DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

☆ Microsoft shares fall after earnings report as analysts process a delayed A.I. ramp
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-26 | by ( Jordan Novet | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Microsoft shares were trading down as much as 5% on Wednesday, a day after the software maker issued worse-than-expected quarterly revenue guidance. Microsoft has been increasing its capital expenditures to get infrastructure in place to provide AI services to developers at other companies and roll out assistant capabilities to apps such as Word and Outlook. The extra spending cuts into Microsoft's cloud gross margin. "The messaging on Copilot was more about tempering rather than inflating expectations," wrote UBS analysts led by Karl Keirstead, which also has a buy rating on Microsoft. Raymond James' Andrew Marok and Mauricio Munoz, with the equivalent of a buy rating on Microsoft shares, had a similar tone.

Persons: Amy Hood, Mark Murphy, Karl Keirstead, It's, Brad Reback, Raymond James, Andrew Marok, Mauricio Munoz, Satya Nadella, — CNBC's Michael Bloom Organizations: Microsoft, JPMorgan, UBS

☆ What Alphabet and Microsoft are saying about A.I. on their earnings calls
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-26 | by ( Samantha Subin | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Second-quarter earnings season brought heavyweight technology giants and artificial intelligence frontrunners Alphabet and Microsoft head-to-head in an all-too-familiar matchup. Alphabet shares rose 6% after the company reported better-than-expected quarterly results and 28% year-over-year growth in cloud revenue, while Microsoft lost 4% on disappointing revenue guidance and a delayed AI rollout . GOOGL YTD mountain Alphabet shares in 2023 Both Alphabet and Microsoft have spearheaded the effort, facing off with competing chatbots early in the year. Alphabet Alphabet rolled out its Bard chatbot worldwide during the second quarter, removed a testing waitlist and added a host of new capabilities. Microsoft Despite confidence in Microsoft's long-term capabilities, some investors and analysts seemed disappointed by the seemingly delayed rollout of many of its AI products.

Persons: Bard, Sundar Pichai, Pichai, Ruth Porat, Goldman Sachs, Eric Sheridan, Amy Hood, Karl Keirstead, Satya Nadella, — CNBC's Michael Bloom Organizations: Microsoft, Wall, UBS

Microsoft is weaving AI into its own products, such as the $30-a-month "Copilot" assistant for its Microsoft 365 service that can summarize a day's worth of emails into a quick update. Microsoft's results show heavy spending on AI services ahead of commensurate revenue growth. For the segment that includes Azure, Microsoft forecast a first-quarter revenue range with a midpoint of $23.45 billion. Microsoft's forecast for its Windows segment had a midpoint of $12.7 billion, below analysts' estimate of $13.14 billion. Microsoft has started integrating AI functionality across its products such as Azure, Microsoft 365, GitHub and several developer tools.

Persons: Amy Hood, Hood, Satya Nadella, Yuvraj Malik, Devika Syamnath, Richard Chang Organizations: Microsoft, Wall, Nvidia Corp, Revenue, Alpha, Thomson Locations: Bengaluru

☆ Why we're raising our price target on Microsoft despite a softer revenue outlook
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-25 | by ( Jeff Marks | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +8 min

Revenues beat across the board, Azure's revenue growth decelerated in line with expectations, and companywide operating margins expanded nicely from last year. But total revenues fell a little less than expected, at 4%, mostly due to a 12% decline in Windows OEM revenue and a 18% drop in devices revenue growth. Gaming revenue grew 2%, with Xbox content and services revenue up 6%, offset by a 13% decline in Xbox hardware. In the productivity and business processes segment, revenue increased about 10% from last year thanks to a 15% increase in Office 365 Commercial Revenue growth. Microsoft sees Azure revenue growing 25% to 26% in constant currency, including roughly 2 points from all Azure AI services.

Persons: Amy Hood, Jim Cramer's, Jim Cramer, Jim, Satya Nadella, Flipkart, Nadella, Amit Madheshiya Organizations: Microsoft, Revenue, Refinitiv, Revenues, Services, Activision Blizzard, Office Consumer Products, Nvidia, CNBC, Microsoft Corp, Bloomberg, Getty Locations: Mumbai, India

☆ Microsoft is 'in the lead' with new cloud-based A.I. workloads, CEO Nadella says
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-25 | by ( Jordan Novet | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

1 when it comes to selling cloud-based AI services. The concept of AI has been around longer than Microsoft, and Microsoft has been running AI models for other companies for several years. That's the reason Microsoft has disclosed how much of the expected Azure cloud growth will come from AI for the past two quarters, Nadella said. That could be worth hundreds of millions of dollars in new Azure AI revenue. "There are two parts to even the AI," Nadella said.

Persons: Satya Nadella couldn't, Microsoft's, Nadella, Bing, OpenAI, Amy Hood, Adam Crisafulli Organizations: Microsoft, Bing, Google, Windows, OpenAI

☆ Microsoft's latest A.I. subscription is boosting Wall Street's confidence in the software giant
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-19 | by ( Samantha Subin | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Analysts are turning more bullish on Microsoft and its artificial intelligence capabilities after the software giant revealed pricing for its A.I. Shares closed at a record Tuesday after Microsoft revealed a $30 fee for its monthly Copilot offering, which adds AI capabilities to Microsoft 365. The announcements led to a handful of Wall Street price target adjustments, as the company solidifies its dominance in the latest technology revolution consuming the investing community. The analyst has an overweight rating on the stock and raised his price target to $385 per share from $350. The analyst hiked his price target to $400 from $330.

Persons: chatbot, Microsoft's, Amy Hood, Mark Murphy, James, Brad Sills, Sills, Brad Zelnick, — CNBC's Michael Bloom Organizations: Microsoft, Meta, Bank of America Locations: ChatGPT

☆ Cramer: The Cassandras are wrong about the market (again) — here's why I'm upbeat
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-16 | by ( Jim Cramer | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +14 min

The impossibility of any company doing anything right, or as right as the market seems to judge, serves as the only homily worth offering. You simply don't land at all. Of course, the biggest worry to this market is its two-tiered nature: The mega-cap techs versus all the rest. As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trade alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable trust's portfolio.

Persons: Warren Buffett, It's, Jerome Powell's, Alan Greenspan, Ben Bernanke, Powell, deride Powell, —, it's, Wells, Vin Diesel, he'll, Goldman Sachs, Amy Hood, Tim Cook's, Mark Zuckerberg's pickleball, Clive Cussler, Stephen King, Lina Khan's, Jonathan Kanter, Khan, Morgan, let's, Jim Cramer's, Jim Cramer, Jim, Victor J Organizations: Apple, Wells, JPMorgan, PepsiCo, Treasury, Bank of America, Microsoft, Activision Blizzard, Nvidia, Intel, Devices, Colgate, Federal Trade, Activision, Justice Department, sycophantic, Fed, Jim Cramer's Charitable, CNBC, Visitors, New York Stock Exchange, Blue, Bloomberg, Getty Locations: People's Republic of China, China, Wells Fargo, America, New York

☆ Microsoft CFO Amy Hood warned employees not to 'build a gold toilet'
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-06 | by ( Jordan Novet | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

From left, Tim Stuart, chief financial officer of Xbox at Microsoft; Phil Spencer, Microsoft's CEO of gaming; and Microsoft finance chief Amy Hood arrive to court in San Francisco on June 29, 2023. Microsoft's finance chief advised employees not to "build a gold toilet" during a 2018 meeting, according to emails that came up during federal court hearings last month over the software maker's planned Activision Blizzard acquisition. The quip might invoke a 2016 social-media claim (proven false by Snopes) that former President Donald Trump owned a solid gold toilet. "I've made that mistake on too many products, and I'm sure everyone else has too, when we've built features before we answered the core questions," Gluckstein wrote. Read the emails from Spencer and Gluckstein regarding Hood's "gold toilet" comments below.

Persons: Tim Stuart, Phil Spencer, Amy Hood, Donald Trump, MC Hammer, Catherine Gluckstein, Gluckstein, Xbox's, I've, we've, Spencer, xCloud, it's Organizations: Xbox, Microsoft, Activision Blizzard, Bluetooth, TAM, Cloud, Google, Federal Trade Commission Locations: San Francisco

☆ The biggest takeaways from Microsoft's courtroom showdown with the FTC over Activision Blizzard
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-30 | by ( Jordan Novet | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +21 min

The impulse to expand Microsoft's gaming business on mobile devices at least in part inspired the Activision acquisition. The impulse to expand Microsoft's gaming business on mobile devices at least in part inspired the Activision acquisition. Jim Ryan, CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment, wasn't happy with a Microsoft-generated list of Activision Blizzard games that would remain accessible on the PlayStation after the acquisition closes. Jim Ryan, CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment, wasn't happy with a Microsoft-generated list of Activision Blizzard games that would remain accessible on the PlayStation after the acquisition closes. Activision Blizzard and Microsoft have agreed to terminate the deal if it's not done by July 18.

Persons: Satya Nadella, Phil Spencer, Spencer, James Weingarten, Weingarten, Jim Ryan, Sony, Ryan, Amy Hood, Bobby Kotick, Sarah Bond, Kotick, Amazon Weingarten, Bond, Tim Stuart, Nadella, Bernstein, Mark Moerdler, Hood, Stuart, it's, Jacqueline Scott Corley, she'll Organizations: Northern, Northern District of, Microsoft, Activision Blizzard, Federal Trade Commission, FTC, Sony, PlayStation, Mobile, Activision, Xbox, Zynga, Sega Sammy, Nintendo, Enix, Sony Interactive Entertainment, Management, Sony Group, Amazon, Microsoft's Xbox, Bernstein Research, Symantec, Sony PlayStation Locations: U.S, Northern District, Northern District of California, San Francisco, cybersecurity, United Kingdom, FarmVille, Asia, Japan, Tokyo

☆ Microsoft says it looked at acquiring Zynga but opted to go bigger with Activision
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-23 | by ( Jordan Novet | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Zynga was originally for the Facebook hit social game FarmVille, before eventually expanding into mobile games, largely through acquisitions. Prior to the Microsoft offer, Activision met with a financial firm to work on topping Take-Two's purchase of Zynga, CNBC reported at the time. Spencer didn't say when Microsoft was in talks with Zynga, and the company wouldn't provide further comment. Spencer said that after the company went to Zynga, he worked with Microsoft finance chief Amy Hood to look for mobile opportunities. Activision grew its portfolio of mobile games with the 2016 acquisition of King, publisher of Candy Crush Saga.

Persons: Phil Spencer, Justin Sullivan, Spencer, Spencer didn't, Tencent, Amy Hood, King, Candy Organizations: FRANCISCO, Microsoft, Activision, FTC, Activision Blizzard, Zynga, Federal Trade Commission, Facebook, FarmVille, CNBC, Sony, Apple Locations: CALIFORNIA, San Francisco , California, San Francisco

☆ Microsoft, Activision CEOs on witness list for hearing on FTC bid to block merger
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-20 | by ( David Shepardson | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The FTC is seeking a preliminary injunction to block Microsoft from completing its $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard. The FTC has argued the transaction would give Microsoft's video game console Xbox exclusive access to Activision games, leaving Nintendo (7974.T) consoles and Sony Group Corp's (6758.T) PlayStation out in the cold. Microsoft's bid to acquire the "Call of Duty" video game maker was approved by the EU in May, but British competition authorities blocked the takeover in April. The FTC is calling Nadella to testify about the video game industry, Microsoft Gaming’s strategy and business and the planned Activision acquisition, while Microsoft is calling him to testify about similar topics. Also testifying are two executives from Nvidia Corp.Microsoft Chief Financial Officer Amy Hood, Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer and Microsoft Gaming CFO Tim Stuart are also scheduled to testify, as are a number of expert witnesses.

Persons: Satya Nadella, Bobby Kotick, Nadella, James Ryan, Dov Zimring, Amy Hood, Phil Spencer, Tim Stuart, David Shepardson, Chris Reese Organizations: Microsoft, Activision Blizzard, Federal Trade, FTC, Activision, Nintendo, Sony Group, EU, Sony Interactive Entertainment, Google, Nvidia Corp, Thomson

☆ Microsoft's stock hits record after executives predict $10 billion in annual A.I. revenue
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-15 | by ( Jordan Novet | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Microsoft shares climbed to a record Thursday after analysts at JPMorgan Chase touted the software maker's growth prospects in artificial intelligence. AI has been a hot topic all year, after Microsoft-backed OpenAI in November released the ChatGPT chatbot, which quickly went viral. In the past four quarters, Microsoft has generated almost $208 billion in total revenue. Negative sentiment around cloud growth and a contracting PC market led to pessimism on Wall Street last year. But the excitement around AI in addition to the cost-cutting measures that tech companies implemented produced a renewed bullishness.

Persons: Bing Chatbot, Satya Nadella, Amy Hood, Kevin Scott, Hood, Scott, MSFT Organizations: Microsoft, JPMorgan Chase, Nasdaq, Tech, JPMorgan, Security Locations: OpenAI

☆ Microsoft says Bing can be default search engine for ChatGPT users
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-23 | by ( Jordan Novet | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Microsoft said Tuesday that it will offer Bing as the default search engine in OpenAI's viral ChatGPT chatbot. "ChatGPT will now have a world-class search engine built-in to provide timelier and more up-to-date answers with access from the web," Mehdi wrote. "Now, ChatGPT answers can be grounded by search and web data and include citations so you can learn more — all directly from within chat." Microsoft is trying to expand the use of Bing, which has for years struggled to gain market share from Google. Microsoft said developers will be able to build plugins that work in ChatGPT, Bing and its Copilot chatbot coming to Microsoft 365 apps such as Word and Excel.

☆ AI startup cloud deals by Microsoft, Google and Amazon ring 'accounting alarm bells' across Silicon Valley over revenue 'round-tripping'
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-19 | by ( Eugene Kim | Stephanie Palazzolo | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

Some investors question whether these arrangements are artificially juicing cloud revenue growth. When Microsoft announced a multibillion-dollar investment in OpenAI earlier this year, the deal made Azure the ChatGPT-maker's "exclusive cloud provider." There's another deal in the works with similar attributes involving Runway AI and a major cloud company. But they are drawing more scrutiny lately because they could artificially inflate cloud revenue, a key driver of growth for Microsoft, Google, and Amazon, according to Ted Mortonson, managing director of financial-services firm Baird. Is OpenAI a regular cloud customer that is getting no investment money from Microsoft?

☆ Microsoft skips salary increases for full-time employees this year
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( Jordan Novet | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Satya Nadella, chief executive officer of Microsoft Corp., appears at a panel session at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on May 24, 2022. Microsoft will hold off on offering salary increases to full-time employees, CEO Satya Nadella told staffers by email on Wednesday. The move aligns with Microsoft's efforts to reduce costs as revenue growth slows and clients reel in spending. Last year, as inflation rippled through the economy, Microsoft nearly doubled the budget for merit increases and boosted stock allocations for certain employees. WATCH: Microsoft's Satya Nadella joins fellow tech executives for White House meeting on AI

☆ CEOs are getting closer to finally saying it — AI will wipe out more jobs than they can count
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-02 | by ( Hasan Chowdhury | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Tech workers are finding out what it's like to be replaced by AI. It's the boldest statement yet from tech firms turning to AI to help them get efficient. Tech workers are about to find out. Here are five tech firms that have acted first with a big bet on AI. AmazonAmazon has been among the most bruised tech firms since the downturn of 2022 was kickstarted.

☆ Top cloud providers Amazon, Microsoft and Google face ongoing spending cuts by clients
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-30 | by ( Jordan Novet | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

The result is slowing revenue growth at the cloud divisions run by Amazon , Microsoft and Google . AWS saw deceleration in the third and fourth quarters, and last quarter Microsoft finance chief Amy Hood spooked analysts with comments about a slowdown in December that she expected to persist. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said "what we're seeing is enterprises continuing to be cautious in their spending in this uncertain time." At Google, cloud growth slowed to 28% from a year earlier in the first quarter from 32% in the prior period. WATCH: Ongoing deceleration in IT spending not reflected in tech earnings

☆ Amazon is the growth laggard of the cloud industry now
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Ellen Thomas | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Amazon said cloud revenue trended down by 500 basis points in April, suggesting year-over-year growth of 11%. The three largest cloud companies reported results in recent days and the growth picture for Amazon Web Services is, well, cloudy. Microsoft's Azure cloud unit grew sales by 31% year over year in the first quarter, while Google Cloud reported a 28% increase. So that suggests a year-over-year growth rate of just 11% for the early part of the second quarter. AWS is still the largest cloud provider, but if Microsoft continues to outgrow Amazon every quarter, the gap will narrow.

☆ Analysts are getting even more bullish on Microsoft's A.I. prospects after latest earnings report
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Brian Evans | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Microsoft's big swings on artificial intelligence are paying off, and analysts are even more bullish on the tech giant. Rangan has a buy rating on Microsoft and a price target of $335, implying upside of 21.6%. "Azure growth was ahead of expectations with MSFT showing ability to protect margin/EPS in a tough backdrop," Turrin said, who rates the stock as overweight. He also hiked his price target to $345 from $320, pointing to a 25.2% potential gain. Keith Weiss of Morgan Stanley also reiterated an overweight rating on the stock, and hiked his price target to $335 per share from $307.

☆ Microsoft's bet on AI is still in its early days. But there are signs it's already paying off.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Paayal Zaveri | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Microsoft's partnership with OpenAI has lead to a new wave of innovation in artificial intelligence. There are already early signs that the Microsoft-OpenAI partnership is paying off, analysts say. Analysts say there is still work to be done, but "Microsoft is leading this tech AI arms race." Wall Street analysts took that as a sign that Microsoft's big bet on AI is already leading to financial gains. Ultimately, Wedbush analyst Dan Ives said, "the AI story is still in the first inning," but, he said, "Microsoft is leading this tech AI arms race."

☆ Microsoft stock rallies on earnings and bullish A.I. outlook
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Rohan Goswami | In Rohangoswamicnbc | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

A sign for Microsoft Corp. at the company's office in the central business district of Lisbon, Portugal, on Tuesday, Dec. 27, 2022. Microsoft shares sustained a nearly 8% jump in pre-market trading Wednesday, a day after reporting third-quarter results that beat analyst expectations on the top and bottom lines. Shares held their gains after a British regulator blocked Microsoft's planned acquisition of video game company Activision Blizzard on Wednesday morning. Analysts responded positively to Microsoft's AI prospects. Morgan Stanley reiterated its overweight rating on the stock and increased its price target to $335.

☆ Stocks making the biggest moves premarket: Activision Blizzard, Chipotle, First Republic Bank & more
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Pia Singh | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

The company said Tuesday its upcoming quarterly revenue will range from $700 million to $750 million, compared to the expected $765.2 million from analysts surveyed by StreetAccount. The company reported an adjusted loss of $1.27 per share and $17.92 billion in revenue. Activision Blizzard — Activision Blizzard shares dropped about 10.4% in the premarket after a UK regulator blocked Microsoft's purchase of the video game publisher. ServiceNow will be announcing its quarterly earnings Wednesday after the bell. The gain came after fellow tech-related giant Microsoft reported quarterly earnings that exceeded expectations, boosting sentiment for Amazon.

☆ Microsoft reports earnings beat, says A.I. will drive revenue growth
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-25 | by ( Jordan Novet | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Here's how the company did:Earnings: $2.45 per share, vs. $2.23 per share as expected by analysts, according to Refinitiv. $2.45 per share, vs. $2.23 per share as expected by analysts, according to Refinitiv. Revenue: $52.86 billion, vs. $51.02 billion as expected by analysts, according to Refinitiv. For the fiscal fourth quarter, Microsoft finance chief Amy Hood called for $54.85 billion to $55.85 billion in revenue, during a conference call with analysts. Revenue increased 7% to $52.86 billion from $49.36 billion a year ago, according to a statement.

Executives across the technology sector are talking about how to operate AI like ChatGPT while accounting for the high expense. What makes this form of AI pricier than conventional search is the computing power involved. Still, footing the bill is one of two main reasons why search and social media giants with billions of users have not rolled out an AI chatbot overnight, said Paul Daugherty, Accenture's chief technology officer. Technology experts also said a workaround is applying smaller AI models to simpler tasks, which Alphabet is exploring. The company said this month a "smaller model" version of its massive LaMDA AI technology will power its chatbot Bard, requiring "significantly less computing power, enabling us to scale to more users."

In this article MSFT Follow your favorite stocks CREATE FREE ACCOUNTAn attendee interacts with the AI-powered Microsoft Bing search engine and Edge browser during an event at the company's headquarters in Redmond, Washington, US, on Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2023. Microsoft unveiled new versions of its Bing internet-search engine and Edge browser powered by the newest technology from ChatGPT maker OpenAI. When that prompt is entered into ChatGPT, the OpenAI tool generates three bulleted lists detailing examples of German Expressionism in film, music and literature. Bing not only presents lists of cinema, music, and literature representing German Expressionism, but it also gives users extra context about the artistic movement. At times the Bing chatbot opted not to do things that ChatGPT would do.

Search resuls for: "Amy Hood"

25 mentions found