????由于投資者對微軟公司（Microsoft）未來發展喪失了信心，微軟股價一直停滯不前。2000年初，微軟股價達到峰值，接近60美元，隨后當年晚些時候就跌到22美元，此后14年間基本上在25美元到40美元之間徘徊。盡管從那時起微軟的營收和每股收益已增長了兩倍多，但股價卻沒能同步上漲。要扭轉這個局面，微軟其實可以采取一種很簡單的做法：實行類似Facebook公司一樣明確的戰略，收購一批新公司中的佼佼者。

????微軟可以通過主導三大領域獲得更好的發展前景：操作系統、開發工具和遠程會議技術。很顯然，現在的軟件發展趨勢正在轉向虛擬化和云計算。云端的基礎架構即服務（Cloud IaaS）正在成為開發者的重心所在。據The Cloud Market（亞馬遜的EC2完整映像目錄——譯注）估算，亞馬遜公司（Amazon）的“彈性云計算”（Elastic Compute Cloud，EC2）上的應用中，基于Linux的各類應用占90%以上。這種情況表明，很多開發者更傾向于基于Linux系統為云端進行開發。

????由于未能在云端與Linux實現密切整合，微軟已流失大量客戶。盡管微軟聲稱支持Linux，但亞馬遜公司、VMware公司、IBM公司和Salesforce公司等云計算供應商實際上支持力度更大。如果把所有設備考慮在內，包括智能手機、平板電腦（Android操作系統實際也是基于Linux內核開發的），Linux的市場份額大約達到了微軟Windows的兩倍。我并不是要建議微軟放棄Windows——它依然是一款功能豐富的卓越產品，我的意思是，如果實施雙系統戰略，微軟將有機會在以下幾方面打開局面：

????? 在智能手機和平板電腦領域獲得更大競爭優勢

????? 提供一款各類企業的所有應用都可采用的云服務

????? 提供價格實惠的低價服務器

????? 更好地留住企業客戶

????要實現上述目標，第一步重大舉措就是收購Linux系統供應商紅帽企業軟件公司（Red Hat）。通過這筆收購，同時將它與微軟云平臺Azure深入整合，微軟就能成為IaaS領域的領導者。除Linux外，紅帽還擁有功能強大的Open Stack（Rackspace和NASA共同開發的云計算平臺——譯注）平臺，可以利用開源應用程序接口打造一種創新而強大的服務，取代亞馬遜的網絡服務。這起并購很快就能產生價值，因為隨著微軟深入企業Linux的實際工作領域，可使它作為云計算企業在短期內加快發展，同時推動它成為云計算領域的主導企業。

????Microsoft's stock has stagnated as investors have lost faith in the company's plans for its future. After peaking at just under $60 a share in early 2000, Microsoft's stock fell to about $22 later that year and has traded mostly between $25 and $40 a share in the 14 years since then. While revenue and earnings per share have more than tripled since then, the stock price has not followed suit. What Microsoft could do can be answered fairly simply: Take a page out of Facebook's apparent strategy and buy best of breed next generation companies.

????Microsoft can improve its prospects by dominating three areas: Operating systems, development tools and conferencing. It's clear that development is shifting to virtualization and the cloud. Cloud IaaS is becoming the center of gravity for developers. According to The Cloud Market, Linux variants account for over 90% of the applications on Amazon's Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2). The EC2 data indicates that a large number of developers prefer developing in Linux for the cloud.

????Microsoft (MSFT) is losing many customers by not having a more robust integration with Linux in its cloud. While Microsoft claims to be supportive of Linux, other cloud providers like Amazon (AMZN), VMware (VMW), IBM (IBM) and Salesforce.com (CRM) are actually doing much more to support Linux. If one considers all devices, including smart phones and tablets (the Android Operating System is based on the Linux kernel), Linux's unit share is about twice that of Microsoft Windows. I am not suggesting that Microsoft abandon Windows -- it is still a great product with lots of legs, but I am suggesting that a dual OS strategy would give it an opportunity to:

????? Compete more effectively on smart phones and tablets

????? Have a cloud offering that all companies could consider for every application

????? Offer a lower cost server line that would be appealing

????? Have better retention of its corporate customer base

????A way to put a stake in the ground is to buy Linux provider, Red Hat (RHT). With such an acquisition and its deep integration into Microsoft Azure, Microsoft would be well positioned as a leader in IaaS. In addition to Linux, Red Hat has a strong Open Stack player that could leverage open source application programming interfaces as a disruptive, strong alternative to Amazon Web Services (AWS). Such an acquisition would quickly become accretive as Microsoft's reach into the Enterprise Linux workload could accelerate their short-term growth as a Cloud player and propel them into a dominant leadership position in the cloud.