One of the most famous entrepreneurs and philanthropists in recent history is Bill Gates. As a co-founder of Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), he helped pioneer modern computing and revolutionize how people communicate and work.
While he no longer manages the day-to-day business at Microsoft, Gates is still an active businessman. He and his ex-wife, Melinda French, built a charitable trust that is now worth roughly $46 billion. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Microsoft shares make up the largest fraction of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust — nearly one-third of the portfolio’s total value.
Let’s take a look at Microsoft’s business, and assess why the technology stock could be a great buy for long-term investors.
Microsoft is one of a kind
Microsoft was founded 49 years ago out of a Harvard dorm room. Initially known for its Windows operating system, Microsoft has evolved into a much more sophisticated enterprise over the last half-century.
The company has made a number of strategic acquisitions that have helped it become one of the world’s most diversified technology platforms. Today, Microsoft owns professional social networking site LinkedIn as well as video game giant Activision Blizzard.
While LinkedIn opened Microsoft up to a variety of different customer bases including sales and marketing professionals and corporate executives, Activision Blizzard represented an interesting supplement to the company’s existing video game footprint in Xbox.
Moreover, Microsoft is one of the most ubiquitous workplace productivity platforms on the market. The company’s Office Suite includes some of the most commonly used productivity software applications in the workplace, among them Excel and PowerPoint. In addition, the company’s popular Teams service competes with Zoom, Salesforce, and other video conferencing and chat suites.
But perhaps Microsoft’s biggest recent success has been with cloud computing. Despite intense competition from Amazon and Alphabet, the Azure cloud unit consistently remains one of Microsoft’s top-performing sources of growth.
Furthermore, following a $10…
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