Microsoft is interesting again — very

Microsoft is described as having missed or lost the last major technology movements to other companies, largely because Steve Ballmer prioritized sales and dividends over long-term investment. The author says Satya Nadella has shifted the company back toward bold, disruptive decisions.

Reading notes

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• Microsoft is presented as having fallen behind in open source, search, mobile, social, and cloud.
• Ballmer’s dividend focus is treated as a short-term strategy that pushed Microsoft toward closed systems and revenue-maximizing choices.
• Nadella is credited with a return to aggressive long-term moves.
• The text points to Microsoft’s free or open moves around Samsung apps, Cyanogen, Azure credits for startups, Surface 3, Office on Android and iOS, free Windows 10 upgrades, free Windows for small-screen devices, free PowerBI, and open source .Net.
• It also notes the purchases of Sunrise and Minecraft as signs that Microsoft wants to stay relevant with users and developers.
• The next steps proposed are a larger venture arm, startup incubators, more App acquisitions, a Twitter buyout, avoiding Yahoo and AOL, investing in streaming services, and moving major brands closer to San Francisco.