Microsoft CEO Interviewed On Cloud, Spinoffs And Inequality

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The Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) CEO was speaking to CNBC, and  spoke out on his ambitions for cloud computing as well as his determination not to spin off consumer properties. After 9 months at the helm of the technology giant, we received a further insight into the direction that Nadella will be taking the company.

A colossal struggle for the cloud

Nadella sees the cloud market as an exclusive struggle between existing big players, because of the prohibitive amount of investment required to break into the market, “in the order of four to five billion dollars each year to just grow your cloud.”

He sees Microsoft as one of three competitors, alongside Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) and Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) (NASDAQ:GOOG), lauding his company’s progress in earning permission to work in markets around the world, adding that Microsoft is the “only public cloud company from North America… that operates in China.”

Nadella argues that Microsoft caught the trend early and is well-positioned in the three distinct areas of cloud technology: Software as a Service, Infrastructure as a Service, and Platform as a Service. Office 365 is one of the major existing cloud software suites, while the Azure cloud service contains both infrastructure and platform as a service.

Microsoft’s Nadella on inequality and spinoffs

Nadella caused controversy when he claimed that it was “good karma” for women to wait for a pay rise without pushing for one. In this latest interview he admitted that he was “completely wrong”, and that he took his “own approach to how I approached my career and sprung it on half the humanity, and that was just insensitive.”

He said that he had spent days reflecting on his comments and that it had been a “very humbling experience.”

Another issue on the agenda was a potential split of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) consumer business from the enterprise-focused cloud, which Nadella stated would not be happening on his watch. He prefers to go after dual use users who use Windows and Office at home as well as at work.

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