Microsoft flying high on wings of Cloud business
Over the last few years Microsoft (MSFT) has dramatically changed direction as a company to generate new sources of revenue and in doing so altered consumer perception of the brand and impressed a number of Wall Street analysts who are eagerly awaiting the company’s quarterly earnings report (October 26) which they hope will confirm their selection astheir top large cap pick.
Under CEO Satya Nadella the company is now well-placed to enjoy a period of sustained growth with growing revenue derived from its Cloud offering (which is well on target to reach the $20 billion annually predicted by Nadella by 2018) and increased revenues from new ventures as well as revitalization of revenue from its existing portfolio of products.
Former CEO Steve Ballmer took the initial decision to move into Cloud services and turn Office into a subscription based product. However, when Nadella picked up the baton in February 2014, he ditched many of the business practices that had been in place when the company dominated the marketplace with its Windows operating system.
Back when Microsoft lead the PC market it sold copies of Office or parts of it (Word, Excel, PowerPoint etc.) to run on them, but then smartphones and tablets ate away at its market by giving users computing power in the palm of their hands which also created a perception that the PC giant was now behind the curve.
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