Microsoft Had Its Best Year in 2019 Since 2009

Tech giant Microsoft finished 2019 with a major bang with the company’s stock price having its best year since 2009.

Shares of Microsoft ended the year at $157.70, making it 55.3% in total gains for 2019. This is the best gain for the stock since 2009 when shares saw a gain of 56.8%. For the decade, shares of the company are up 417%.

Microsoft was a significant contributor to the S&P 500′s rise, second only to iPhone maker Apple. It contributed about 7% of the index’s gains last year.

Some of the highlights for Microsoft in 2019 included the end of Windows 7 support. The company said it would stop releasing security patches for Windows 7, which was released in 2009, on January 14, 2020. This has triggered companies to paying money so its employees can be on the latest platform, Windows 10.

In Q1 of Microsoft’s 2020 fiscal year, Windows OEM Pro revenue grew 19%, the fastest growth since 2014.

The company’s SQL Server 2008 database software reached end of support in July, and the Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2 operating systems will hit that point on January 14, 2020.

Microsoft also announced a Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure, or JEDI, contract to supply Azure cloud services to the Defense Department. This deal could be worth up to $10 billion.

Disclaimer: We have no position in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) and have not been compensated for this article.