Microsoft layoffs cost the company $113 million in severance in Q4 alone, earnings revealed today (July 26).
That’s just five hours’ earnings for Redmond – which made over $6,000 PER SECOND in its fiscal 2022.
Microsoft had described layoffs this month as “a small number of role eliminations” on July 12 and made the job cuts as part of what it described as a “strategic realignment of our business groups”.
“In a dynamic environment we saw strong demand, took share, and increased customer commitment to our cloud platform” said CFO Amy Hood: “As we begin a new fiscal year, we remain committed to balancing operational discipline with continued investments in key strategic areas to drive future growth.”
The company still expects to end the year with headcount up. It was not immediately clear how many staff were let go in the latest round of Microsoft layoffs; the company has also reportedly frozen hiring.
Microsoft Q4 earnings hit $51.9 billion
Microsoft Q4 earnings of $51.9 billion – up 12%, or 16% in constant currency – somehow failed to inspire investors, with shares sliding after Redmond missed expectations. The software behemoth reported full year revenues of $198.3 billion (up 18%) and net income of $72.7 billion (up 19%) versus the previous year.
We make that a healthy ~$22.6 million in revenues every hour for its fiscal 2022.
Microsoft meanwhile emphasised strong results for its “Intelligent Cloud” segment, which includes Azure.
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The business unit generated $20.9 billion in revenue, up 20% year-over-year, with Azure itself powering that growth with revenue up 40% year-over-year, or 46% in constant currency, the company said.
“We see real opportunity to help every customer in every industry use digital technology to overcome today’s challenges and emerge stronger,” said CEO Satya Nadella: “No company is better positioned than Microsoft to help organizations deliver on their digital imperative – so they can do more with less.”
Falling advertising spend cost LinkedIn $100 million (revenue was still up 26%); exiting Russia stung Microsoft for $126 million "related to bad debt expense, asset impairments, and severance" and an extended production shutdowns in China and a deteriorating PC market hit Windows OEM revenue for ~$300 million.
To be updated.
