The news Friday, mercifully early in the day, was that Microsoft CEO Ballmer is transitioning out of that role in a process that could take a year. But hopefully, it will take much less than that, given the distraction an executive search of that magnitude will mean.
There’s no shortage of speculation — about who will get the nod — some even speculate that the head of the search committee, former Symantec CEO and Microsoft director John Thompson might act as interim CEO. But one thing the new top dog is should do is make sure the build out of Windows Azure continues apace. And not, watch out.
For all Microsoft’s woes — the mis-steps in phones and tablets which led to a mind-boggling $ 900 million write-down last quarter, the 2007 Vista debacle that Ballmer conceded was his biggest regret, don’t forget that Microsoft is one of a handful of companies with the resources — in cash and in talent — to build a truly massive and scalable infrastructure. Microsoft profit last quarter, was $ 5 billion compared to $ 3.2 billion for Google and $ 6.9 billion for Apple according to The New York Times.
And, for the last full fiscal year ending June 30, it logged profit of nearly $ 22 billion on revenue of $ 78 billion and averaged $ 150,000 in sales every minute, the Wall Street Journal pointed out
Chew on that for a minute.
Microsoft’s problem is that the market it dominates — is a market in decline. The problem is that while Windows still owns the market share lead on traditional PCs, it runs just 15 percent of all devices including PCs, smartphones and tablets, according to Gartner.
So here’s the deal, reviews of Windows Azure (finally) are good. Microsoft is one of maybe 3 or 4 companies that can give Amazon Web Services and Google a run for their money in brute cloud infrastructure. And what do next-gen mobile applications and games need to run well? Massive infrastructure.
it still makes some of the biggest money-gushers in the technology business, including its Windows operating system for personal computers and Office applications like Word. Its profit last quarter was nearly $ 5 billion, compared with $ 3.2 billion for Google and $ 6.9 billion for Apple.
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