Microsoft shares rally as it shrugs off tech upheaval to become Silicon Valley’s ‘Rock of Gibraltar’
Microsoft shares surged as they swept away the gloom engulfing Silicon Valley and emerged as its “Rock of Gibraltar.”
The tech giant said overall sales in the three months to December 31 were £43bn, up 2% from a year earlier and in line with analyst forecasts.
Microsoft said its cloud computing business delivered a “strong” set of results, with sales of its Azure platform rising nearly a third.
Microsoft said overall sales in the three months to December 31 were £43 billion, up 2% from a year earlier and in line with analysts’ forecasts.
Wedbush analyst Dan Ives said Azure’s growth was “strong and much better than feared.”
He added: “Clearly headwinds abound, but overall Microsoft’s Redmond headquarters is a rock of Gibraltar in this grim economic environment.”
Shares jumped 4% after hours trading. Despite the increase, they have still fallen by 16% over the last twelve months.
Its latest findings come amid a wave of tech layoffs that has cost more than 200,000 jobs over the past year.
The jobs bloodbath was triggered by a sharp slowdown in growth due to soaring inflation and interest rates.
Bosses have hired thousands of workers as tech companies have seen huge success during the pandemic, undergoing major expansion plans.
But companies such as Amazon, Google owner Alphabet, Facebook parent company Meta and software company Salesforce have since made major staff cuts. Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter also made significant cuts late last year.
And Microsoft began a series of layoffs last week that will affect 10,000 of its 221,000 employees.
The computer software specialist has also dabbled in artificial intelligence, unveiling an investment in chat bot company OpenAI this week.
