Microsoft Corp

AMD’s 1Q17 revenues rose 18% to $984 million, which was in line with the consensus estimate.

The fourth quarter of 2016 marked the third straight quarter in which Microsoft emerged as the leader in the overall enterprise SaaS market.

Salesforce meets or exceeds analyst expectations Earlier in this series, we discussed Salesforce’s (CRM) initiatives and the threat posed by Microsoft (MSFT), Adobe (ADBE), and Oracle (ORCL) in the cloud space. Despite this mounting competition, with each passing quarter, Salesforce has managed to increase its revenue guidance. Earlier, Salesforce expected revenue of $10.1 billion–$10.15 billion […]

Salesforce’s deferred revenue So far in this series, we’ve discussed Salesforce’s (CRM) position in the cloud space and the threat posed by its peers. In fiscal 4Q17, Salesforce reported deferred revenue of $5.5 billion. Its unbilled deferred revenue stood at $9 billion. Its revenue grew 29% and 27%, respectively, in constant currency terms, indicating improvement […]

Microsoft’s edge over Salesforce in the cloud Earlier in this series, we discussed how Adobe’s (ADBE) and Microsoft’s (MSFT) collaboration could loosen Salesforce’s (CRM) grip on the cloud computing space. Salesforce pioneered SaaS (software-as-a-service) and had a first-mover advantage over peers Microsoft, Oracle (ORCL) and IBM (IBM). However, Microsoft soon became a dominant player in […]

Collaboration is the largest segment in the SaaS space and, after enterprise resource planning (or ERP), it grew the most in the SaaS space.

In fiscal 2Q17, Microsoft’s (MSFT) Azure revenues rose 93%, and its computing usage more than doubled on a year-over-year basis. In constant currency terms, MSFT’s growth reached 95%.

The emergence of the data economy is creating new growth drivers for Micron Technology (MU) in every end market.

Oracle (ORCL) has targeted the Asia-Pacific region, the Middle East, and North America to open more data centers in 2018.

Revenue from EA’s international markets fell 5.0% YoY (year-over-year) from $622.0 million in fiscal 3Q16 to $588.0 million in fiscal 3Q17.

Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) is set to launch its Ryzen desktop processors on March 2, 2017.

As of January 25, 2017, Microsoft continues to be the largest software player by market capitalization on a global scale.

Salesforce pioneered SaaS, and since its launch, Salesforce has developed an impressive mix of cloud-based offerings.

IBM (IBM) spends ~6% of its annual revenue on R&D (research and development). In 2016, IBM spent $5.4 billion on R&D

Despite a fall in overall revenue and no growth in any of its operating segments, IBM’s Strategic Imperatives segment managed to post growth in 3Q16.

Apple (AAPL) reported fiscal 4Q16 net sales of $46.9 billion, which represents a YoY (year-over-year) fall of 8.9% from its net sales of $51.5 billion in fiscal 4Q15.

Oracle was trading at a forward EV-to-EBITDA multiple of ~8.3x on December 8, 2016. This metric was lower than Microsoft’s multiple of ~10.3x.

The GoPro Plus subscription service costs $4.99 per month and supports all camera models. GoPro Plus has to compete with major players like iCloud (AAPL).

Hewlett-Packard Enterprise (HPE) has mentioned that enterprises and customers are shifting toward hybrid cloud, and it aims to simplify this transition.

Fiscal 3Q17 was the first full quarter that reflected Nvidia’s (NVDA) Pascal GPU sales. NVDA reported record-high revenue growth in its Gaming segment, which crossed the $1 billion mark for the first time.

Morningstar first began rating companies in 2002 according to the strength and longevity of their competitive advantages.

Along with Microsoft (MSFT), VMware was named a leader in the x86 server virtualization infrastructure space in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant.

Adobe’s Document Cloud performance in 3Q16 So far in this series, we’ve discussed Adobe’s (ADBE) performance in fiscal 3Q16. We also looked at Adobe’s increased Creative Cloud subscriptions, which enabled the company’s Digital Media segment to report a 29% revenue growth in fiscal 3Q16. Document Cloud (or DC) also contributed to Digital Media’s record revenue […]

An analysis of Emerson Electric’s (EMR) ROIC between 1995 and 2015 shows that 2001–2003 were the only years when ROIC fell below 13%.

We analyzed Danaher’s (DHR) ROIC in the 20-year period between 1995 and 2015 and classified the period of study into 16 buckets of five years each.

Cisco’s Collaboration business saw revenues rise by 10% YoY in fiscal 3Q16. Revenues in this segment rose from $972 million in fiscal 3Q15 to $1.1 billion in fiscal 3Q16.

On June 29, AGCO (AGCO) announced that it acquired Cimbria Holdings from Silverfleet Capital for 310 million euros ($340 million).

Microsoft (MSFT) issued Aaa/AAA rated high-grade bonds worth $19.8 billion through seven parts on August 1, 2016.

Rackspace and other smaller players are losing market share to large players in the cloud space.

Azure retained its position as a top performer in Microsoft’s cloud offerings with triple-digit growth in fiscal 4Q16.

Take-Two Interactive Software (TTWO) has seen its revenues increase from $825 million in fiscal 2012 to ~$1.4 billion in fiscal 2016.

Apple’s problems in China seem to have worsened in the last few weeks.

On June 20, 2016, Adobe announced it had again been recognized by Gartner as a leader in the 2016 Magic Quadrant for Mobile App Development Platforms research report.

Earlier in 2016, Cisco completed the acquisition of European video conferencing startup Acano for $700 million in cash.

LinkedIn will be a standalone entity within Microsoft. This transaction is part of Microsoft’s plan to focus on cloud-based offerings. It wants to rely less on PCs.

Amazon (AMZN) currently dominates the cloud infrastructure space. AWS (Amazon Web Services) is used by more than 1 million customers.

In the last five years, Amazon’s revenue has risen at a compound annual growth rate of 22% thanks to its flourishing e-commerce sales.

Amazon’s other services, which were developed to support its core retail business, have now become its revenue and profitability drivers.

The merger of Computer Science Corporation (CSC) and Hewlett-Packard Enterprise’s (HPE) Enterprise Services business is expected to expand its customers’ access to digital innovation.

The global distribution of digital games is expected to reach $12.9 billion in 2019 and should account for 19.6% of the industry’s overall gaming revenue.

According to the Entertainment Software Association (or ESA), 29% of all video game users are between 18–35 years of age, whereas 27% of players are below the age of 18.

According to Statista, shooter and action games dominate video game sales and account for 24.5% and 22.9%, respectively, of total sales in the US.

Starting with a modest computer game developed in the 1940s, the video gaming industry has exploded as graphics and technology continue to advance. This series will look at the various trends and highlights that impact the gaming sector.

Earlier in the series, we discussed Salesforce’s (CRM) fiscal 1Q17 results and the company’s growing relationship with Amazon (AMZN).

Comcast is increasingly focusing on its Business Services segment, which has three growth engines: small business, mid-sized business, and enterprise.

Motorola’s Razr proved to be quite popular. But with the advent Apple’s iPhone and Samsung’s smartphone offerings, Motorola quickly lost its market share.

Nokia clearly ruled the mobile phone market from the late 1990s until 2011. Then Nokia began to decline, and Samsung emerged as the leader in mobile phones.

The global economy has experienced slower growth since the global recession, and mobile devices have shown simultaneous signs of market saturation.

The Fed’s cautious approach and global growth concerns are weighing heavily on the US dollar, whose decline has impacted SAP’s fiscal 1Q16 performance.

Of the 38 analyst recommendations on Microsoft’s stock, 60.5% were “buys” as of April 6. Meanwhile, ~29% of recommendations were “holds.” The remaining ~10.5% of recommendations on the stock were “sells.”