How does that matter? The article clearly states that Microsoft was still hanging on Window and PC software for majority of its revenue and made terrible bets (like Nokia acquisition) under Ballmer. Satya worked hard to change the direction of the company. He pushed to cut budgets from other departments and invested in Azure. Another important thing is that he resisted the urge to make shiny bets (like self driving cars) and kept the company focused on its cloud strategy.
They still are. Azure is to Office 365 as Apple's rebirth is to the iPod. "Halo effect".
Office 365 was a classic Microsoft bundled cost play -- you have this big investment in your EA around the Microsoft ecosystem and you basically pay to put email in the cloud, and get Sharepoint and Skype for free. They then made deals on EA renewal to convert "on-prem" Office licenses to subscriptions to lock you in.
In subsequent renewals, Microsoft uses Azure gift cards like a "tax credit" to drive behavior without a competitive process. They're essentially applying the Office 365 playbook to Windows Server/Active Directory/SQL Server and eventually Windows Client. Example: You pay for Azure AD by getting ATP for "free".
It's not taking away from Satya, his genius is dressing up the classic Microsoft hard-nosed deal playbook and making it friendlier in key ways, and cutting the cord on legacy. (Which is a risk, as it's an opportunity for AWS, Google, Oracle, etc to sell) But ultimately, the strategy existed and was executed before with Ballmer, but with less charisma and humanity.
