https://qz.com/1325193/how-microsoft-won-back-wall-street/

In 2012, Microsoft looked like it could crumble.

It posted its first quarterly loss in the company’s history, set against the background of a failing smartphone strategy and the rise of Apple’s iPhone and iPad line. The company’s $6.3 billion all-cash acquisition of advertising company aQuantive in 2007 had not turned around its Bing search engine’s five-year streak of losses, and the new iteration of its operating system, Windows 8, was widely maligned.