Microsoft briefly became a $1 trillion company, could do it again

[midian182]

What just happened? Microsoft was briefly flying high yesterday when it became only the third US company to pass a market cap of $1 trillion. The achievement came in the wake of strong fiscal third quarter financial results, which pushed up the company’s share price.

Thursday saw Microsoft’s stock open at $130 per share, pushing its total market cap to above the $1 trillion mark. Only Apple and Amazon have managed to pass this milestone in the past.

Microsoft generated $30.6 billion during the quarter, a year-on-year increase of 14 percent. Profit, meanwhile, rose 19 percent to $8.8 billion. As usual, the company’s biggest growth came from its cloud services segment, which saw a 41 percent revenue increase compared to the same period last year. Its Azure cloud, server products, and enterprise services arm brought in $9.7 billion in revenue.

Microsoft’s Windows, Xbox, and Surface segment contributed $10.7 billion in revenue, an 8 percent YoY increase, while Office, LinkedIn, and Dynamics generated $10.2 billion.

"In Windows, the overall PC market was stronger than we anticipated driven by improved chip supply that met both unfulfilled Q2 commercial and premium consumer demand as well as better than expected Q3 commercial demand," said Microsoft's chief financial officer, Amy Hood.

Earlier this month, it was reported that Windows 10 users had reached an all-time high as Windows 7 users declined—a result of the old OS’s end of extended support phase drawing closer. At last count, Windows 10 had 800 million installs and is likely to hit one billion this year.

Microsoft is now back under that trillion dollar valuation. At the time of writing, its market cap is $990 billion, putting it ahead of rivals Apple ($967 billion) and Amazon ($936 billion).

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https://www.techspot.com/news/79819-microsoft-briefly-became-1-trillion-company.html

 

[Morris Minor]

Bring on mr robot

 

[R00sT3R]

Remember folks..Its all just a Ponzi/Pyramid scheme.

 

[yRaz]

I bet they could do it consistently if they stopped raining windows 10. I remember reluctantly switching from 7 to 10 and thinking, "I guess this is alright, I can get used to this". Then, after years of making changes that make the OS LESS accessable it's basically useless to me. I've gotten every game I want to play to work on Linux. Only one I really had problem with was Eve Online and that only had to do with the DRM. They ended up perma banning me for hacking until I sent in an appeal with the link to the guide I used to make it work.

 

[Evernessince]

I bet they could do it consistently if they stopped raining windows 10. I remember reluctantly switching from 7 to 10 and thinking, "I guess this is alright, I can get used to this". Then, after years of making changes that make the OS LESS accessable it's basically useless to me. I've gotten every game I want to play to work on Linux. Only one I really had problem with was Eve Online and that only had to do with the DRM. They ended up perma banning me for hacking until I sent in an appeal with the link to the guide I used to make it work.

Microsoft doesn't need to make a good product to make money. They have a negative 5% federal tax rate in the US, the government pays them.

 

[wiyosaya]

I bet they could do it consistently if they stopped raining windows 10. I remember reluctantly switching from 7 to 10 and thinking, "I guess this is alright, I can get used to this". Then, after years of making changes that make the OS LESS accessable it's basically useless to me. I've gotten every game I want to play to work on Linux. Only one I really had problem with was Eve Online and that only had to do with the DRM. They ended up perma banning me for hacking until I sent in an appeal with the link to the guide I used to make it work.

Microsoft doesn't need to make a good product to make money. They have a negative 5% federal tax rate in the US, the government pays them.

Where there is a tax law, it can be gamed.

 

[Adi6293]

I bet they could do it consistently if they stopped raining windows 10. I remember reluctantly switching from 7 to 10 and thinking, "I guess this is alright, I can get used to this". Then, after years of making changes that make the OS LESS accessable it's basically useless to me. I've gotten every game I want to play to work on Linux. Only one I really had problem with was Eve Online and that only had to do with the DRM. They ended up perma banning me for hacking until I sent in an appeal with the link to the guide I used to make it work.

Microsoft doesn't need to make a good product to make money. They have a negative 5% federal tax rate in the US, the government pays them.

Where there is a tax law, it can be gamed.

Yeah but only by the rich, you and I would be rotting in jail for not paying tax

 

[Lew Zealand]

I bet they could do it consistently if they stopped raining windows 10. I remember reluctantly switching from 7 to 10 and thinking, "I guess this is alright, I can get used to this". Then, after years of making changes that make the OS LESS accessable it's basically useless to me. I've gotten every game I want to play to work on Linux. Only one I really had problem with was Eve Online and that only had to do with the DRM. They ended up perma banning me for hacking until I sent in an appeal with the link to the guide I used to make it work.

Microsoft doesn't need to make a good product to make money. They have a negative 5% federal tax rate in the US, the government pays them.

Where there is a tax law, it can be gamed.

Yeah but only by the rich, you and I would be rotting in jail for not paying tax

Well, you and I don't employ 130 thousand people who themselves get taxed, so why should any big employer need to be taxed *again*, right?

 

[yRaz]

Well, you and I don't employ 130 thousand people who themselves get taxed, so why should any big employer need to be taxed *again*, right?

Because they write off the employee wages on their taxes. Microsoft still uses public electric lines, public transportation for dlivering goods and they also pollute here while making billions a year. So that -5% tax break means they receive 1.5 billion on the 30 billion profit they made last quarter. That is after the wages they paid to the 130,000 people.

 

[Lew Zealand]

Because they write off the employee wages on their taxes. Microsoft still uses public electric lines, public transportation for dlivering goods and they also pollute here while making billions a year. So that -5% tax break means they receive 1.5 billion on the 30 billion profit they made last quarter. That is after the wages they paid to the 130,000 people.

I look forward to all the formerly unemployed people that MS will be able to hire with that $1.5B windfall. Think of the increased tax money (@28%! ) all those people will be contributing to the US government. Win win for everyone!

(why do we not have an eyeroll emoji?)

 

[yRaz]

I look forward to all the formerly unemployed people that MS will be able to hire with that $1.5B windfall. Think of the increased tax money (@28%! ) all those people will be contributing to the US government. Win win for everyone!

(why do we not have an eyeroll emoji?)

All that money goes to shareholders, it doesn't go into hiring more employees. At any time MS could dip into the money they pay out as dividends to hire people. If they don't hirer more people with 30 billion, what makes you think the extra 1.5 billion would help? And this is quarterly so, all things being equal, MS would receive $6billion a year from the government.

 

[Evernessince]

I look forward to all the formerly unemployed people that MS will be able to hire with that $1.5B windfall. Think of the increased tax money (@28%! ) all those people will be contributing to the US government. Win win for everyone!

(why do we not have an eyeroll emoji?)

What reality have you been looking at? That money hasn't been going to employees or hiring, it's been going shareholders and execs.

https://www.thestreet.com/politics/income-inequality-in-america-14927750

Over 3 DECADES the inflation adjusted income for the bottom half of earners increased by a mere $200 USD or 1% of their yearly earnings. That's pathetic, it doesn't cover the increasing costs of living. Meanwhile the income of top earners increase by approximately 300%. Take into consideration that in 1980 the income inequality was starting to become an issue, and then add 300% onto that issue. Also consider that this data only goes up to 2016, before the Trump tax cut. After the cut, well you have CEOs coming out talking about the nightmares they have about income inequality at their company.

https://inequality.org/great-divide/patriotic-millionaires-tax-the-rich/

There is almost 4 decades of data to show that trickle down economics does not work and it never will. Why? Because hoping the rich and powerful will give the poor some of their wealth is the same as having an aristocracy. It's the republican's greatest trick, getting the average joe to believe in a system that's been used for centuries to keep the rich wealthy and the poor in their place.

I hope you realize the lack of incentive for companies with a low tax rate to hire employees. The lower the tax rate, the less incentive for a company like Amazon to hire people. You see, employees can be written off as a deduction on your taxes but if Amazon already reaches it's max deduction without hiring, no point in getting more people when you can simply automate their jobs. A higher tax rate and deductions designed to encourage employment would get a company to hire people. The Trump tax cuts aren't that, they are a blank check to companies saying "Do what you want" and what they want is to automate to save money and earn as much capital as possible, mass hiring not required. Of course that is how a company is supposed to function, it's just ironic that people seem to believe they will behave otherwise. It'd be like if I laid a heaping bowl of dog food in front of my Husky. I know he'd eat the whole thing, even if they are going to throw up multiple times in the process. That's just the kind of dog Huskies are, they will keep eating because they don't know when to stop.

 

[Lew Zealand]

The key word in my post:

eyeroll

 

[Adi6293]

Well, you and I don't employ 130 thousand people who themselves get taxed, so why should any big employer need to be taxed *again*, right?

Because if I have to pay tax on my £30000 I make a year I dont see why Microsoft shouldn't pay tax on the billions they make, and its not getting taxed again, they pay somebodys wage and that wage gets taxed Jesus we either all pay it or nobody is paying it........