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Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and CFO Chris Liddell are hosting a strategic update conference with analysts and investors today in order to give an outlook (any and all outlooks, we hope) for the world's largest software company. As always, we're on the beat and the below liveblog will include live coverage as it happens from the webcast. With that, here we go!Note: All times below are in EST.
4:00pm -- waiting for the webcast to start. Microsoft's technical gurus should have the webcast underway shortly.
4:03pm -- still waiting...this music is nice but bad, bad quality sounds. Who chooses this?
4:07pm -- wow, Microsoft is late (still waiting). I guess they are trying to launch Vista's successor, eh?
4:10pm -- while the analysts are probably munching popcorn in their offices, we're sitting here twiddling thumbs. Dee-dee-doo-dah
4:13pm -- finally -- and only 13 minutes late. We're starting.
4:15pm -- Ballmer is riffing a little as he gets started -- he's talking about a staph infection in his foot last year. Nice.
4:17pm -- Ballmer is starting to talk about opportunities and risks in a general way. Nothing really new here. He's making sure the audience knows about Microsoft's five areas of focus: first up, people (employees) -- as Microsoft has seen defections to the finance industry. He also mentions Google as a talent sucker from Microsoft's ranks. Yep. The second is innovation -- services, products, long-term, short-term. This is nothing new from Microsoft at all and it's mentioned every time a call is had. Ballmer get snarky about "it won't take 5 years again -- I promise" about Vista's lateness. Third up (most important): investing broadly across all product lines. He sounds kinda down about "building online services" -- i.e., Live.com and MSN I think. Fourth up is evolution of software as a service (sounds like Ozzie has his hand up Ballmer's back). I agree -- and it's both an opp and a threat for Ole' Softie. The last one is "thinking for the long term." This one is a poke to Wall Street I think, since short term is the theme of the second most days.
4:25pm -- Ballmer is now talking FY08 -- he's just generally talking (not "guiding"). Ballmer has a penchant for vocal inflection here. FY08 operating expenses will be "less than" $2.7 billion.
4:29pm -- Windows growth is related to PC shipments (well, duh). He's also talking about retail sales of Vista so far and that this is a long-term revenue path. Again, duh.
4:32pm -- MSFT's dividends will be consistent in FY08, and MSFT's tender offer to buy back its stock fell short of expectations -- as not so many wanted to sell it back. MSFT have bought back about $7 billion in its own stock though in the last 6 months.
4:35pm -- Microsoft's R&D spending will not "stop" according to Ballmer. He says that R&D cost models used by the market are a little "wacky" when measured as a percentage of gross margin. I agree with that to a large degree. Do you?
4:37pm -- Ballmer is again talking about how "software as a service" will evolve and how Microsoft will be capitalizing on it.
4:40pm -- Ballmer is now talking about Microsoft's growth perspective going forward (for the next 3 years), and there are 9 areas with no less than half a billion in margin growth. And then he gets into nasty details here...
4:43pm -- Ballmer's going into all Microsoft business areas like Windows growth, Xbox growth, Windows Mobile growth, Preventing piracy in emerging markets and more...
4:48pm -- Ballmer is now talking about the need for a strong services platform...and it sounds like he was distracted by someone in the room for some reason.
4:51pm -- Ballmer says that new business models worry him more than competitive companies (hint: Google). This is a good discussion here. He then brings up Linux competition -- and they are a good competitor.
4:54pm -- Ballmer is now talking about ad-funded experiences, and how Google and Yahoo! are much better. "We will improve". He does not sound happy.
4:55pm -- Ballmer is now talking about leadership changes (Gates and Allchin). Ballmer also says Microsoft's leadership team is as good as it eve has been. He then says people are the #1 asset at Microsoft.
4:57pm -- Ballmer mentions Google, Apple and Salesforce.com will be growing fast in the coming years -- and Microsoft's benchmark is to grow operating income as a best-in-class function of the computing industry.
5:00pm -- Ballmer is wrapping up his remarks and then asks for questions now...
5:02pm -- first question comes from emerging markets growth -- and how will Microsoft will recognize revenue here.
5:05pm -- another audience member question comes in about the larger business divisions and how dependent Microsoft is on each one.
5:09pm -- third question comes in about the "Live" transformation (www.live.com). CFO Liddell says that no specific guidance is coming at this time -- but will come later in 2007.
5:13pm -- the fourth question comes into play about articulating how Microsoft is going to acquire more corporate and consumer customers (since so many shops run on Linux, and are customers buying Vista). Ballmer responds by dissecting these markets and talking about each (as in, the hardware companies in each market -- Dell, IBM, Novell, HP, etc).
5:15pm -- the next question regards how the market is evaluating the growth of Vista and how Microsoft correlates the revenue stream from that area of the business against projections. Ballmer gets animated in his discussion here and it's clear he doesn't put much stock in all the different growth projections for Vista.
5:18pm -- one of the last questions deals with Google, and how this company is building an infrastructure (they're not just an ad-revenue company). Can Microsoft compete here? Ballmer says that a strong server and client business that supports the infrastructure of Microsoft's customers.
5:24pm -- the analyst conference appears to be over. Hope you had fun -- we did!
4:17pm -- Ballmer is starting to talk about opportunities and risks in a general way. Nothing really new here. He's making sure the audience knows about Microsoft's five areas of focus: first up, people (employees) -- as Microsoft has seen defections to the finance industry. He also mentions Google as a talent sucker from Microsoft's ranks. Yep. The second is innovation -- services, products, long-term, short-term. This is nothing new from Microsoft at all and it's mentioned every time a call is had. Ballmer get snarky about "it won't take 5 years again -- I promise" about Vista's lateness. Third up (most important): investing broadly across all product lines. He sounds kinda down about "building online services" -- i.e., Live.com and MSN I think. Fourth up is evolution of software as a service (sounds like Ozzie has his hand up Ballmer's back). I agree -- and it's both an opp and a threat for Ole' Softie. The last one is "thinking for the long term." This one is a poke to Wall Street I think, since short term is the theme of the second most days.
4:25pm -- Ballmer is now talking FY08 -- he's just generally talking (not "guiding"). Ballmer has a penchant for vocal inflection here. FY08 operating expenses will be "less than" $2.7 billion.
4:29pm -- Windows growth is related to PC shipments (well, duh). He's also talking about retail sales of Vista so far and that this is a long-term revenue path. Again, duh.
4:32pm -- MSFT's dividends will be consistent in FY08, and MSFT's tender offer to buy back its stock fell short of expectations -- as not so many wanted to sell it back. MSFT have bought back about $7 billion in its own stock though in the last 6 months.
4:35pm -- Microsoft's R&D spending will not "stop" according to Ballmer. He says that R&D cost models used by the market are a little "wacky" when measured as a percentage of gross margin. I agree with that to a large degree. Do you?
4:37pm -- Ballmer is again talking about how "software as a service" will evolve and how Microsoft will be capitalizing on it.
4:40pm -- Ballmer is now talking about Microsoft's growth perspective going forward (for the next 3 years), and there are 9 areas with no less than half a billion in margin growth. And then he gets into nasty details here...
4:43pm -- Ballmer's going into all Microsoft business areas like Windows growth, Xbox growth, Windows Mobile growth, Preventing piracy in emerging markets and more...
4:48pm -- Ballmer is now talking about the need for a strong services platform...and it sounds like he was distracted by someone in the room for some reason.
4:51pm -- Ballmer says that new business models worry him more than competitive companies (hint: Google). This is a good discussion here. He then brings up Linux competition -- and they are a good competitor.
4:54pm -- Ballmer is now talking about ad-funded experiences, and how Google and Yahoo! are much better. "We will improve". He does not sound happy.
4:55pm -- Ballmer is now talking about leadership changes (Gates and Allchin). Ballmer also says Microsoft's leadership team is as good as it eve has been. He then says people are the #1 asset at Microsoft.
4:57pm -- Ballmer mentions Google, Apple and Salesforce.com will be growing fast in the coming years -- and Microsoft's benchmark is to grow operating income as a best-in-class function of the computing industry.
5:00pm -- Ballmer is wrapping up his remarks and then asks for questions now...
5:02pm -- first question comes from emerging markets growth -- and how will Microsoft will recognize revenue here.
5:05pm -- another audience member question comes in about the larger business divisions and how dependent Microsoft is on each one.
5:09pm -- third question comes in about the "Live" transformation (www.live.com). CFO Liddell says that no specific guidance is coming at this time -- but will come later in 2007.
5:13pm -- the fourth question comes into play about articulating how Microsoft is going to acquire more corporate and consumer customers (since so many shops run on Linux, and are customers buying Vista). Ballmer responds by dissecting these markets and talking about each (as in, the hardware companies in each market -- Dell, IBM, Novell, HP, etc).
5:15pm -- the next question regards how the market is evaluating the growth of Vista and how Microsoft correlates the revenue stream from that area of the business against projections. Ballmer gets animated in his discussion here and it's clear he doesn't put much stock in all the different growth projections for Vista.
5:18pm -- one of the last questions deals with Google, and how this company is building an infrastructure (they're not just an ad-revenue company). Can Microsoft compete here? Ballmer says that a strong server and client business that supports the infrastructure of Microsoft's customers.
5:24pm -- the analyst conference appears to be over. Hope you had fun -- we did!
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
2-15-2007 @ 11:39PM
roxx said...
Give it a rest already! You anti Msft bias is getting really annoying. Give it to TWX. Their shareholders need it.
rxx