automate and build low-code solutions to business processes, and facilitate routine inquiries at scale through virtual agents. Our analytics and machine learning tools drive productivity gains by
transforming unstructured data into actionable information that supports operational reliability, effective supply chain management, and rapid product innovation.
Industry clouds. We recognize different industries have particular business requirements. Our industry clouds bring together capabilities across the entire
Microsoft Cloud, along with industry-specific customizations, to improve time to value, increase agility, and lower costs. Our Clouds for Healthcare, Financial Services, Manufacturing, and Retail leverage customized combinations of products and
services to overcome business challenges specific to each of those verticals. From data governance and artificial intelligence to metaverse applications, our industry clouds help companies solve common challenges and allocate resources to their
highest value and most differentiating activities.
Because sustainability is an existential priority for our society and for every business today, we offer a Cloud
for Sustainability to help any organization track its carbon footprint and other metrics to help meet its sustainability goals. Our Cloud for Nonprofit helps charitable organizations unlock the power of their data to achieve more transformative
impact.
Partnering and Acquisitions
We
partner with many of the leading enterprise technology companies to empower customers and grow market opportunities together. In July 2022, we announced a new service to accelerate adoption of Oracle workloads on Azure, making Microsoft the only
public cloud with simplified direct access to Oracle databases running on Oracle Cloud. Through our collaboration with SAP, weve built a pathway for customers to migrate their SAP workloads to the cloud to take advantage of lower costs,
increased agility, and reduced risk. Through the Azure VMware Solution, we have enabled enterprises to seamlessly move VMware-based workloads from their datacenters to Azure and integrate their VMware environments with Azure. In our rapidly growing
security business, we have over 15,000 partners in our ecosystem, more than anyone else in the industry. Now, instead of one conversation on productivity, another on infrastructure, and yet another on business applications, our customer conversation
can revolve around how all these products more seamlessly merge, whether its our software alone, or a combination of ours and partner solutions.
Mr. Nadella has been bold and visionary in finding strategic acquisitions that build on and enhance our core offerings. LinkedIn, with its services that help both
employers and workers network, grow professionally, and find one another, has shown consistent and strong growth since we acquired it in 2016. Four distinct businesses at LinkedIn surpassed the billion-dollar revenue threshold in fiscal year 2022.
Similarly, GitHub has continued to strengthen its position as the preferred platform for developers since its acquisition in 2018.
More recently, the acquisition of
Nuance Communications, consummated in 2022, will enable organizations across industries to accelerate their business goals with our security-focused, cloud-based solutions infused with powerful, vertically optimized artificial intelligence. Our goal
is for customers to benefit from enhanced consumer, patient, clinician, and employee experiences, ultimately improving productivity and financial performance. Nuance is a key catalyst for the growth of our healthcare industry vertical.
And, in January 2022, we announced our agreement to acquire Activision Blizzard as an investment to make it easier for people to play great games wherever, whenever, and
however they want. We expect the transaction will increase innovation in content creation and reduce constraints on distribution. It also significantly expands our presence in mobile, the largest segment in the gaming business.
These examples of innovation, synergy, and partnership are far from exhaustive. They provide a view, however, into the diverse and innovative set of technologies and
products Microsoft has built under Mr. Nadellas leadership. It is a multi-faceted engine of growth that provides more avenues for continued success. The uses for Microsofts technology toolbox are as expansive as our customers
imaginations. Mr. Nadella has quite intentionally conditioned Microsofts success on that of our customers while providing the platform and technologies on which our customers will achieve it. This is a durable strategy that can
thrive through economic cycles, business disruptions, and the ever-increasing pace of change that characterizes the current global marketplace, precisely because Microsoft enables companies and individuals to successfully address those very
challenges.
Environmental and Social Leadership
As we articulate in Part
1, Governance and our Board of Directors, we believe Microsofts strategic environmental and social commitments play an important role in fostering Microsofts long-term success and value creation for our shareholders. We provide extensive
reporting on our environmental and social performance and progress towards our commitments at microsoft.com/transparency. Among just a few of this years highlights:
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Microsofts five-year, $20 billion commitment to advance our security solutions includes $150 million to help U.S.
government agencies upgrade cybersecurity protections. We also enhanced our global skilling initiative with new commitments to help the U.S. and 24 other countries with substantial cybersecurity workforce shortages to grow their number of skilled
candidates and increase diversity in the cybersecurity field. |