Microsoft Inks Three Partnerships in the Name of Empowerment, Company Exec Says
*By Amanda Weston*
Microsoft inked three major partnerships in just one month ー and each union has a common theme, according to the company's executive vice president of worldwide commercial business.
"I think to sum it up, we're about empowerment," Judson Althoff told Cheddar. "We're about empowering our customers to achieve their potential."
On Jan. 15, Microsoft ($MSFT) and WBA teamed up to improve health care for customers.
Just about a week earlier, Microsoft and Kroger opened up two digital stores. Customers can use the Scan, Bag, and Go app to use their shopping lists to find the most efficient way around the store.
The company's latest deal involved Albertsons. As part of the [three-year agreement](https://www.cnbc.com/2019/01/23/microsoft-signs-cloud-deal-with-albertsons.html), the supermarket chain will make Microsoft's Azur its preferred public cloud.
"We couldn't be more excited about the recent partnership that we announced with Walgreens and Walgreens Boots Alliance, not just because it'll enable us to help them transform their business and how they engage in retail, but frankly what it stands to bear for the promise of the entire health care industry," Althoff said.
"Lower health care costs, better care have often been the promise of this industry, and we are really excited that our technology can actually enable WBA to deliver that and make it a reality for consumers around the world."
The tech giant has seen significant momentum with the cloud. It currently works with major brands like Starbucks ($SBUX), Volkswagen, and Walmart ($WMRT), to help grow their businesses. The company said more than 95 percent of Fortune 500 companies have Microsoft Cloud.
But Althoff said it's only the beginning.
"We're excited about the momentum that we're seeing right now and we're bullish about the future," he said. "You have to keep in mind that we're really sort of just a few minutes into the first quarter of this cloud evolution in the market that you're seeing right now."
For full interview [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/microsoft-gains-cloud-momentum-with-new-health-partnership).
Joe Cecela, Dream Exchange CEO, explains how they are aiming to form the first minority-controlled company to operate an exchange in U.S. history. Watch!
A Michigan judge is putting sponges in the hands of shoplifters and ordering them to wash cars in a Walmart parking lot when spring weather arrives. Genesee County Judge Jeffrey Clothier hopes the unusual form of community service discourages people from stealing from Walmart. The judge also wants to reward shoppers with free car washes. Clothier says he began ordering “Walmart wash” sentences this week for shoplifting at the store in Grand Blanc Township. He believes 75 to 100 people eventually will be ordered to wash cars this spring. Clothier says he will be washing cars alongside them when the time comes.
The State Department had been in talks with Elon Musk’s Tesla company to buy armored electric vehicles, but the plans have been put on hold by the Trump administration after reports emerged about a potential $400 million purchase. A State Department spokesperson said the electric car company owned by Musk was the only one that expressed interest back in May 2024. The deal with Tesla was only in its planning phases but it was forecast to be the largest contract of the year. It shows how some of his wealth has come and was still expected to come from taxpayers.
At 100 years old, the Goodyear Blimp is an ageless star in the sky. The 246-foot-long airship will be in the background of the Daytona 500 — flying roughly 1,500 feet above Daytona International Speedway, actually — to celebrate its greatest anniversary tour. Even though remote camera technologies are improving regularly and changing the landscape of aerial footage, the blimp continues to carve out a niche. At Daytona, with the usual 40-car field racing around a 2½-mile superspeedway, views from the blimp aptly provide the scope of the event.
You'll just have to wait for interest rates (and prices) to go down. Plus, this deal's a steel, the big carmaker wedding is off, and bribery is back, baby!
