. 2010/11 72,035m 7.4% 64,539m 6.8% 3,761m 1.3% 2011/12 3,856m 5.2% 3,915m 1.6% 4,010m 5.4% 3,835m 37.41p 36.64p 14.76p 5.3% 2.1%*** 7.0% 2.1%

Five year summary

Details of our financial performance over the last five years. 2007 Financial statistics Group sales (including VAT) (m) Revenue (excluding VAT) (m) UK Rest of Europe Asia US Tesco Bank Total Group Group operating profit1 (m) Group operating profit margin1 Share of post-tax profits of joint ventures and associates (m) Profit on sale of investment in associates Net finance costs (m) Profit before tax (m) Taxation (m) Non-controlling interests (m) 2008 2009 2010 2011

46,611 51,773 59,426 32,665 5,559 4,417 42,641 2,648 6.2% 106 25 (126) 2,653 (772) (7) 34,8585 6,872 5,552 165 47,298 2,791 5.9% 75 (63) 2,803 (673) (6) 37,6502 8,8314 7,0482 206 1635 53,898 3,1692 5.9% 110 (362) 2,9172 (779) (5)

62,537 67,573 38,558 8,704 8,439 349 860 56,910 3,457 6.1% 33 (314) 3,176 (840) (9) 40,117 9.159 10,241 495 919 60, 931 3,811 6.3% 57 (333) 3,535 (864) (16)

2007 Profit for the period from discontinued operation3,4 m) Profit for the financial year attributable to owners of the parent (m) Underlying profit before tax4 (m) Enterprise value6 (m) Basic earnings per share7 Diluted earnings per share7 Dividend per share8 Return on shareholders' funds9 Return on capital employed10 Group statistics Number of stores Total sales area 000 sq ft11 Average employees Average fulltime equivalent employees UK retail statistics Number of stores Total sales area 000 sq ft11 Average store size (sales area sq ft)12 Average fulltime equivalent employees UK retail productivity () Revenue per employee13 Profit per employee13 Weekly sales per sq ft14 (18) 1,892 2,545

2008

2009

2010

2011

2,124 2,846

2,1332 3,124 35,907 27.14p2 26.96p2 11.96p 23.5%2 12.8%18 4,332 88,55619 468,508 364,015 2,30619 32,38919 35,215 194,420

2,327 3,395 41,442 29.33p 29.19p 13.05p 23.0% 12.1%

2,655 3,813 39,462 33.10p 32.94p 14.46p 22.6% 12.9%

40,469 37,656 23.61p 26.95p 23.31p 26.61p 9.64p 10.90p 26.7% 25.1% 12.6%15 12.7%16 3,263 3,751 68,189 76,86719 413,061 444,127 318,283 345,737 1,988 2,13719 27,785 30,45719 34,209 35,055 184,461 193,917

4,83619 5,380 95,23120 103,616 472,094 492,714 366,413 384,389 2,50719 2,715 34,23720 36,722 35,485 35,970 196,604 200,966

177,084 179,840 196,4362 196,120 199,621 11,292 10,81417 13,0652 14,303 15,098 25.48 25.43 25.34 25.22 24.95

Tesco plc (LSE: TSCO) is a British multinational grocery and general merchandise retailer headquartered in Cheshunt, United Kingdom.[3] It is the third-largest retailer in the world measured by revenues (after Wal-Mart and Carrefour) and the second-largest measured by profits (after Wal-Mart).[4][5] It has stores in 14 countries across Asia, Europe and North America and is the grocery market leader in the UK (where it has a market share of around 30%), Malaysia, the Republic of Ireland and Thailand.[6][7][8] The company was founded in 1919 by Jack Cohen as a group of market stalls. The Tesco name first appeared in 1924, after Cohen purchased a shipment of tea from T. E. Stockwell and combined those initials with the first two letters of his surname,[9] and the first Tesco store opened in 1929 in Burnt Oak, Middlesex. His business expanded rapidly, and by 1939 he had over 100 Tesco stores across the country.[10] Originally a UK-focused grocery retailer, since the early 1990s Tesco has increasingly diversified geographically and into

areas such as the retailing of books, clothing, electronics, furniture, petrol and software; financial services; telecoms and internet services; DVD rental; and music downloads.[11] Tesco is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. It had a market capitalisation of approximately 24.4 billion as of 15 January 2012, the 15th-largest company of any company with a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange.[12]

History
ack Cohen founded Tesco in 1919 when he began to sell surplus groceries from a stall at Well Street Market, Hackney, in the East End of London.[13] The Tesco brand first appeared in 1924. The name came about after Jack Cohen bought a shipment of tea from T. E. Stockwell. He made new labels using the first three letters of the supplier's name (TES), and the first two letters of his surname (CO), forming the word TESCO.[9] The first Tesco store was opened in 1929 in Burnt Oak, Edgware, Middlesex. Tesco was floated on the London Stock Exchange in 1947 as Tesco Stores (Holdings) Limited.[13] The first selfservice store opened in St Albans in 1956 (which remained operational until 2010, with a period as a Tesco Metro),[14] and the first supermarket in Maldon in 1956.[13] During the 1950s and the 1960s Tesco grew organically, and also through acquisitions, until it owned more than 800 stores. The company purchased 70 Williamson's stores (1957), 200 Harrow Stores outlets (1959), 212 Irwins stores (1960, beating Express Dairies' Premier Supermarkets to the deal), 97 Charles Phillips stores (1964) and the Victor Value chain (1968) (sold to Bejam in 1986).[15] Originally specialising in food and drink, it has diversified into areas such as clothing, electronics, financial services, telecoms, retailing and renting DVDs,[11] CDs, music downloads, Internet services and software. Jack Cohen's business motto was "pile it high and sell it cheap",[16] to which he added an internal motto of "YCDBSOYA" (You Can't Do Business Sitting On Your Arse) which he used to motivate his sales force.[16][17] In May 1987 Tesco completed its hostile takeover of the Hillards chain of 40 supermarkets in the North of England for 220 million.[18] In 1994, the company took over the supermarket chain William Low, successfully fighting off Sainsbury's for control of the Dundee-based firm, which operated 57 stores. This paved the way for Tesco to expand its presence in Scotland, which was weaker than in England. In 2006 Inverness was branded as "Tescotown",[19][20] because well over 50p in every 1 spent on food is believed to be spent in its three Tesco stores.[21] Tesco introduced a loyalty card, branded 'Clubcard', in 1995 and later an Internet shopping service. As of November 2006 Tesco was the only food retailer to make online shopping profitable.[22] In 1996 the typeface of the logo was changed to the current version with

stripe reflections underneath, whilst the corporate font used for store signage was changed from the familiar "typewriter" font that had been used since the 1970s. Terry Leahy assumed the role of Chief Executive on 21 February 1997, the appointment having been announced on 21 November 1995.[23][24] On 21 March 1997 Tesco announced the purchase of the retail arm of Associated British Foods, which consisted of the Quinnsworth, Stewarts and Crazy Prices chains in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, plus associated businesses, for 640 million.[25] The deal was approved by the European Commission on 6 May 1997.[26] This acquisition gave it both a major presence in (and marked a return to) the Republic of Ireland and a larger presence in Northern Ireland than Sainsbury's, which had begun its move into Northern Ireland in 1995. In 1997, Tesco and Esso (part of Exxonmobil) formed a business alliance that included several petrol filling stations on lease from Esso, with Tesco operating the attached stores under their Express format. In turn Esso operates the forecourts and sells their fuel via the Tesco store. 200 Tesco/Esso sites now exist across the UK.

21st century
The company was the subject of a letter bomb campaign lasting five months from August 2000 to February 2001 as a bomber calling himself "Sally" sent letter bombs to Tesco customers and demanded Clubcards modified to withdraw money from cash machines.[27] In July 2001 Tesco became involved in internet grocery retailing in the USA when it obtained a 35% stake in GroceryWorks.[28] In 2002 Tesco purchased 13 HIT hypermarkets in Poland. It also made a major move into the UK convenience store market with its purchase of T & S Stores, owner of 870 convenience stores in the One Stop, Dillons and Day & Nite chains in the UK.[29] In October 2003 the company launched a UK telecoms division, comprising mobile and home phone services, to complement its existing Internet service provider business. In June 2003 Tesco purchased the C Two-Network in Japan.[30] It also acquired a majority stake in Turkish supermarket chain Kipa.[31] In January 2004 Tesco acquired Adminstore, owner of 45 Cullens, Europa, and Harts convenience stores, in and around London.[32] In August 2004, it also launched a broadband service. In Thailand Tesco Lotus was a joint venture of the Charoen Pokphand Group and Tesco, but facing criticism over the growth of hypermarkets CP Group sold its Tesco Lotus shares in 2003. In late 2005 Tesco acquired the 21 remaining Safeway/BP stores after Morrisons dissolved the Safeway/BP partnership. [33] In mid 2006 Tesco purchased an 80% stake in Casino's Leader Price supermarkets in Poland. They will be rebranded into small Tesco stores.[34] In 2003, Tesco took part in a joint venture with O2 to form the Tesco Mobile mobile virtual network operator. In 2007 Tesco was placed under investigation by the UK Office of Fair Trading (OFT) for acting as part of a cartel of five supermarkets (Safeway, Tesco, Asda, Morrisons and Sainsburys) and a number of dairy companies to fix the price of milk, butter and cheese. In

December 2007 Asda, Sainsburys and the former Safeway admitted that they acted covertly against the interests of consumers while publicly claiming that they were supporting 5,000 farmers recovering from the foot-and-mouth crisis. They were fined a total of 116 million.[35] In 2011, Tesco launched a range of Tesco Venture Brands Although profits were 1.9 billion for the first half of 2011, sales growth in the UK was the lowest in 20 years, partly due to shoppers switching to budget rivals.[36] In April 2012 Tesco re-launched its own brand Tesco value range as 'Tesco Everyday Value', with new packaging and recipies.

Corporate strategy
According to Citigroup retail analyst David McCarthy, "[Tesco has] pulled off a trick that I'm not aware of any other retailer achieving. That is to appeal to all segments of the market".[37] One plank of this strategy has been Tesco's use of its own-brand products,[38] including the upmarket "Finest", mid-range Tesco brand and low-price "Value" encompassing several product categories such as food, beverage, home, clothing, Tesco Mobile and financial services. Beginning in 1997 when Terry Leahy took over as CEO, Tesco began marketing itself using the phrase "The Tesco Way" to describe the company's core purposes, values, principles, and goals[39] This phrase became the standard marketing speak for Tesco as it expanded domestically and internationally under Leahy's leadership, implying a shift by the company to focus on people, both customers and employees.[40] A core part of the Tesco expansion strategy[41] has been its innovative use of technology.[42] It was one of the first to build self-service tills and use cameras to reduce queues.[43] To protect its brand image, and given its expansion plans in Thailand, Tesco has recently been employing a policy of launching defamation proceedings. In November 2007, Tesco sued a Thai academic and a former minister for civil libel and criminal defamation. Tesco is insisting that the two pay 1.6 million and 16.4 million plus two years' imprisonment respectively. They have been alleged to have misstated that Tesco's Thai market amounts to 37% of its global revenues, amongst criticism of Tesco's propensity to put small retailers out of business.[44] Tesco's main advertising slogan is "Every little helps". Its advertisements in print and on television mainly consist of product shots (or an appropriate image, such as a car when advertising petrol) against a white background, with a price or appropriate text (e.g., "Tesco Value") superimposed on a red circle. On television, voiceovers are provided by recognisable actors and presenters, such as Barbara Windsor, James Nesbitt, Jane Horrocks, Terry Wogan, Dawn French, Ray Winstone, Neil Morrissey, Martin Clunes, David Jason, David Tennant, Richard Aitken and Kathy Burke amongst others.

UK operations
Stores
Tesco's UK stores are divided into six formats, differentiated by size and the range of products sold. These are shown below:

Tesco Extra
Tesco Extra stores are larger, mainly out-of-town hypermarkets that stock nearly all of Tesco's product ranges. Exceptions include Trowbridge, Stafford, Hexham, Kingston upon Hull, Stevenage, Borehamwood, Chesterfield, Clay Cross, Leigh, Wigan, Grimsby, Bulwell, Galashiels, Cumbernauld, Slough, Bradford, Eastbourne, Yeovil, Hanley, Staffordshire, Longton, Staffordshire, Cradley Heath, Nottingham Beeston Burnley, Leyland, and Widnes, which are in the heart of town centres. Cardiff (Western Avenue) and Cardiff (Pengam Green), Warrington and Walsall College are located in inner-city locations. The first Extra opened in 1997 in Pitsea and more recently in 2009 Maldon. The 100th store opened on 29 November 2004 in Stafford. The number of these is now being increased by about 20 a year, mainly by conversions from the second category. The largest store in England by floor space is Tesco Extra in Walkden, with 185,500 square feet (17,230 m2) of floorspace.[45] In November 2011, a Tesco Extra opened in St.Helens adjacent to the new St.Helens RLFC Stadium, but only as a one floor store. The largest in Scotland is the Silverburn store. The largest in Wales is at Parc Fforestfach, Swansea, which is 112,000 square feet (10,400 m2) constructed in 2003. The 200th Extra store was opened in October 2010 in Bishop Auckland. Other large stores include Bar Hill, Cleethorpes, Newcastle upon Tyne, Milton Keynes, Stockton-on-Tees and Watford, which are all in the 120,000 square feet (11,000 m2) range. Newer stores are usually on two floors, with the ground floor mainly for food and the first floor for clothing, electronics and entertainment. Some stores that did not have the second floor have been converted to this format in recent years. Most Tesco Extra stores have a caf and as of October 2009, all stores have a Tesco Tech Support Team.

Tesco Superstores
Tesco superstores are standard large supermarkets, stocking groceries and a much smaller range of non-food goods than Extra stores. The stores have always previously been branded as simply 'Tesco', but a new store in Liverpool was the first to use the format brand 'Tesco Superstore' above the door.[46]

Tesco Metro
Tesco Metro stores are sized between Tesco superstores and Tesco Express stores, with stores averaging 11,000 square feet (1,000 m2). They are mainly located in city centres, the inner city and on the high streets of towns. The first Tesco Metro opened in Neston in 1980. Since then all Tesco branches with a high street format, including those that opened before the Covent Garden branch, have been rebranded from Tesco to Tesco Metro. The Tesco store in Devizes was the last store to finish rebranding, in September 2006. The store had

Store facts
As of 18 April 2012, at the end of its 2011/12 financial year, Tesco's UK store portfolio was as follows.[1] Format Tesco Extra Tesco Superstores Tesco Metro Tesco Express One Stop Tesco Homeplus Dobbies Total Number 230 471 190 1,427 613 13 31 2,975 Mean Mean +/Percentage area area (sq Stores of space (m) ft) 2011/12 1,528,069 16,448,000 6,644 71,513 42.62% 18 Total Total area (m) area (sq ft) 1,277,788 13,754,000 2,713 197,512 305,372 86,679 51,468 2,126,000 1,040 3,287,000 214 933,000 141 554,000 3,790 29,202 11,189 2,303 1,522 42,615 48,065 12,972 35.64% 5.51% 8.52% 2.42% 1.44% 3.85% 100% 4 4 142 92 0 3 260

138,426 1,490,000 4,465 3,585,314 38,592,000 1,205

International operations
Tesco's international expansion strategy has responded to the need to be sensitive to local expectations in other countries by entering into joint ventures with local partners, such as Samsung Group in South Korea (Samsung-Tesco Home plus), and Charoen Pokphand in Thailand (Tesco Lotus), appointing a very high proportion of local personnel to management positions. It also makes small acquisitions as part of its strategy for example, in its 2005/2006 financial year it made acquisitions in South Korea, one in Poland and one in Japan.[65] In late 2004 the amount of floorspace Tesco operated outside the United Kingdom surpassed the amount it had in its home market for the first time, although the United Kingdom still accounted for more than 75% of group revenue due to lower sales per unit area outside the UK.

In September 2005 Tesco announced that it was selling its operations in Taiwan to Carrefour and purchasing Carrefour's stores in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Both companies stated that they were concentrating their efforts in countries where they had strong market positions. The following table shows the number of stores, total store size in area and sales for Tesco's international operations. The store numbers and floor area figures are as at 18 April 2012. This information is taken from the 2011/12 Preliminary Results analyst packPDF (92 KB). Country China Czech Republic Hungary Republic of Ireland Japan Malaysia Poland Slovakia South Korea Thailand Entered Stores Area (m (sq ft)) 2004 1996 1994 1997 2003 2002 1992 1996 1999 1998 124 322 212 137 121 45 412 120 458 1,092 148 2,975 185 3,376 6,351 Mean store area (m (sq ft)) +/Stores 2011/12 19 61 7 7 19 7 41 23 59 310 27 260 21 563 823

Turkey 2003 United Kingdom (for 1919 comparison) United States 2007 Total (not including UK) Total (including UK)

893,913 (9,622,000) 7,209 (77,476) 538,559 (5,797,000) 1,673 (18,003) 678,285 (7,301,000) 3,202 (34,439) 319,586 (3,440,000) 2,333 (25,109) 36,790 (396,000) 304 (3,273) 350,988 (3,778,000) 7,800 (83,956) 827,394 (8,906,000) 2,008 (21,617) 336,959 (3,627,000) 2,808 (30,225) 1,166,026 2,546 (27,404) (12,551,000) 1,192,039 1,092 (11,750) (12,831,000) 337,052 (3,628,000) 2,277 (24,514) 3,585,314 1,205 (12,972) (38,592,000) 173,279 (1,870,000) 937 (10,108) 6,851,321 Mean: 2,029 (73,747,000) (21,844) 10,436,635 Mean: 1,643 (112,339,000) (17,688)

Financial performance
Tesco is listed on the London Stock Exchange under the symbol TSCO.

All figures below are for the Tesco's financial years, which run for 52 or 53 week periods to late February. Up to 27 February 2007 period end the numbers include non-UK and Ireland results for the year ended on 31 December 2006 in the accounting year. The figures in the table below include 52 weeks/12 months of turnover for both sides of the business as this provides the best comparative. 52/3 weeks ended 26 February 2011 27 February 2010 28 February 2009 23 February 2008 24 February 2007 25 February 2006 26 February 2005 28 February 2004 22 February 2003 23 February 2002 24 February 2001 26 February 2000 27 February 1999 28 February 1998 Turnover (m) 67,573 62,537 54,300 47,298 46,600 38,300 33,974 30,814 26,337 23,653 20,988 18,796 17,158 16,452 Profit before tax Profit for year (m) (m) 3,535 3,176 3,128 2,803 2,653 2,210 1,962 1,600 1,361 1,201 1,054 933 842 760 2,671 2,336 2,166 2,130 1,899 1,576 1,366 1,100 946 830 767 674 606 532 Basic earnings per share (p) 33.10 31.66 28.92 26.95 22.36 19.70 17.44 15.05 13.54 12.05 11.29 10.07 9.14 8.12

As of its 2006 year end Tesco was the fourth largest retailer in the world behind Wal-Mart, Carrefour and Home Depot. Tesco moved ahead of Home Depot during 2007, following the sale of Home Depot's professional supply division and a decline in the value of the U.S. dollar against the British pound. METRO was only just behind and might move ahead again if the euro strengthens against the pound, but METRO's sales include many billions of wholesale turnover, and its retail turnover is much less than Tesco's.

At 24 February 2007 Tesco operated 1,988 stores in the UK with 27,700,000 square feet (2,570,000 m2) of floorspace and 1,275 outside the UK with 4,040,000 square feet (375,000 m2) of floorspace. Despite being in a recession, Tesco made record profits for a British retailer in the year to February 2010, during which its underlying pre-tax profits increased by 10.1% to 3.4 billion. Tesco now plans to create 16,000 new jobs, of which 9,000 will be in the UK. [93] In 2011 the retailer reported its poorest six-monthly UK sales figures for 20 years, as a result of consumers' reduced non-food spending.[94]

UK market share

UK market share According to Kantar Worldpanel, Tesco's share of the UK grocery market in the 12 weeks to 18 March 2012 was 30.2%, down from 30.6% in the 12 weeks to 18 March 2011.[95] Market share March 2012 Tesco 30.2% Asda 17.9% Sainsbury's 16.6% Morrisons 12.3% The Co-operative Food 6.9% Supermarket +/- from March 2011 0.4% 0.6% 0.0% 0.0% 0.4%

Procter & Gamble

History
William Procter, a candlemaker, and James Gamble, a soapmaker, emigrated from England and Ireland respectively. They settled in Cincinnati initially and met when they married sisters, Olivia and Elizabeth Norris.[4] Alexander Norris, their father-in-law, called a meeting in which he persuaded his new sons-in-law to become business partners. On October 31, 1837, as a result of the suggestion, Procter & Gamble was born. In 18581859, sales reached $1 million. By this point, approximately 80 employees worked for Procter & Gamble. During the American Civil War, the company won contracts to supply the Union Army with soap and candles. In addition to the increased profits experienced during the war, the military contracts introduced soldiers from all over the country to Procter & Gamble's products. In the 1880s, Procter & Gamble began to market a new product, an inexpensive soap that floats in water. The company called the soap Ivory. William Arnett Procter, William Procter's grandson, began a profit-sharing program for the company's workforce in 1887. By giving the workers a stake in the company, he correctly assumed that they would be less likely to go on strike. The company began to build factories in other locations in the United States because the demand for products had outgrown the capacity of the Cincinnati facilities. The company's leaders began to diversify its products as well and, in 1911, began producing Crisco, a shortening made of vegetable oils rather than animal fats. As radio became more popular in the 1920s and 1930s, the company sponsored a number of radio programs. As a result, these shows often became commonly known as "soap operas." Procter & Gamble headquarters in Downtown Cincinnati, Ohio The company moved into other countries, both in terms of manufacturing and product sales, becoming an international corporation with its 1930 acquisition of the Thomas Hedley Co., based in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. Procter & Gamble maintained a strong link to the North East of England after this acquisition. Numerous new products and brand names were introduced over time, and Procter & Gamble began branching out into new areas. The company introduced Tide laundry detergent in 1946 and Prell shampoo in 1947. In 1955, Procter & Gamble began selling the first toothpaste to contain fluoride, known as Crest. Branching out once again in 1957, the company purchased Charmin Paper Mills and began manufacturing toilet paper and other paper products. Once again focusing on laundry, Procter & Gamble began making Downy fabric softener in 1960 and Bounce fabric softener sheets in 1972. One of the most revolutionary products to come out on the market was the company's Pampers, first test-marketed in 1961. Prior to this point disposable diapers were not popular, although Johnson & Johnson had developed a product called Chux. Babies always wore cloth diapers, which were leaky and labor intensive to wash. Pampers provided a convenient alternative, albeit at the environmental cost of more waste requiring landfilling.

Procter & Gamble acquired a number of other companies that diversified its product line and significantly increased profits. These acquisitions included Folgers Coffee, Norwich Eaton Pharmaceuticals (the makers of Pepto-Bismol), Richardson-Vicks, Noxell (Noxzema), Shulton's Old Spice, Max Factor, and the Iams Company, among others. In 1994, the company made headlines for big losses resulting from leveraged positions in interest rate derivatives, and subsequently sued Bankers Trust for fraud; this placed their management in the unusual position of testifying in court that they had entered into transactions that they were not capable of understanding. In 1996, Procter & Gamble again made headlines when the Food and Drug Administration approved a new product developed by the company, Olestra. Also known by its brand name 'Olean', Olestra is a lower-calorie substitute for fat in cooking potato chips and other snacks that during its development stages is known to have caused anal leakage and gastrointestinal difficulties in humans. Procter & Gamble has dramatically expanded throughout its history, but its headquarters still remains in Cincinnati. In January 2005 P&G announced an acquisition of Gillette, forming the largest consumer goods company and placing Unilever into second place. This added brands such as Gillette razors, Duracell, Braun, and Oral-B to their stable. The acquisition was approved by the European Union and the Federal Trade Commission, with conditions to a spinoff of certain overlapping brands. P&G agreed to sell its SpinBrush battery-operated electric toothbrush business to Church & Dwight. It also divested Gillette's oral-care toothpaste line, Rembrandt. The deodorant brands Right Guard, Soft & Dri, and Dry Idea were sold to Dial Corporation.[5] The companies officially merged on October 1, 2005. Liquid Paper, and Gillette's stationery division, Paper Mate were sold to Newell Rubbermaid. In 2008, P&G branched into the record business with its sponsorship of Tag Records, as an endorsement for TAG Body Spray.[6] P&G's dominance in many categories of consumer products makes its brand management decisions worthy of study.[7] For example, P&G's corporate strategists must account for the likelihood of one of their products cannibalizing the sales of another.[8] On August 24, 2009, the Ireland-based pharmaceutical company Warner Chilcott announced they had bought P&G's prescription-drug business for $3.1 billion.[9] P&G exited the food business in 2012 when it sold its Pringles snack food business to Kellogg's. The company had previously sold Jif peanut butter and Folgers coffee in separate transactions to Smucker's Procter and Gamble is a tier one sponsor of the London's Olympic Games 2012 and sponsors 150 Athletes.

Operations

As of July 1, 2011, the company structure is categorized into two "Global Business Units" with each one further divided into "Business Segments" according to the company's 2011 Annual Report. Dimitri Panayotopoulos is Vice Chairman of Global Business Units [10]

Beauty segment Grooming segment Health Care segment Snacks & Pet Care segment Fabric Care & Home Care segment Baby Care & Family Home Care segment

Management and staff

The board of directors of Procter & Gamble currently has eleven members: Robert A. McDonald, Angela Braly, Meg Whitman, Johnathan A. Rodgers, Ernesto Zedillo, Scott Cook, Patricia A. Woertz, Susan D. Desmond-Hellmann, Maggie Wilderotter, W. James McNerney, Jr. and Kenneth Chenault.[11] In March 2011 Rajat Gupta resigned from the board after an SEC accusation of Galleon Group insider trading.[12] In October 2008, P&G was named one of "Canada's Top 100 Employers" by Mediacorp Canada Inc., and was featured in Maclean's newsmagazine. Later that month, P&G was also named one of Greater Toronto's Top Employers, which was announced by the Toronto Star newspaper.[13] In May 2011 Fortune editor-at-large Patricia Sellers praised P&G's board diversity, as five of the company's eleven current directors are female and have all been on Fortune's annual Most Powerful Women list.[14] Procter & Gamble is a member of the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition, a Washington, D.C.-based coalition of over 400 major companies and NGOs that advocates for a larger International Affairs Budget, which funds American diplomatic and development efforts abroad.[15] On November 19, 2011, the Associated Press and USA Today reported that a company spokesman confirmed Dr. John Smale, former CEO, has died at age 84.[16] Online memorial page for Dr. John Smale[17] Revenue US$ 82.55 billion (2011)[1] Operating income US$ 15.81 billion (2011)[1] Net income US$ 11.79 billion (2011)[1] Total assets US$ 138.35 billion (2011)[1] Total equity US$ 68.00 billion (2011)[1] Employees 129,000 (2011)[1] Website www.pg.com

Financial Statements for procter & gamble co/the (PG)

Year over year, Procter & Gamble Co. has seen their bottom line shrink from $12.7B to $11.8B despite an increase in revenues from $78.9B to $82.6B. An increase in the percentage of sales devoted to cost of goods sold from 48.04% to 49.38% was a key component in the falling bottom line in the face of rising revenues.

Income Statement Balance Sheet Cash Flow Currency in Jun 30 Jun 30 Millions of US As of: 2008 2009 Dollars Restated Restated Revenues 79,257.076,694.0 TOTAL REVENUES 79,257.076,694.0 Cost of Goods Sold 39,261.038,690.0 GROSS PROFIT 39,996.038,004.0 Selling General & Admin Expenses, Total 24,017.022,630.0 OTHER OPERATING EXPENSES, 24,017.022,630.0 TOTAL OPERATING INCOME 15,979.015,374.0 Interest Expense -1,467.0 -1,358.0 NET INTEREST EXPENSE -1,467.0 -1,358.0 Other Non-Operating Income (Expenses) 373.0 397.0 EBT, EXCLUDING UNUSUAL ITEMS 14,885.014,413.0 EBT, INCLUDING UNUSUAL ITEMS 14,885.014,413.0 Income Tax Expense 3,594.0 3,733.0 Earnings from Continuing Operations 11,291.010,680.0 EARNINGS FROM DISCOUNTINUED 784.0 2,756.0 OPERATIONS NET INCOME 12,075.013,436.0 NET INCOME TO COMMON 11,899.013,244.0 INCLUDING EXTRA ITEMS NET INCOME TO COMMON 11,115.010,488.0 EXCLUDING EXTRA ITEMS

Jun 30 2010 78,938.0 78,938.0 37,919.0 41,019.0 24,998.0 16,021.0 -946.0 -946.0 -28.0 15,047.0 15,047.0 4,101.0 10,946.0 1,790.0

Jun 30 2011 82,559.0 82,559.0 40,768.0 41,791.0 25,973.0 15,818.0 -831.0 -831.0 202.0 15,189.0 15,189.0 3,392.0 11,797.0 --

4 Year Trend

24,998.0 25,973.0

12,736.0 11,797.0 12,517.0 11,564.0 10,727.0 11,564.0

Financial Statements for Procter & gamble co/the (PG)

Although debt as a percent of total capital decreased at Procter & Gamble Co. over the last fiscal year to 32.01%, it is still in-line with the Household Products industry's norm. Additionally, even though there are not enough liquid assets to satisfy current obligations, Operating Profits are more than adequate to service the debt. Accounts Receivable are among the industry's worst, with 25.66 days worth of sales outstanding. This implies that, although the trend is improving, revenues are not being collected in an efficient manner. Last, inventories seem to be well managed as the Inventory Processing Period is typical for the industry, at 61.61 days. Income Statement Balance Sheet Cash Flow Currency in Jun 30 Jun 30 Jun 30 Jun 30 4 Year Millions of US Dollars As of: 2008 2009 2010 2011 Trend Restated Restated Assets Cash and Equivalents 3,313.0 4,781.0 2,879.0 2,768.0 TOTAL CASH AND SHORT 3,313.0 4,781.0 2,879.0 2,768.0 TERM INVESTMENTS Accounts Receivable 6,761.0 5,836.0 5,335.0 6,275.0 TOTAL RECEIVABLES 6,761.0 5,836.0 5,335.0 6,275.0

Inventory Prepaid Expenses Deferred Tax Assets, Current TOTAL CURRENT ASSETS Gross Property Plant and Equipment Accumulated Depreciation NET PROPERTY PLANT AND EQUIPMENT Goodwill Long-Term Investments Other Intangibles Other Long-Term Assets TOTAL ASSETS LIABILITIES & EQUITY Accounts Payable Accrued Expenses Short-Term Borrowings Current Portion of Long-Term Debt/Capital Lease Current Portion of Capital Lease Obligations Current Income Taxes Payable Other Current Liabilities, Total TOTAL CURRENT LIABILITIES Long-Term Debt Capital Leases Minority Interest Pension & Other Post-Retirement Benefits Deferred Tax Liability Non-Current Other Non-Current Liabilities TOTAL LIABILITIES Preferred Stock Convertible TOTAL PREFERRED EQUITY Common Stock Additional Paid in Capital Retained Earnings Treasury Stock Comprehensive Income and Other TOTAL COMMON EQUITY TOTAL EQUITY TOTAL LIABILITIES AND EQUITY

8,416.0 6,880.0 4,013.0 3,199.0 2,012.0 1,209.0 24,515.0 21,905.0 38,086.0 36,651.0 -17,446.0 -17,189.0 20,640.0 19,462.0 59,767.0 56,512.0 -212.0 34,233.0 32,606.0 4,837.0 4,136.0 143,992.0134,833.0 6,775.0 5,980.0 9,897.0 7,879.0 11,338.0 9,379.0 1,746.0 -945.0 257.0 30,958.0 23,581.0 --3,658.0 6,941.0 -722.0 -30,901.0 20,652.0 -283.0 5,314.0

6,384.0 3,194.0 990.0 18,782.0 37,012.0 -17,768.0 19,244.0 54,012.0 57.0 31,636.0 4,441.0 128,172.0 7,251.0 7,937.0 7,908.0 564.0 -622.0 -24,282.0 21,360.0 -324.0 6,616.0 10,902.0 3,573.0 66,733.0 1,277.0 1,277.0 4,008.0 61,697.0 64,614.0 -61,309.0 -9,172.0 59,838.0 61,439.0

7,379.0 4,408.0 1,140.0 21,970.0 41,507.0 -20,214.0 21,293.0 57,562.0 39.0 32,620.0 4,870.0 138,354.0 8,022.0 8,504.0 6,987.0 2,994.0 46.0 786.0 -27,293.0 21,672.0 361.0 361.0 6,275.0 11,070.0 3,682.0 70,353.0 1,234.0 1,234.0 4,008.0 62,405.0 70,682.0 -67,278.0 -3,411.0 66,406.0 68,001.0

11,805.0 10,752.0 4,496.0 3,832.0 74,498.0 71,451.0 1,366.0 1,324.0 1,366.0 1,324.0 4,002.0 4,007.0 60,307.0 61,118.0 48,986.0 57,309.0 -47,588.0 -55,961.0 2,421.0 -4,698.0 68,128.0 61,775.0 69,494.0 63,382.0

143,992.0134,833.0 128,172.0 138,354.0