Microsoft (MSFT) news recap is a weekly feature highlighting the top Microsoft news stories of the past week. Sit back, grab some coffee, and enjoy the read!
Despite paying $26B for LinkedIn, Microsoft plans to be hands-off according to CEO Satya Nadella
Microsoft paid $26 billion for corporate social network LinkedIn, however, Microsoft’s CEO, Satya Nadella, has said that the company intends to be hands-off and not involved in the day-to-day runnings of the company, allowing it to flourish on its own. Us Microsoft enthusiasts might see this as a bad thing, considering how the company was also hands-off with Skype, leading to its decline amongst the younger generation.
Microsoft declines again in percentage of women employees, blames Nokia layoffs
According to a report since the end of September 2016, Microsoft’s percentage of female employees is declining. Microsoft blames the decline of female employees on layoffs from Nokia. This is the second year in a row that the company has seen a decline in gender diversity amongst its employees.
Microsoft looks to go “beyond carbon neutral” with new energy programs
Most companies who are looking to be green set goals to become “carbon neutral,” however, for Microsoft, this simply isn’t enough. The company published a white paper outlining the areas that they will be focused on to go beyond being carbon neutral:
- Renewable energy: We are using the funds to drive long-term commitments and develop new renewable energy procurement options.
- Community projects: We are investing in projects that align with the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals, and we are working to help organizations better leverage the potential of technology to achieve improved environmental, human health, and biodiversity outcomes.
- Climate Grants: We are evolving our Climate Grant program, which provides funds to catalyze and accelerate climate-related energy and technology innovation, to drive further impact in the communities in which we operate.
- Reporting: We are expanding our tracking and reporting to better measure our impact over time.
Microsoft joins the Linux Foundation as a Platinum member, Google joins .Net community
In a somewhat surprise move, Microsoft has joined the Linux Foundation as a Platinum member. This move follows in the footsteps of Microsoft’s increasing commitment to the open source community. The cost of being a Platinum member will be $500,000 per annum, coming in at quite a cost, however, it should bring benefits to Microsoft’s customers in terms of increased collaboration and innovation amongst Linux and the wider open source community.
That’s it for Microsoft news this week – check back next week for more!
