Microsoft chief executive officer Steve Ballmer says his company must be able to operate successfully in multiple markets - a phenomenon he calls being "multicore" - for the company to continue to grow well into the future.
Although Microsoft is best known for its desktop OS and software business, it has also managed to carve out a successful business in server software, making it a two-core company, Ballmer said at Microsoft"s recent annual financial analyst meeting in Washington. This is something, he says, no other major technology company has ever done, although IBM comes close with its hardware and services business, he says.