The Microsoft acquisition hoax is a bogus 1994 press release suggesting that the information technology company

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washin ...

had acquired the

Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

. It is considered to be the first Internet hoax to reach a mass audience. The hoax comprises part of a cycle of "Microsoft jokes" in which

Microsoft Corporation Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washingt ...

is portrayed as a wealthy but evil

monopoly A monopoly (from Greek el, μόνος, mónos, single, alone, label=none and el, πωλεῖν, pōleîn, to sell, label=none), as described by Irving Fisher, is a market with the "absence of competition", creating a situation where a speci ...

built on bloated or unreliable desktop software,

planned obsolescence In economics and industrial design, planned obsolescence (also called built-in obsolescence or premature obsolescence) is a policy of planning or designing a good (economics), product with an artificially limited Product lifetime, useful life o ...

of products,

corporate takeover In business, a takeover is the purchase of one company (the ''target'') by another (the ''acquirer'' or ''bidder''). In the UK, the term refers to the acquisition of a public company whose shares are listed on a stock exchange, in contrast to t ...

s of once-innovative rivals and litigiousness. While multiple books have been devoted to the subject, the jokes most commonly circulated online as Internet memes.

Press release

The hoax consisted of a press release, purportedly from the

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. ne ...

, that circulated around the Internet in 1994. The press release claimed that

"will acquire the Roman Catholic Church in exchange for an unspecified number of shares of Microsoft common stock", and that the company expects "a lot of growth in the religious market in the next five to ten years... the combined resources of Microsoft and the Catholic Church will allow us to make religion easier and more fun for a broader range of people." Many of the press release's claims were unrealistic, from suggesting that Catholics would soon be able to take Holy Communion through their computer to claiming that

conversion Conversion or convert may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * "Conversion" (''Doctor Who'' audio), an episode of the audio drama ''Cyberman'' * "Conversion" (''Stargate Atlantis''), an episode of the television series * "The Conversion" ...

to Catholicism was an "upgrade". Despite these warning signs, several readers of the false press release contacted Microsoft to confirm the claims of the hoax, and on December 16, 1994, Microsoft formally debunked the claims.

Aftermath

Follow-up press releases made similarly outrageous claims—for example, one false press release claimed that IBM had acquired the Episcopal Church, and another suggested that the Italian television network

RAI RAI – Radiotelevisione italiana (; commercially styled as Rai since 2000; known until 1954 as Radio Audizioni Italiane) is the national public broadcasting company of Italy, owned by the Ministry of Economy and Finance. RAI operates many ter ...

had invested in what the release claimed to be "Microsoft Corp.'s planned on-line computer service, the Microsoft Divine Network." An Internet meme "Microsoft Acquires" spawned a series of similarly formatted mock press releases with an assortment of varying acquisition targets, including the government of the

United States of America The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territo ...

. According to the release, "United States citizens will be able to expect lower taxes, increases in government services, discounts on all Microsoft products and the immediate arrest of all executive officials of Sun Microsystems Inc. and Netscape Corp." One meta-joke claimed that Microsoft ultimately put an end to the jokes by acquiring "Microsoft Acquires". Despite the proliferation of

chain email A chain letter is a message that attempts to convince the recipient to make a number of copies and pass them on to a certain number of recipients. The "chain" is an exponentially growing pyramid (a tree graph) that cannot be sustained indefinite ...

s circulating the Internet both in 1994 and in the present, the Microsoft hoax was considered the first such hoax to reach a mass audience through the Internet.

References

{{Portal bar, 1990s, Internet, Roman Catholic Church, Business Joke cycles Internet hoaxes Microsoft Religious parodies and satires