Bausch Health vs Microsoft: Founders, CEOs and History
Bausch Health was founded in 1994 by Eugene Melnyk, Milan Panic and is led by Thomas J. Appio. Microsoft was founded in 1975 by Bill Gates, Paul Allen and is led by Satya Nadella.
Company facts
Bausch Health
- Founded
- 1994
- Headquarters
- Laval, Quebec, Canada
- Current CEO
- Thomas J. Appio
- Employees
- 20,300
Microsoft
- Founded
- 1975
- Headquarters
- Redmond, Washington, United States
- Current CEO
- Satya Nadella
- Employees
- 223,000
Founders
Bausch Health
Eugene Melnyk
Eugene Melnyk built Biovail into Canada's largest publicly traded pharmaceutical company, with revenue growing from about $19M in 1995 to roughly $1.07B in 2006.
Milan Panic
Milan Panic ran ICN Pharmaceuticals for four decades and made it known for the broad-spectrum antiviral ribavirin, sold as Virazole.
Microsoft
Bill Gates
Microsoft was founded in 1975 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, by Bill Gates and Paul Allen, childhood friends from Seattle who had spent their teenage years finding ways to get free time on mainframe computers.
Paul Allen
Paul Allen co-founded Microsoft and was crucial to its earliest technical and strategic decisions. He helped develop Altair BASIC, gave the company its original name, and participated in the operating-system opportunity that led to MS-DOS.
CEOs and their tenures
Bausch Health
- J. Michael Pearson2008–2016
Former Chief Executive Officer
Pearson, a former McKinsey director, became chief executive of Valeant Pharmaceuticals effective February 1, 2008 and ran the company through the September 2010 merger with Canada's Biovail until early May 2016.
Source - Joseph C. Papa2016–2022
Former Chief Executive Officer
Papa, previously chief executive of Perrigo, was named chairman and CEO in April 2016 and took over in early May 2016, inheriting about $30B of debt, an SEC investigation and congressional scrutiny of Valeant-era drug pricing.
Source - Thomas J. Appio2022–present
Chief Executive Officer
Appio became chief executive officer and a director in May 2022, succeeding Joseph Papa.
Source
Microsoft
- Bill Gates1975–2000
Co-founder and CEO
Gates built Microsoft's licensing model: software sold to many hardware makers rather than tied to one.
Source - Steve Ballmer2000–2014
CEO
Ballmer grew revenue from about $23 billion in FY2000 to about $78 billion in FY2013 and built the enterprise server and sales business that Azure later scaled on.
Source - Satya Nadella2014–present
Chairman and CEO
Nadella made Azure and Microsoft 365 the company's core, opened Microsoft to Linux and open source, and positioned it early in generative AI through OpenAI.
Source
Timeline: Bausch Health and Microsoft side by side
1959Bausch Health
Milan Panic founds ICN Pharmaceuticals
Milan Panic, a Yugoslav immigrant to California, founded ICN Pharmaceuticals in 1959 and ran it for four decades. ICN is the predecessor of Valeant Pharmaceuticals and of today's Bausch Health.
1975Microsoft
Microsoft Founded
Bill Gates and Paul Allen founded Microsoft after recognizing that the Altair 8800 needed usable programming software. Their first product, Altair BASIC, turned a hobbyist computer kit into a programmable platform.
1981Microsoft
MS-DOS Ships With IBM PC
IBM introduced its personal computer with MS-DOS 1.0 and other Microsoft products. The milestone mattered because Microsoft's operating-system work moved from a small software supplier's project into the emerging corporate PC standard.
1985Microsoft
Windows Launch
The release of Windows 1.0 began Microsoft's long move from command-line operating systems to graphical personal computing. The first version was not an instant blockbuster, but it gave Microsoft a user-interface path that could evolve with PC hardware.
1986Microsoft
Microsoft IPO
Microsoft went public on the Nasdaq in March 1986.
1990Microsoft
Office Suite Release
The bundling of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint into Microsoft Office created a productivity suite that became central to business work. The bundle simplified enterprise purchasing and made file compatibility a competitive weapon.
1994Bausch Health
Biovail Corporation International formed in Canada
On March 29, 1994 Eugene Melnyk consolidated his Canadian drug-delivery business by amalgamating Trimel Corporation with its subsidiary to create Biovail Corporation International, the legal entity that files today as Bausch Health Companies Inc.
1995Microsoft
Windows 95 Released
Microsoft released Windows 95 in August 1995.
1998Microsoft
U.S. Antitrust Case
The U.S. Department of Justice accused Microsoft of using Windows power to suppress browser competition. The case mattered because it placed Microsoft's platform tactics under public and legal scrutiny at the height of its PC strong position.
2003Bausch Health
ICN renames itself Valeant Pharmaceuticals
ICN Pharmaceuticals, then based in Costa Mesa, California, took the Valeant Pharmaceuticals name in November 2003 to distance itself from the governance fights of the Panic era.
2008Bausch Health
J. Michael Pearson becomes chief executive
Valeant appointed former McKinsey director J. Michael Pearson as chief executive effective February 1, 2008, succeeding Timothy C. Tyson. Pearson replaced internal research spending with debt-funded acquisitions of marketed drugs.
2010Bausch Health
Biovail and Valeant complete their merger
The merger of Biovail Corporation and Valeant Pharmaceuticals International closed on September 28, 2010. The combined company kept the Valeant name and Pearson as chief executive but was incorporated in Canada.
2010Microsoft
Azure Commercial Launch
Azure gave Microsoft a way to compete in cloud infrastructure as enterprise customers began shifting workloads away from company-owned servers.
2011Bausch Health
Ortho Dermatologics bought from Johnson and Johnson
Valeant agreed to acquire the U.S. Ortho Dermatologics assets from Janssen Pharmaceuticals, a Johnson and Johnson company, for about $345M in cash, building the dermatology franchise.
2013Bausch Health
Bausch + Lomb acquired for $8.7 billion
Valeant agreed in May 2013 to buy eye-health company Bausch + Lomb from Warburg Pincus for $8.7B in cash, adding contact lenses, lens care, ophthalmic drugs and surgical devices.
2014Microsoft
Satya Nadella CEO
Satya Nadella became CEO and moved Microsoft away from a strategy that forced every product to serve Windows. He prioritized Azure, Microsoft 365, open source, Linux support, cross-platform software, and a more collaborative developer posture.
2015Bausch Health
Salix acquisition closes at about $11.1 billion
Valeant completed its tender offer for Salix Pharmaceuticals on April 1, 2015 at $173 per share, about $11.1B in equity value and roughly $15.8B including debt, gaining the Xifaxan franchise.
2015Bausch Health
Drug pricing and Philidor scandal breaks
Congressional investigators pressed Valeant over 525% and 212% increases on the heart drugs Isuprel and Nitropress, bought in February 2015, and over its undisclosed ties to the Philidor mail-order pharmacy.
2016Bausch Health
Joseph Papa replaces Pearson as chief executive
Valeant named Perrigo chief executive Joseph C. Papa as chairman and CEO on April 25, 2016, and he took over in early May 2016 with about $30B of debt outstanding.
2016Microsoft
LinkedIn Acquisition
Microsoft agreed to acquire LinkedIn in 2016 for $26.2 billion in cash. The deal mattered because it added a professional identity network to a company already strong in Office, Dynamics, cloud services, recruiting tools, advertising, and enterprise sales.
2017Bausch Health
Skincare brands and Dendreon sold to cut debt
Valeant sold the CeraVe, AcneFree and AMBI skincare brands to L'Oreal for about $1.3B and the Dendreon cancer unit to China's Sanpower Group for about $820M, using the proceeds to repay debt.
2018Bausch Health
Company renamed Bausch Health Companies Inc.
The name change from Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, Inc. to Bausch Health Companies Inc. was completed on July 13, 2018, and the shares began trading as BHC on the NYSE and TSX on July 16, 2018.
2018Microsoft
GitHub Acquisition
Microsoft acquired GitHub for $7.5 billion in stock, reversing years of developer skepticism toward the company. The acquisition placed Microsoft inside the daily workflow of software developers across languages, clouds, and operating systems.
2020Bausch Health
SEC settlement closes the Philidor accounting case
On July 31, 2020 Bausch Health agreed to pay a $45M civil penalty to settle SEC charges of improper revenue recognition and misleading disclosures tied to Philidor. Former chief executive J. Michael Pearson and two other executives also settled.
2022Bausch Health
Bausch + Lomb listed on the NYSE and TSX
Bausch + Lomb common stock began trading under the ticker BLCO on May 6, 2022, and a Bausch Health subsidiary sold 35,000,000 Bausch + Lomb shares in the offering. Bausch Health retained about 88% of the eye-health company and still consolidates it. Thomas J.
2023Microsoft
AI Leadership
Microsoft's expanded OpenAI partnership and Copilot product rollout placed the company at the center of enterprise generative AI adoption.
2023Microsoft
Activision Blizzard Acquisition Closes
Microsoft completed the Activision Blizzard acquisition after intense regulatory review. The deal added Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, Diablo, Overwatch, Candy Crush, and other franchises to Microsoft Gaming.
2025Bausch Health
DURECT acquired and record annual revenue reported
Bausch Health closed the DURECT acquisition on September 11, 2025 for about $63M upfront, completed Solta Medical's Chinese aesthetics distribution purchase on December 1, 2025, and reported FY2025 revenue of $10.266B, up 7%, with net income attributable to Ba…
2026Bausch Health
RED-C trials miss endpoints and trigger a $1.4 billion charge
In January 2026 the two Phase 3 RED-C trials of amorphous-rifaximin soluble solid dispersion for primary prevention of hepatic encephalopathy missed their primary endpoints.
2026Bausch Health
Second-quarter 2026 revenue of $2.85 billion and raised guidance
Bausch Health reported second-quarter 2026 revenue of $2.85B, up 13%, net income attributable to Bausch Health of $258M and adjusted EBITDA of $1.075B, and raised its full-year 2026 revenue, adjusted EBITDA and cash flow guidance.
Acquisitions
Bausch Health
- DURECT Corporation2025$63M
- Shibo Zhenmei aesthetics distribution business2025Undisclosed
- Salix Pharmaceuticals2015$11.1B
- Bausch + Lomb Holdings2013$8.7B
- Ortho Dermatologics2011$345M
Microsoft
- Activision Blizzard2023$68.7B
- Nuance Communications2022$19.7B
- ZeniMax Media2021$7.5B
- GitHub2018$7.5B
- LinkedIn2016$26.2B
Questions about Bausch Health vs Microsoft
Who is the CEO of Bausch Health Companies Inc. and Microsoft Corporation?
Bausch Health Companies Inc. is led by Thomas J. Appio and Microsoft Corporation is led by Satya Nadella. Both serve as the top executive responsible for the company's strategy, operations, and financial performance.
When was Bausch Health Companies Inc. founded vs Microsoft Corporation?
Microsoft Corporation was founded in 1975 — 19 years before Bausch Health Companies Inc., which was founded in 1994. Microsoft Corporation's longer operating history gives it a deeper track record but also potentially more institutional inertia compared to the younger Bausch Health Companies Inc..
How many employees does Bausch Health Companies Inc. have compared to Microsoft Corporation?
Bausch Health Companies Inc. employs approximately 20,300 people, while Microsoft Corporation employs approximately 223,000. Microsoft Corporation has the larger workforce at 223,000 employees, compared to Bausch Health Companies Inc.'s 20,300. A higher headcount does not necessarily imply greater efficiency — it often reflects differences in business model (e.g., manufacturing vs. software).
Where are Bausch Health Companies Inc. and Microsoft Corporation headquartered?
Bausch Health Companies Inc. is headquartered in Canada and Microsoft Corporation is headquartered in United States. Their different home markets mean they may face different regulatory frameworks, tax regimes, and currency exposure.
Who founded Bausch Health Companies Inc. and Microsoft Corporation?
Bausch Health Companies Inc. was founded by Eugene Melnyk, Milan Panic. Microsoft Corporation was founded by Bill Gates, Paul Allen.
Which company has a longer operating history — Bausch Health Companies Inc. or Microsoft Corporation?
Microsoft Corporation has been operating for approximately 51 years, making it the more established of the two companies. Bausch Health Companies Inc. has been in operation for around 32 years. A longer operating history often signals greater institutional resilience and brand recognition, though it can also mean slower adaptation to new market conditions.
Figures come from each company's filings and the sources linked beside them. Amounts reported in another currency are shown in US dollars at an approximate rate and marked with ~. Back to the Bausch Health vs Microsoft overview