Microsoft’s Satya Nadella: Barron’s Top CEOs 2022

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Under Satya Nadella,

Microsoft

has solidified its dominance in several key software categories, including office-productivity subscriptions, operating systems, and server applications.

Nadella’s prescient bet on cloud computing has also been a great success. Microsoft is now the solid No. 2 player in a market that Wedbush Securities predicts will reach $1 trillion over the next decade. According to Gartner, Microsoft’s Azure gained ground last year on the leader, Amazon Web Services, garnering a 21% share of the cloud market.

It all adds up to formidable financial results: In the latest quarter, Microsoft’s revenue rose 18%, to $49 billion, on which the company generated net income of nearly $17 billion.

Even as Microsoft has expanded under Nadella, 54, the company has avoided the antitrust scrutiny trained on its Big Tech peers. Its ability to navigate regulatory thickets has enabled it to complete a number of large acquisitions in recent years, including the $20 billion purchase of artificial-intelligence specialist Nuance Communications earlier this year and the $7.5 billion buyout of videogame publisher ZeniMax Media in 2021.

Microsoft is currently working on its biggest deal yet, the $69 billion purchase of

Activision Blizzard
.
These acquisitions probably will pay big dividends in the years ahead.

Write to Tae Kim at [email protected]