Microsoft first opened its office in South Africa in 1992. Since then its been quite an eventful journey for Microsoft in Africa.
This interactive timeline from OnlineAfrica lists the vast majority of Microsoft’s actions on the African continent.
The shift from South Africa to other nations is apparent in recent years, as are the efforts to combat piracy and defend the practice of licensing.
Jan 1992. As a young black growing up in the white- dominated world of Johannesburg, Ella Kungoane had little hope of realizing her dream of a computer career. There were precious few South African high-tech companies and even fewer breaks for blacks. But things are looking up for Kungoane. Microsoft Corp., which announced its plans to return to South Africa in January, has brought the 30-year-old college graduate to its Redmond (Wash.) headquarters to train her for a job in South Africa’s emerging software industry. Says Kungoane: “Blacks were never allowed to get this far back home.”
Fast forward to 2010. Microsoft is building partnerships with academia to advance computer science and help build research capacity in Africa and the Middle East.
Full read at OnlineAfrica.net.
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