pc: Earnings Call: Microsoft Reviewing Hiring Plans; Won’t Be Doing That Much M&A This Fiscal Year

During the call discussing Microsoft’s Q308 earnings earlier today, MSFT CFO Chris Liddell gave a sober warning about the economy, the slowdown and managing it at Microsoft: “We experienced deterioration of the spending environment in the last few weeks of the quarter and continuation into October. We are reviewing our hiring plans, and adjusting the headcount growth. These savings would progressively layer in and carry forth for next year.”
He said that there would be cuts or slowdowns in hiring, marketing costs and building out its data centers. Then it would look at other miscellaneous expenses like travel and third-party payments. Headcount: “We will not grow headcount by 15 percent this year (as it did last fiscal), it would be less than what we expected to grow coming into this year.”
But at the same time, he said: “We feel extremely good about our competitive position.”
On the M&A strategy for the company going ahead (no one asked about Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO), nor did the company say anything): “Clearly the benefits of this environment head to us and we continue to be a net acquirer of businesses. Last year we bought 24 companies, and we will continue to buy in the SMB sector. We won’t see as much activity...issues would be: do we have a product roadmap, and do we have the people to integrate the products within?”