BNP Paribas vs Microsoft: Founders, CEOs and History

Company facts

Founders

CEOs and their tenures

Timeline: BNP Paribas and Microsoft side by side

1. 1848BNP Paribas

   Comptoir national d'escompte de Paris founded

   Created by decree in March 1848 to restart commercial credit after the February Revolution, with capital from private subscribers, the City of Paris and the State. It is the oldest root of the BNP side of the group.

2. 1860BNP Paribas

   First overseas branches in Shanghai and Calcutta

   The Comptoir opened branches in Shanghai and Calcutta, becoming the first French bank to build a branch network abroad from scratch, later adding Hong Kong, London, San Francisco and Sydney.

3. 1872BNP Paribas

   Banque de Paris et des Pays-Bas formed

   The Banque de Paris, founded in 1869, merged on 27 January 1872 with Louis-Raphaël Bischoffsheim's Amsterdam-based Nederlandsche Credit- en Deposito Bank to create the investment bank later known as Paribas.

4. 1889BNP Paribas

   Comptoir rescued after the copper crash

   Losses on industrialist Eugène Secrétan's attempt to corner the copper market forced the Comptoir d'escompte de Paris into liquidation, backed by a 100-million-franc Banque de France advance. It was refounded in June 1889 as a deposit bank.

5. 1966BNP Paribas

   Banque Nationale de Paris created

   Finance minister Michel Debré merged the state-owned CNEP and Banque nationale pour le commerce et l'industrie (BNCI) to form Banque Nationale de Paris (BNP).

6. 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.

7. 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.

8. 1982BNP Paribas

   Paribas nationalised

   The Mauroy government nationalised Paribas, which adopted its telegraph address, Paribas, as its brand that year.

9. 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.

10. 1986Microsoft

    Microsoft IPO

    Microsoft went public on the Nasdaq in March 1986.

11. 1987BNP Paribas

    Paribas privatised

    The Chirac government returned Paribas to private ownership in January 1987.

12. 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.

13. 1993BNP Paribas

    BNP privatised

    BNP was privatised in October 1993 under chairman Michel Pébereau.

14. 1995Microsoft

    Windows 95 Released

    Microsoft released Windows 95 in August 1995.

15. 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.

16. 1999BNP Paribas

    Three-way takeover battle

    Société Générale bid for Paribas, and BNP answered with offers for both banks. BNP won control of Paribas but failed to take Société Générale.

17. 2000BNP Paribas

    BNP Paribas created

    The merger of BNP and Paribas was completed in May 2000, combining BNP's retail network with Paribas's investment banking.

18. 2001BNP Paribas

    Full ownership of BancWest

    BNP Paribas agreed to buy the 55% of BancWest, parent of Bank of the West and First Hawaiian Bank, that it did not already own for about $2.45 billion. The Federal Reserve approved the deal on 4 December 2001.

19. 2006BNP Paribas

    BNL acquired in Italy

    BNP Paribas bought Banca Nazionale del Lavoro, making Italy its second domestic retail market.

20. 2009BNP Paribas

    Fortis Bank acquired in Belgium

    In May 2009 BNP Paribas took control of Fortis Bank, now BNP Paribas Fortis, paying with new shares issued to the Belgian state and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. It also bought 25% of AG Insurance for ~$1.55 billion (€1.375 billion).

21. 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.

22. 2014BNP Paribas

    US sanctions guilty plea

    BNP Paribas pleaded guilty in New York and agreed to pay about $8.9 billion for processing dollar transactions for Sudan, Iran and Cuba in breach of US sanctions.

23. 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.

24. 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.

25. 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.

26. 2023BNP Paribas

    Bank of the West sold to BMO

    BNP Paribas completed the $16.3 billion cash sale of Bank of the West to BMO Financial Group on 1 February 2023, leaving US retail banking.

27. 2023Microsoft

    AI Leadership

    Microsoft's expanded OpenAI partnership and Copilot product rollout placed the company at the center of enterprise generative AI adoption.

28. 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.

29. 2025BNP Paribas

    AXA Investment Managers acquired

    BNP Paribas Cardif completed the ~$5.76 billion (€5.1 billion) purchase of AXA IM on 1 July 2025 and signed a long-term partnership to manage a large part of AXA's assets.

30. 2025BNP Paribas

    Sudan jury verdict

    A Manhattan federal jury found BNP Paribas liable to three Sudanese refugees in October 2025 and awarded $20.75 million. The bank is appealing.

31. 2026BNP Paribas

    Ageas partnership reset

    On 28 April 2026 BNP Paribas Fortis sold its 25% of AG Insurance to Ageas for ~$2.15 billion (€1.9 billion) and renewed their Belgian bancassurance partnership, while Cardif raised its Ageas stake to 22.5%.

32. 2026BNP Paribas

    Arval completes Athlon purchase

    Arval completed its purchase of Athlon from Mercedes-Benz Group on 31 July 2026, reaching a combined fleet of 2.3 million vehicles.

Acquisitions

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