Microsoft's Poor PR Timing

amirm

Banned
Apr 2, 2010
15,813
37
0
Seattle, WA
As some of you may have heard, Microsoft finally started to make the tough call of getting out of the purchase of Nokia handset business, laying off large number of people and taking significant losses. Yesterday, they announced quarterly earnings which is as customary, has a bunch of other charges in there. What is puzzling to me is doing all of this just in advance of their biggest launch in a long time, namely Windows 10. Standard PR advice says that this negative news will become part of the good portion of Windows 10 news and that is exactly what is happening. The "good news" is that next quarter should be good from earnings point of view as they have pulled in all the losses into this quarter.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2488214,00.asp

Microsoft Takes a Hit Before Windows 10 Launch
BY STEPHANIE MLOT JULY 22, 2015 08:45AM EST
A quarter of layoffs, write-downs, and exec shuffles in a huge loss ahead of the Windows 10 launch.

Microsoft this week reported its highest-ever quarterly net loss, thanks in part to a write-down of its Nokia phone business.

For the fiscal fourth quarter, which ended on June 30, the company's net loss came to $3.2 billion—a massive hit following $4.61 billion net income during the same time last year.

That includes Redmond's enormous $8.4 billion bill, which covers various charges: $7.5 billion impairment fee related to the Nokia acquisition, $780 million restructuring cost, $160 million charge for an integration and restructuring plan.

"Our approach to investing in areas where we have differentiation and opportunity is paying off with Surface, Xbox, Bing, Office 365, Azur,e and Dynamics CRM Online all growing by at least double digits," Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella (pictured) said in a statement.

Overall Devices and Consumer revenue declined 13 percent, but Redmond is focused on the silver linings: Tablet sales increased by 117 percent, while Xbox Live transactions and first-party games boosted console earnings by 27 percent. Microsoft also added nearly 3 million Office 365 Consumer subscribers during the quarter.

"And the upcoming release of Windows 10 will create new opportunities for Microsoft and our ecosystem," Nadella said.

Earlier this month, the tech giant announced plans to cut up to 7,800 jobs, as part of an effort to "restructure the company's phone hardware business to better focus and align resources." Layoffs will occur over the next several months, affecting mostly those workers in Microsoft's struggling phone business. Cuts will be "substantially complete" by the end of the calendar year.

The move comes after Redmond last month shuffled its executive team, in which former Nokia CEO Stephen Elop left the company, and Executive Vice President Terry Myerson took full control of devices.
 

KeithR

VIP/Donor
May 7, 2010
5,137
2,793
1,898
Encino, CA
MSFT did very well last year courtesy of a mandatory upgrade from the XP expiry. remains to be seen going forward how they do as PC sales have reverted back into the dumpster.

Nadella's effort into the cloud is encouraging- question is do they retain XBox?
 

Don Hills

Well-Known Member
Jun 20, 2013
366
1
323
Wellington, New Zealand
Nokia are in the process of buying Alcatel-Lucent(*). Interesting times ahead for the mobile industry.

(*) One of the biggest telecommunications companies you've never heard of. They make everything from phones to undersea cables. Relevance to audio is that they own Bell Labs.
 

amirm

Banned
Apr 2, 2010
15,813
37
0
Seattle, WA
Nokia are in the process of buying Alcatel-Lucent(*). Interesting times ahead for the mobile industry.

(*) One of the biggest telecommunications companies you've never heard of. They make everything from phones to undersea cables. Relevance to audio is that they own Bell Labs.
I unfortunately know them too well (as a Patent Troll) having been the executive initially assigned to settle this suite per Judge's order: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcatel-Lucent_v._Microsoft_Corp. With them not be willing to even have a discussion on the topic....
 

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