How Top-Valued Microsoft Has Avoided the Big Tech Backlash | NYT

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"Market shifts and the evolution of Microsoft’s business over the years help explain the transformation. It is less a consumer company than its peers. For example, Microsoft’s Bing search engine and LinkedIn professional network sell ads, but the company as a whole is not dependent on online advertising and the harvesting of personal data, unlike Facebook and Google.

And while big, Microsoft no longer looms as the threatening bully it was in the personal computer era. The company is a healthy No. 2 in markets like cloud computing (behind Amazon) and video games (behind Sony) rather than a dominant No. 1.

“Microsoft can afford to be more self-righteous on some of those social issues because of its business model,” said David B. Yoffie, a professor at the Harvard Business School."

How Top-Valued Microsoft Has Avoided the Big Tech Backlash | NYT