Windows Azure: Microsoft’s Latest Billion-Dollar Business
With the growing need and demand for infrastructure that costs less but is effective, Cloud services and storage have taken an upper hand in the market. Many IT infrastructures are now turning towards the Cloud. Therefore, with Cloud services being so actively utilized, it is no surprise that Microsoft’s Windows Azure, their very own professional cloud platform, received such widespread response from their target audience enabling it to move towards the billion dollar mark.
Among one of the four cloud services professionally offered by Microsoft, Windows Azure was launched in 2010 and has accrued over $1 billion in sales annually and is available in over 21 countries worldwide. Although it was considered to be a rather exclusive group, Microsoft has worked hard to produce and enlarge the number of members in their billion dollar club and you can find well known products here thrown in with the mix.
Already known for its heavy hitters in the market like the Xbox, Office, Windows, Share Point, Windows Server, SQL Server, Exchange, Visual Studio, System Center, Dynamics and online advertisements, Microsoft seems all set to launch more ‘legacy businesses’ that can be as long lasting as these in the market.
Among the ones mentioned above, the trio of Windows Server, Windows and Office are undeniably ‘legacy businesses’ with an extensive national and international user base. However, Xbox also successfully garners attention from a wide audience although its target audience is somewhat smaller and restricted to one particular field.
Not far behind in this matter, Windows Azure has managed to establish a user base of almost 200,000 for itself. Said to be growing constantly at a rate of 1,000 per day, Windows Azure seems all set to establish itself as a permanent member of Microsoft’s billion dollar business club.
Coupled with a few choice services and many more still being developed, Windows Azure is growing strongly and helping strengthen Microsoft’s image in the market despite the obvious blow dealt by the failure of Windows 8 to take hold of the market. With hardly any of the other new products launched by Microsoft qualifying as a bestseller, it seems that Windows Azure has ripened and borne fruit at exactly the right time.
Consumer markets have been favorable in their response towards Windows Azure, encouraging Microsoft to delve deeper into developing and updating their Cloud based services. However, it is pleasing to see that Windows Azure has grown at such a rate which once again reinforces Microsoft’s dedication to excellence while proving that products like Windows and Office are not the only things that can define Microsoft.
With strong growth in the market being predicted for the upcoming year, Windows Azure seems all set to dominate the Cloud genre in the IT business infrastructure. Building upon the success of Windows Azure, Microsoft is all set to introduce Office 365 to its ranks of $1 billion dollar businesses. Already pulling in some impressive numbers, Office 365 is predicted to achieve this goal possibly by June or the end of the fiscal year of Microsoft.
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Lenovo and IBM Server Deal Falls Through
With large businesses, it is quite common to see business deals being made that are conducive towards their productivity and progress. However, sometimes, it is quite possible for these business deals to fold upon themselves, much like it happened with the business deal that had been discussed between the Asian company, Lenovo and the U.S based business, IBM.
The business deal between Lenovo and IBM focused around the x86 servers and supposedly, the deal fell through owing to a disagreement between both companies regarding the price and value of the deal. Although the two organizations had conducted a successful business deal previously in 2005 which pushed Lenovo into the limelight among the top 3 PC makers and retailers of the world, things have not gone as smoothly in this deal.
The deal came about because of the fact that IBM is struggling to make sales in the US market. Competition from other organizations like Dell and Hewlett Packard has been fierce and IBM has actually reported a drop of 17 percent in their revenue for the last quarter. The business deal was supposed to help target the Chinese market where demand for the x86 servers is still large compared to the US market and the product could fare much better over there.
On the other hand, despite vigorous negotiations that lasted for several weeks, Lenovo and IBM were unable to reach common ground regarding the pricing of the deal. While it is stated that IBM placed the value of their deal amount to around $6 billion, Lenovo has only offered to pay around $2.5 billion with the highest bid being placed at around $4.5 billion and refusing to go higher.
The difference in price and the refusal of each company to give way eventually caused the deal to fall through and this is why Wong Wai Ming, Lenovo’s Chief Financial Officer who had been conducting the talks with IBM, returned to Hong Kong without any kind of agreement.
Nonetheless, it is largely believed that both businesses are taking a breather and giving each other time to reassess and reconsider the terms of the deal. However, there is little proof to confirm that belief since both companies are being very tight lipped about revealing definite details. It is, however, believed that this is a negotiating tactic from Lenovo in a bid to make IBM drop the price.
Speculation and gossip is rampant about this situation owing to the fact that spokesmen from both organizations have chosen to stay stubbornly mute about the whole situation. Curiously, once the deal fell through, Lenovo’s stocks were reported to be seen at a decline of 2.7 percent, coming at a rate of HK$6.90. On the other hand, in New York, IBM’s stock rose by 1.4 percent and placed the value of their stock at $202.39.
Although there is no definitive word on whether Lenovo will go through with it or not, it is believed that owing to the previous work histories of both companies, a suitable arrangement can be reached that will be profitable for both.
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