After a long wait of eight years when it had lost the crown to Apple, Microsoft has once again become the most valuable company in the world. With a market cap of $851 billion, Microsoft is currently ahead of Apple. Although, Apple and Microsoft have been swapping places between number 1 and number 2 it looks like the difference between the 2 tech giants will expand as Apple is experiencing a decrease in the demand for iPhones as a result of which investors are showing interest in Microsoft.
Competitors facing a downfall
For Microsoft, it has been a turn around because the company was facing backlash all across the world for some wrong decisions like acquiring Nokia. Microsoft gained popularity due to its domination in the PC era but it is hard to compete with companies like Amazon, Google parent-Alphabet and Apple. Interestingly the stocks of Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Google are falling right now which is giving Microsoft hope for the future.
The gradual rise
Microsoft has been gradually rising from past few months. In June, it had gone past Alphabet to become the 3rd most valuable company in the world. In October, after a crash in Amazon’s stock, it had gone past it to become the 2nd most valuable company in the world. Now, it has gone ahead and taken the top spot.
The role of CEO Satya Nadella
Since taking over, Satya Nadella has managed to stay out of the limelight and work in the right direction for the growth of Microsoft. He is optimistic about futuristic fields like Machine Learning and AI. Nadella is focusing on cloud computing capabilities of Microsoft and how the company can improve that. He has made Microsoft Azure a popular alternative to Amazon AWS. Azure had seen its market share in the cloud computing segment rise from 16% to 20%, while Amazon AWS’s share fell from 68% to 62%. Microsoft is ahead of Google also in the cloud computing stakes, with Google Cloud commanding a market share of just 12%.
Other consumer products contributing to Microsoft’s success
Other consumer products are helping Microsoft to slowly make a comeback. The acquisition of LinkedIn has given it an entry into the consumer business, and LinkedIn also helps in promoting its suite of Office products. Since LinkedIn’s acquisition in 2016, it has been contributing 2.5% to the overall revenues. The takeovers of other companies like GitHub have been making the company’s path smooth and controversy-free.
