Microsoft (MSFT) Is More Influential To Alibaba (BABA) Than You Might Think

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) may have a lot more influence in the future of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA) than most people would think.

The revelation was brought about by comments made by Dr. Jian Wang, a former senior Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) executive in Asia and now Chief Technology Officer at Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA), GeekWire reports.

“Actually, the way that they look at the world, that’s affected me a lot. Everyone knows that Bill [Gates] has a vision to put [a computer on every desktop], but if you think about the company like software, you really can see, it’s not just the people, it’s really about the people’s commitment, about people’s vision. That changes a lot of things,” Dr. Wang said.

The comment about Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by the Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA) executive was made at the annual banquet of the Washington State China Relations Council held on Friday.

As a ranking Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA) official, the way Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)’s values hold a special place in the life of Dr. Wang affects the way he does his work at the Chinese electronic commerce behemoth.

Dr. Wang joined Alibaba, in September 2008 to become the company’s chief architect after nine years as assistant managing director for Microsoft Research Asia. He has also held the post of president for the company’s Alibaba Cloud Computing division. As Chief Technology Officer, he holds the office directly responsible for all things technology development in the company, a massive role as Alibaba is primarily a technology company.

Donald Yacktman’s Yacktman Asset Management held a massive 56.46 million shares stake in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by the end of the third quarter. Also by the end of this period, Andreas Halvorsen’s Viking Global reported owning about 111.39 million Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA) shares.