Salesforce与微软化敌为友

    Salesforce公司首席执行官马克•贝尼奥夫一向十分健谈、语出惊人，抨击起微软公司（Microsoft）来从来不会不好意思。这不：在去年九月举行的TechCrunch Disrupt大会上他就曾经把微软称为“彻头彻尾的灾难”，还说拯救它的唯一办法就是把比尔•盖茨请回来做首席执行官，而且至少要给他足够长的时间，让他能按下“重启键”。

    噢，才花了几个月时间——再加上一位新官上任的微软首席执行官——一切就全变样了。

    上周四，这两家公司签署了广泛的战略合作伙伴协议。就在签约仪式上，贝尼奥夫充满热情地忙着向微软新任首席执行官萨蒂亚•纳德拉示好。贝尼奥夫在与记者和分析师开电话会议时说：“能与萨蒂亚合作我真是太激动了。迄今为止，一切进展顺利，让我深感欣慰。” 贝尼奥夫也喜欢玩Twitter，还特地发了与纳德拉的各种合影。照片上两人并肩而立、面带微笑，活像一对一辈子的老朋友。

    纳德拉也积极回应了这股热乎劲。他在这个会议上称：“能与您及您的团队合作十分愉快。我们能在多个业务领域达成合作让我十分高兴。”

    双方合作的细节对这两家公司的企业客户来说至关重要。在新闻发布会上，两家公司公布了一些合作事项，更具体的细节肯定会在近日披露。

    可能更重要的在于，这一最新合作表明，尽管纳德拉不是盖茨，但他确实已经按下了微软的重启键。纳德拉在一个行业会议上发表讲话后仅过了36小时就宣布与Salesforce建立合作关系。我的同事亚当•拉辛斯基指出，就在这个会议上，纳德拉以坦率的态度赢得了众人的瞩目。无论在形式上，还是在实质上，纳德拉都通过很多方式与过去划清了界限，而直言不讳地坦承微软面临的挑战及其优势只是其中的一种方式。而对业内有些人来说，包括同样健谈的Box公司首席执行官亚伦•李维，这种改变还不会很快实现。

    当然，并不是只有纳德拉才采取实用主义的做法。贝尼奥夫也似乎一天比一天更愿意和多年的宿敌停战和解。6月份，Salesforce就将与自己的劲敌甲骨文公司（Oracle）达成合作协议。

    实用主义肯定能带来回报。在宣布与微软达成合作仅数小时后，Salesforce的股价就上升了近2%。（财富中文网）

    译者：清远

    Marc Benioff, the voluble CEO of Salesforce, has never been shy about taking potshots at Microsoft. To wit: at TechCrunch Disrupt in September he called the company a"complete disaster" and said the only way to save it was to bring back Bill Gates as CEO, at least for long enough to give him time to push the "reset button."

    Oh, what a difference a few months -- and a new Microsoft CEO -- can make.

    On Thursday Benioff was busy giving the warmest of corporate embraces to Satya Nadella, Microsoft's new CEO, as the two companies signed a broad strategic partnership. "I am absolutely thrilled to be partnering with Satya," Benioff said during a teleconference with reporters and analysts. "I couldn't be happier with how things have gone." Benioff also took to Twitter, where he posted smiling photos of him and Nadella side-by-side looking like BFFs.

    Nadella returned the affection. "It's a pleasure working with you and your team," he said during the call. "I couldn't be more pleased that we are partnering across many areas of our business."

    The details of the deal will be important to the enterprise customers of both companies. The companies laid out some of them in a press release, and more specifics are sure to emerge in coming days.

    Perhaps more important, the deal is the latest indication that while Nadella is not Gates, he has indeed pushed the reset button at Microsoft (MSFT). Nadella announced the partnership with Salesforce just 36 hours after speaking at an industry conference where, as my colleague Adam Lashinsky noted, he distinguished himself for his candor. Laying out Microsoft challenges, and it's strengths, forthrightly, is just one of the many ways in which Nadella is breaking with the past in both style and substance. For some in the industry, including the also voluble CEO of Box, Aaron Levie, the change couldn't have come too soon.

    Of course, Nadella is not the only one embracing pragmatism. Benioff too seems increasingly willing to bury the hatchet with perennial foes. In June, it cut a deal with arch-enemy Oracle.

    Pragmatism can pay off. Salesforce shares (CRM) were up nearly 2% in after hours trading following the announcement of it's Microsoft alliance.