Microsoft recently announced it will spend $50 million over the next three years to buy out the remaining 50% of the companies IT services business.
Microsoft will also offer the companies it buys a new service called the “Cloud” that offers a suite of cloud services like virtual desktops and mobile applications.
“Microsoft’s new cloud service will enable IT teams to focus on the most important and valuable work on their platforms and services,” the company wrote in a blog post announcing the investment.
The service, which is being rolled out now, is designed to help IT teams save money, while still delivering the same high-quality products and services.
In the blog post, Microsoft noted that the Cloud is “coming with new costs and restrictions.”
While it’s not yet clear how much Microsoft will pay to acquire the remaining businesses, Microsoft has previously stated that it would invest a total of $200 billion over the coming decade.
Microsoft’s purchase of the remaining companies is expected to be completed in 2020.
Microsoft has said it plans to sell the remaining IT businesses to Amazon, which will pay $2 billion for the assets.
Microsoft bought the remaining 30% of those companies in 2016 for $7.9 billion.
“While the cloud services business is a critical part of Microsoft’s business, it is also a core business of Microsoft and is a major opportunity for the company to monetize its cloud services,” said David Kosten, the vice president of Microsoft Cloud Services.
“In fact, our goal is to leverage cloud services across the entire Microsoft ecosystem, so we are actively exploring all opportunities to make this a reality.”
Microsoft has long been interested in acquiring businesses that offer its cloud solutions, including companies like Dropbox and Box.
Microsoft already has a $1 billion investment in CloudFlare, an open-source company that provides its own virtual machine hosting and other services.
Microsoft also has been working on acquiring other cloud providers, including Google Cloud Platform and Amazon Web Services.
