> “How do you really tweak the incentives, go-to-market?” Nadella said. “At a time of platform shifts, you kind of want to make sure you lean into even the new design wins, and you just don’t keep doing the stuff that you did in the previous generation.”
Ok, sure, what does that mean though.
> The company reported better-than-expected results, with $25.8 billion in quarterly net income, and an upbeat forecast in late April.
Agree! Better tighten the belt. Don’t want to dip below $100 billion net income a year.
Basically Azure earnings were at the low end of their own projections. And their explanation was Azure non-AI services earnings have dropped as customers who have ongoing non-AI projects are working out how to incorporate AI services.
jasonthorsness · 55m ago
> "one objective is to reduce layers of management"
This seems a common theme: even in a company like Microsoft that takes pains to emphasize and support the IC track in addition to management there is a tendency towards creating layers that end up reducing agility.
Maybe it's just an excuse though. I am surprised they announced the 3% rather than just accomplishing it with attrition and slowing hiring. Maybe it looks smart to stockholders so they want the attention.
pwthornton · 42m ago
I wonder if this 3% is just their normal amount of attrition being dressed up in a way that stockholders will like.
0cf8612b2e1e · 24m ago
3% of Microsoft’s estimated 250k employees is ~7000 people. You cannot hide such numbers from reporting.
Ok, sure, what does that mean though.
> The company reported better-than-expected results, with $25.8 billion in quarterly net income, and an upbeat forecast in late April.
Agree! Better tighten the belt. Don’t want to dip below $100 billion net income a year.
The earnings call transcript is more useful than these stupid news articles - https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/Investor/earnings/FY-2025-Q2...
Basically Azure earnings were at the low end of their own projections. And their explanation was Azure non-AI services earnings have dropped as customers who have ongoing non-AI projects are working out how to incorporate AI services.
This seems a common theme: even in a company like Microsoft that takes pains to emphasize and support the IC track in addition to management there is a tendency towards creating layers that end up reducing agility.
Maybe it's just an excuse though. I am surprised they announced the 3% rather than just accomplishing it with attrition and slowing hiring. Maybe it looks smart to stockholders so they want the attention.