A scooter drives by the Palais des Festivals at the 71st international film festival, Cannes, southern France, on May 7, 2018. The Cannes Film Festival, canceled altogether last year by the pandemic, is postponing this year’s edition from May to July in hopes of having an in-person festival. Cannes organizers announced Wednesday that this year’s Cannes will now take place July 6-17, about two months after its typical period. (Photo by Arthur Mola/Invision/AP, File)
By Jake Coyle, Film Writer
NEW YORK (AP) --
The Cannes Film Festival, canceled altogether last year by the pandemic, is postponing this year's edition from May to July in hopes of having an in-person festival.
Cannes organizers announced Wednesday that this year's festival will now take place July 6-17, about two months after its typical period. The French Riviera festival, which had run for nearly 75 years with few interruptions, is currently hoping the coronavirus recedes enough by summertime.
Cannes last year first looked at a postponement its 73rd festival to June or July before ultimately canceling altogether. The festival still went ahead with a selection announcement to celebrate the films it had planned to include in its prestigious lineup.
This year, organizers are intent on having a festival, one way or another. No details were announced Wednesday on what shape a 2021 edition might take.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella speaks during the Microsoft Ignite conference, Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2024, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast, File)
Microsoft Corp. said Wednesday that its profit for the October-December quarter grew 10% from the same time last year as it works to capitalize on the huge amounts of money it has spent to advance its artificial intelligence technology.
But while its overall profits and revenue beat Wall Street expectations, it slightly missed projections for its closely-watched cloud computing business, a centerpiece of its AI efforts.
The company reported net income for the quarter of $24.1 billion, or $3.23 per share, beating Wall Street expectations of $3.11 per share. The Redmond, Washington-based software maker posted revenue of $69.6 billion in the quarter, up 12% from the previous year, also beating expectations.
Analysts polled by FactSet Research expected Microsoft to generate revenue of $68.87 billion in the last three months of the year, and currently project revenue of $69.81 billion for the January-March quarter.
Sales from Microsoft's cloud-focused business segment grew 19% from the same time last year to $25.5 billion, which was less than the $25.83 billion forecast by FactSet analysts.
Microsoft's productivity business segment, which includes its Office suite of email and other workplace products, grew 14% to $29.4 billion.
Its personal computing business, led by its Windows division, remained steady at $14.7 billion.
Microsoft shares dropped slightly in after-hours trading Wednesday but were still higher than Monday, when the tech giant was hit by a broader tech stock sale caused by a frenzy over the new ChatGPT competitor developed by Chinese tech startup DeepSeek.
Microsoft is a close partner of ChatGPT maker OpenAI and also sells its own AI chatbot services, branded as Copilot. Part of what drove the Wall... Read More
