Microsoft has never been expert at discerning the best nascent new technologies, and always steals or copies those who already prove the new markets and technologies. For example, Xbox is stolen from Playstation. Windows is stolen from Mac. PCDOS (MSDOS)
was stolen from CP/M
via QDOS. Excel was stolen from Lotus 123. Silverlight was stolen from Flash.
Microsoft was a master of grabbing market share and then using every monopolistic means to sustain it. But in this new age of open source, the most open platforms win:
Thus Microsoft's business methodology is an archaic dinosaur.
So Microsoft selecting Ethereum is likely a the touch of death, same as it was for Microsoft embracing Nokia or anything else Microsoft has touched since open source platforms began to dominate.
Ethereum is a corporate model. It is not the be all, end all, and best
solution to the block chain 2.0. An upstart open source solution will slay the
organizational morass that is Ethereum, because block chain tech isn't that complex (it doesn't require a huge corporate morass) and because creativity is borne in the individual.