Hi Quartz members!
Return of a giant
A lot of people talk about “the four.” Others are more expansive and will refer to the FAANG companies (Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, and Google). But both groups are missing something obvious: Microsoft. The company recorded more than $100 billion in revenue for its last fiscal year, more than two-and-a-half times the amount Facebook brought in, eight times more than Netflix’s annual figure, and within spitting distance of Alphabet (ok, yes, Amazon and Apple are in a different league).
A lot of pixels have been displayed to describe this turnaround. For this week’s field guide, we wanted to come at it from a different angle—less the backward-looking “How did Satya do it?” heroic-CEO cover story that you usually see (though what Nadella has done is most certainly impressive) and more a look at the strategic decisions to pursue (and as importantly, not pursue) various lines of business and what it means for Microsoft’s future.
No one can put it better than this week’s field guide author, Dave Gershgorn. Dave’s been writing about Microsoft for more than three years, and he’s our resident expert. This is from his state of play memo, published today.
You’ve been hearing Microsoft is “back,” and this is often attributed to the new culture ushered in by Satya Nadella—one in which Microsoft loves open-source Windows competitor Linux (gasp), customers are business partners, and AI is the future. But that’s only part of the story. Nadella has also revitalized the company for the new era of tech, when cloud services matter more than software licenses. He has helped Microsoft fundamentally shift its business model, without sacrificing growth, to make the 43-year-old company bigger and more relevant than ever before.
We also have another way of looking at and thinking about Microsoft—a photo essay showing how large the company and its cofounder, Bill Gates, loomed over the technoscape in the 90s. Come for the corporate swagger, stay for the slammin’ fashion sense of mid-90s tech executives.
We’ll have more on MIcrosoft this week, including a Q&A with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, a timeline of Microsoft’s changing set of competitors, charts and more charts, and a honest (re)evaluation of the Ballmer years.
Let’s keep learning. Send questions, comments, and Clippy fanfic to members@qz.com.
Here’s to a rewarding day,
Sam Grobart
membership editor