From Seattle's own, GeekWire (also covering Redmond), January 25:
Things really began to change in December.
That’s when Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform started to lose some of its momentum, experiencing “moderated consumption growth,” in the words of Amy Hood, Microsoft’s chief financial officer, on its earnings call Tuesday afternoon.
Microsoft says Azure’s revenue growth was 38% for the quarter overall, adjusted for foreign currency fluctuations. That was already down from 46% growth a year ago. But by the end of December, the growth had slipped even more, to the mid-30% range. And Microsoft says it could drop another 4 to 5 points next quarter.
Many parts of Microsoft’s business are showing signs of a storm. But if its results Tuesday were an instrument for measuring the tech economy, this change in the cloud is as close as the industry will get to a barometer.
“Just as we saw customers accelerate their digital spend during the pandemic, we’re now seeing them optimize that spend,” Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said in his prepared remarks to analysts and investors on the earnings call. “Also, organizations are exercising caution given the macroeconomic uncertainty.”
In other words, companies are spending less, and trying to get more out of what they’re spending.
Microsoft was is the first big tech company to report earnings for the quarter ended Dec. 31. Companies including Amazon and Google, Microsoft’s main rivals in the cloud, will report their results next week.....
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