As its name implies, it was covered with dense olive groves. The Mount of Olives is also mentioned in a reference by the prophet Zechariah to the future Day of the Lord: In that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which faces Jerusalem on the east.
As of 2016, it is the world's largest software maker by revenue, and one of the world's most valuable companies. Microsoft was founded by Paul Allen and Bill Gates on April 4, 1975, to develop and sell BASIC interpreters for the Altair 8800. It rose to dominate the personal computer operating system market with MS-DOS in the mid-1980s, followed by Microsoft Windows.
In an interview, John G. Connors, Microsoft's chief financial officer, said that the company's board had reviewed the dividend issue repeatedly in recent years. A major obstacle, Mr. Connors explained, was the uncertainty created by the government's antitrust suit against Microsoft that began in 1998.