Kara Swisher

Recent Posts by Kara Swisher

Microsoft's Financial Analyst Meeting Today: Billion-Dollar Belly Flop With a Side of Yahoo

microsoft_logo1

The fun never stops at Microsoft, it seems.

Well, not fun–more like a long march of khaki-clad Softies.

They will be on display bright and early this morning at the company’s annual Financial Analyst Meeting, a cavalcade of top execs at the tech giant blabbing away.

BoomTown will be there covering it in person, natch!

The Microsoft management smorgasbord includes:

CEO Steve Ballmer, COO Kevin Turner, Entertainment and Devices President Robbie Bach, Online Services President Qi Lu, Microsoft Business President Stephen Elop, Servers and Tools President Bob Muglia, Chief Research and Strategy Officer Craig Mundie, Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie and CFO Chris Liddell.

I am betting that most of the focus at the gathering, which is being held at the worldwide HQ of Microsoft (MSFT) in Redmond, Wash., will likely be on two major events over the last week–its billion-dollar revenue miss in its fourth quarter and its just-born search and online advertising deal with Yahoo (YHOO).

The former, of course, was bad news for Microsoft, as it continues to signal weakness in its core operating system software and server businesses, due to lower demand for personal computers in the midst of the econalypse.

The latter was good news, of course, since Microsoft seemed to score a coup in nabbing the search technology business from Yahoo with no big upfront payments.

I have a lot of questions about both these issues, as will the crowd of reporters and Wall Street sharpies at the FAM, which is what they call the meeting here.

There could even be be plenty of answers, especially given that the entire leadership of Microsoft will be there.

Here is a link to a live Webcast of the FAM event, if you want to join the party too.


comments so far. Add yours.

  • josh thompson

    “the entire leadership of Microsoft will be there”

    that says it is all good news, and everyone wants to be there.

  • http://blog.macb.net Mac Beach

    … or that it’s bad news and they want to spread the blame around.

    For a clue as to where the real blame goes, think about who decides who will be there.

  • Srinidhi “Sri” Thirumala

    I bet everyone at Microsoft is saying “Bada Bing Bada Boom”

Latest Video

View all videos »

Search »

I break down a product the same way I break down a character I’m going to play. I try to get inside the mind of that person — the user, the consumer — and figure out why they’re doing something and what they want from it.

— Ashton Kutcher’s investing philosophy