Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) Transitions To Dominant Technology Provider

1514

Four years ago, Satya Nadella took over as the CEO of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT). At the time the company was in same situation with Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL). Both were legacy technology providers and were facing a cloud-based future.

Currently, Microsoft has grown and is once again the leading technology provider. On April 28, the company reported higher-than-expected financial results. The company has a market cap of $734 billion, which is four times higher than that of Oracle. Despite this record performance, 26 of the 35 analysts have given the company a “buy” rating.

From the very beginning, Nadella knew that the road to dominance was in the cloud industry. He went ahead and placed his bet on cloud-based applications.

Solving the Next Problem

The company, under Nadella is focusing its attention on the next problem. It is making bold moves without any worry on its reputation. In 2011, Nadella’s predecessor, Steve Ballmer bought Skype for $8.5 billion. Starting next month, Skype will disappear from the Windows mobile store. Yammer, which cost the company $1.2 billion in 2012 will also disappear.

The company is instead placing its bet on Azure Sphere, a system of software and chips based on Linux which is designed to offer secure sensor intelligence to what had initially been inert devices. It is not a requirement to use Azure cloud on the backend.

The company is fully aware that for Internet of Things (IoT) to succeed, security must be in-built. This can be assumed before people become aware and accept the underlying technology. Additionally, Microsoft fully understands that it can’t be religious about its own products. This is why it is integrating Edge browser into the Chrome browser to help detect phishing scams that insert malware.

Fighting for Users

A few years back, Microsoft was battling two major problems. Advocates of open source were against it for rejecting open technology. Additionally, many consumers considered the company unhelpful and arrogant. Nadella made brave steps that shifted the company towards open source. Some of these moves include joining Open Source Initiative and Linux Foundation. Microsoft also supported Linux on Azure plus other Microsoft products.