Hotmail email service was founded by Sabeer Bhatia and Jack Smith.
Smith came up with the idea for anonymous web-based email in 1995, and worked with Sabeer Bhatia, his colleague at Apple, to found the company. The company launched on July 4, 1996 with Smith as its Chief Technology Officer.
On December 31, 1997, Microsoft acquired Hotmail.com for $500 million, its largest acquisition at the time, and integrated Hotmail into its MSN group of services.