Microsoft said the coronavirus pandemic has increased demand for its flagship products, reporting quarterly earnings Wednesday that beat Wall Street expectations.
The software giant said an ongoing trend of working and learning from home has fueled increased demand for its cloud computing services and workplace productivity products, such as email and video conferencing.
But the pandemic has also slowed sales of those products to smaller businesses, and eaten into the advertising revenue that powers its LinkedIn career networking service.
Microsoft on Wednesday reported fiscal fourth-quarter profit of $11.2 billion, or $1.46 per share, beating Wall Street expectations of $1.34 a share.
It posted revenue of $38 billion in the April-June period, up 13% from last year. Analysts had been looking for revenue of $36.5 billion, according to FactSet.
The company said its commercial cloud business surpassed $50 billion in annual revenue for the first time. But its LinkedIn service was hit by a weak job market and less money being spent on advertising.
LinkedIn announced Tuesday it is laying off nearly 1,000 employees, approximately 6% of its workforce globally. The job cuts take effect in August and will hit global sales and hiring sections of the company.
The pandemic has made other parts of Microsoft's business more appealing, including Xbox games and its workplace videoconferencing service known as Teams. One of its rivals, workplace chatting service Slack, filed a complaint against Microsoft on Wednesday in the European Union, accusing the software giant of anti-competitive behavior.
Slack said Wednesday that Microsoft illegally bundles its Microsoft Teams messaging product, which is similar to Slack, into Office 365, its package of email and other widely used business software. Slack says Microsoft forces companies to install it and blocks its removal.
Microsoft has said its competitive advantage over Slack stems from Teams capabilities for connecting people using video. Microsoft said Wednesday that it looks forward to providing the European Commission with more information and answering its questions about the Slack complaint.
SMPTE elects board officers, regional governors
SMPTE®,the home of media professionals, technologists, and engineers, has revealed the board officers and regional governors who will serve terms beginning in January 2025.
Three new officers--Richard Welsh as SMPTE president, Eric Gsell as SMPTE executive VP, and Polly Hickling as SMPTE Education VP--have been elected for a two-year term from Jan. 1, 2025, to Dec. 31, 2026. One SMPTE officer, Lisa Hobbs, will be continuing her service as SMPTE secretary and treasurer for another two-year term. Additionally, Raymond Yeung will be stepping into the role of standards VP on Jan. 1, 2025.
“SMPTE’s membership has spoken,” said SMPTE interim executive director Sally-Ann D’Amato. “These officers have been tasked with an important responsibility, one each of them is prepared to tackle head-on. These next two years are looking bright for SMPTE!”
In addition to the officers, 10 regional governors were elected by the Society to serve two-year 2025-2026 terms.
These include the following regional governors, re-elected to continue their service:
Asia-Pacific Region Governor
Tony Ngai, Society of Motion Imaging Ltd.
EMEA - Central & South America Region Governor
Fernando Bittencourt, FB Consultant
United Kingdom Region Governor
Chris Johns, Sky UK.
USA - Central Region Governor
William T. Hayes, Consultant
USA - Eastern Region Governor
Dover Jeanne Mundt, Riedel Communications
USA - Western Region Governor
Jeffrey F. Way, Open Drives
Also elected were four newcomers to the SMPTE Board:
Canada Region Governor
Jonathan Jobin, Grass Valley
USA - Hollywood Region Governor
Allan Schollnick, Voxx... Read More