It was a sweltering August night in central London in 1995. A venue in Leicester Square was transformed into a casino, to better present what was to be the product launch of the year.
With the kind of razmataz usually associated with opening a new blockbuster movie or releasing the latest album from rock superstars such as The Rolling Stones, Microsoft’s latest kit, Windows 95, has been released to the world. at a series of events around the world.
Combined with the crazy launch that same month of Netscape, the web browser company whose shares went from $ 28 to $ 75, the launch kicked off the ‘dot-com boom’ of the late ’90s. This boom went bankrupt in 2000, and Netscape has largely vanished from public awareness, but Microsoft is going strong.
Typewriters with screens
Indeed, it is poised to benefit greatly from some current trends, as we will see in a moment.
But that summer night of 1995 is worth revisiting for more than nostalgia, because it can help make a long-term forecast for Microsoft stocks.
Windows 95 was more than just software, it was the first item of its kind to gain cult status outside the ranks of computer experts and enthusiasts. Its logo was ubiquitous and even people who had little computer knowledge felt able to give their opinion.
Beyond that, it has both changed and unified personal computing. Previously, there had been a gulf between those who used more complex machines, whether for work or play, and those who were interested in computers that could simply store large amounts of text – “word processors.” As they were called then.
Locoscript, the standard word processing software, offered little more than the ability to write on an electronic version of a sheet of paper. Word processors were essentially typewriters with screens.
Widespread adoption of Windows 95 opened up a whole new world to millions of people, with what was then not known as apps for everything from email to internet search to now. standard Word. Not everyone accepted the change: A British commentator compared the process of moving windows around a screen to a game for primary school children.
But it’s safe to say the overall verdict was favorable.
Growth of cloud computing
What we can learn from this is that Microsoft has a prodigious talent for shaping and reshaping the world we live in. both the competition and the environment in which everyone had to operate.
This ability appears to be intact in our time. Along with the more well-known Zoom videoconferencing service, Microsoft teams experienced strong demand during the coronavirus pandemic. Many teachers, especially teachers who try to teach distance learning, think Teams is a technically superior product.
Then there is the parallel increase in Microsoft’s business since the pandemic in terms of its cloud computing platform, Azure. With an increasing number of people working from home, businesses must host large amounts of corporate data in secure “cloud†locations.
It is also a leader in the development of “smart edge,†an ever-expanding set of devices and systems that collect and analyze data.
All is not successful: Microsoft’s search engine, Bing, is nowhere near as efficient as Google, and its presence on Microsoft-powered machines is often seen as irritating rather than helpful.
In the long run
But the company’s determination to dominate the next stage of technological development is made clear in its 2020 annual report.
CEO Satya Nadella writes, “We live in the age of the intelligent cloud and intelligent edge, which are shaped by the rapid advancements in distributed computing, ambient intelligence, and multi-sense, multi-device experiences. .
“This means that the places we go and the things we interact with will be increasingly digitized, creating new opportunities and breakthroughs: from precision medicine to precision agriculture, from personalized e-commerce to business. personalized education, and manufacturing workshops connected to connected homes. “
He adds, “Across all of our customer solutions areas, we are expanding our opportunity to help every organization in every industry build its technology intensity – with a business model that is trusted and aligned with its success. ”
To make a 2025 Microsoft stock forecast, it’s important to look at the recent high to date, and it’s impressive. On January 8, 2016, Microsoft stock changed hands to $ 52.33, rising to $ 158.62 on January 3, 2020, on the eve of the pandemic’s boom in the Western world.
As of December 30, 2020, it stood at $ 221.68, indicating a five-year increase of approximately 324%.
Would Microsoft’s stock market forecast have predicted this performance five years ago? Probably not, given that market analysts and commentators are as trendy-inclined as anyone else and might well have concluded that Bill Gates’ creation is starting to look a bit dated compared to exciting tech newcomers. such as Netflix.
More aptly, some may have feared that Microsoft’s market dominance would once again attract the attention of competition regulators, as happened with an unfavorable judgment in 2001 in the United States against the fact that he “bundled” his Internet Explorer browser with Windows.
That is, however, a while ago now, and it would be hard to argue that Microsoft has little or no competition. So, is Microsoft stock a good investment? Yes, if it is treated as a positive bet on the company’s ability to reach “all organizations in all sectorsâ€.
According to conservative forecasts, Microsoft may be able to increase the share price by 150% by 2025, taking it to around $ 330.
Remember that Microsoft is not only here for the long haul, but has been for the long haul already. When, in the late ’90s, experts attempted to assess the likely impact of the Millennium Bug, many feared that it would reset every date on every computer to zero, with catastrophic consequences.
But a respected study found that in the worst-case scenario, computers would be tricked into believing it was March 1980. Why?
Because that’s when Microsoft’s disk operating system was released.
Read more: S&P 500 2021 Forecast: Strong Gains Should Continue
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