Microsoft chief, Nadella impresses Wall Street, signals willingness to chart new course

Microsoft Corp's new chief executive yesterday wowed Wall Street analysts in his first encounter who said he communicated willingness to transform the world's largest software company as it struggled to catch up in the mobile-computing era.

It was the first time in five years that a Microsoft chief executive joined a quarterly earnings conference call, and veteran insider Satya Nadella, who took the helm on 4 February, said he spent the first weeks in the new job to get to know the company afresh.

He added he was also dealing with the reality of the new tech marketplace in which Microsoft had ceded its market dominance to Apple Inc and Google Inc.

He said it was important and valuable to see the company with the fresh perspective, to get grounded both on its current realities and future opportunities.

He said what could be expected of Microsoft was courage in the face of reality.

He said the company would approach the future with a challenger mindset and would be bold in its innovation.

Nadella had been helped by a quarterly profit decline that was not quite as bad as many investors feared, and he got a generally enthusiastic reception from analysts who had warmed to his strategy based on mobile and cloud computing.

Meawhile, Microsoft turned in robust financial results for a company trying catch up in several important markets. Net income in the fiscal third quarter stood at $5.66 billion, or 68 cents a share, while revenue continued to remain unchanged at $20.40 billion, as against $20.49 billion a year ago.

However, the attention of investors in recent  times seemed to be less on how much money Microsoft was making and more on a series of bold bets for reshaping the company.

The latest of those bets would see the company take a critical step forward today when Microsoft completes its $7.5 billion acquisition of Nokia's handset business.

According to commentators, the deal is perhaps the riskiest initiative in company's 39-year history, which would make hardware a more integral part of the company.

The acquisition would abruptly see the company's workforce rise by nearly a third, as 30,000 Nokia employees would fall under Microsoft's sphere, creating huge logistical challenge.