Microsoft officials have dropped their bid for ownership over global cloud computing company Salesforce following Chief Executive Officer Marc Benioff's price tag request of $70 billion.
Salesforce officials were offered a $55 billion package by their counterparts, but declined the offer. The San Francisco-based company is still under negotiations for a future buyout.
"At $55 billion that would be a digestible acquisition and one that would make sense for Microsoft given (Microsoft CEO Satya) Nadella's strategic cloud vision," FBR Capital Markets analyst Daniel Ives wrote in an e-mail to the San Jose Mercury News.
"Salesforce is the golden jewel in the cloud given its leadership position and stellar brand and distribution."
Although Microsoft officials have placed new emphasis on the acquisition of cloud computing technologies, they have also directed their efforts at improving stable programs, such as Outlook. The company is set to release an update for the e-mail and calendar software.
The new version of Outlook is said to include a Clutter tool, which automatically distinguishes important e-mails from spam. Also included are 13 new design themes.
Microsoft was founded in 1975 in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
