The assignment must be 100 not including the article
Article Critique instructions-Prof Ramkeesoon KSB 612 Article Critique Instructions Two company-performance article critiques (10 points each): 20 points Students are expected to submit a critique of a recent article about a company’s performance from either the Financial Times or Wall Street Journal. Students have free access to these publications via American University’s Library. The article must be published within four weeks of the assignment due date. The critique must not exceed 100 words. This is the total word count to cover the three points below. For the critique, in one sentence each, students should provide the following three responses. 1. Note the author’s conclusion about the company’s performance (e.g., “The author suggests the source of company X’s performance is Y”) 2. Provide a critique of the evidence provided by the author in support of this conclusion (e.g., “While the author suggests the source of company X’s performance is Y, it remains unclear how different company X is from its competitors on characteristic Y or on performance,” or “While the author suggests the source of company X’s performance is Y, company X also appears different from its competitors on characteristic Z, which might be an additional source of company X’s relative performance”) 3. Identify one question the answer to which would help the student better understand company X’s relative performance (e.g., “How do competitors compare on characteristic Y or Z and on performance?”). After the critique, copy and paste the full text of the article in a Word or pdf document. Include the following bibliographic information for the article: Headline Author name(s) Publication source Publication date Article URL Grading criteria Your submission will be graded based on how well each of the three points listed above was covered. Please do not base your article critiques on simple company earnings reports that make no effort to discuss the firm’s competitive advantage. In addition, the following must be observed: The article was published within four weeks of the assignment due date. The critique was within the 100-word count. The full text of the article and the bibliographic information were provided. Article critiques are due 48 hours before the live session. Students are then expected to comment briefly on two other students’ submissions in the Discussion Forum. The word count for student responses is flexible, use 100 words as a maximum. In choosing submissions on which to comment, please try to comment on those that have not already received two comments. Discussion Forum comments are due 24 hours before the live session. https://subjectguides.library.american.edu/business_online KSB 612 Article Critique Instructions Grading criteria 1/26/22, 6:01 PM Microsoft Earnings Grew Last Quarter With Demand for Cloud Services - WSJ https://www.wsj.com/articles/microsoft-msft-q2-earnings-report-2022-11643112605?mod=business_minor_pos7 1/4 This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies for distribution to your colleagues, clients or customers visit https://www.djreprints.com. https://www.wsj.com/articles/microsoft-msft-q2-earnings-report-2022�11643112605 TECH Microso� Earnings Grew Last Quarter With Demand for Cloud Services Software giant’s cloud-computing business continues to thrive on people’s shift to remote work during the pandemic Microsoft has been making big moves to boost its videogame business. An Xbox console gets a workout at a store in Seoul. PHOTO: SEONGJOON CHO�BLOOMBERG NEWS By Updated Jan. 25, 2022 6�51 pm ET Aaron Tilley Follow Microsoft Corp. said its earnings continued to grow last quarter as its cloud- services business stayed strong. On Tuesday, the Redmond, Wash., software giant said its sales in the quarter ended in December hit $51.7 billion, up 20% from a year earlier. Its net income rose 21% to $18.8 billion. The results beat predictions from analysts, who were expecting $50.7 billion in revenue and $17.5 billion in net income, according to FactSet. MSFT 2.85% ▲ https://www.wsj.com/news/technology?mod=breadcrumb https://www.wsj.com/market-data/quotes/MSFT https://www.wsj.com/market-data/quotes/MSFT?mod=chiclets 1/26/22, 6:01 PM Microsoft Earnings Grew Last Quarter With Demand for Cloud Services - WSJ https://www.wsj.com/articles/microsoft-msft-q2-earnings-report-2022-11643112605?mod=business_minor_pos7 2/4 Microsoft’s overall cloud revenue increased 32% from the year-earlier quarter to $22.1 billion. Its cloud-infrastructure service, called Azure, grew by 46%, down slightly from the prior quarter’s 48% growth Microsoft shares initially fell in after-hours trading, but then rebounded to a gain of more than 1% after the company issued its outlook for the current quarter. For the period, Microsoft expects sales of $48.5 billion to $49.3 billion, compared with analyst expectations of $48.1 billion, according to FactSet. Over the past two years, Microsoft has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of the shift of remote working that followed the spread of Covid-19. Companies, governments and schools across the world started using more cloud-based technologies, and Microsoft has been selling the tools used for the shift. While an increasing number of organizations have been returning to doing more work in offices, the Omicron variant of the virus may be delaying the return to normalcy. The cloud-services business is one of the fastest-growing in tech and could expand from $385 billion in 2021 to $809 billion by 2025, according to research firm International Data Corp. Microsoft is the second-largest player in the industry with a nearly 20% share of the global cloud-computing market after Amazon.com Inc., which dominates the sector with a more than 40% share, according to Gartner Inc. Demand for personal computers, many of them using Microsoft’s Windows operating system, has climbed in recent years, as has Microsoft’s videogame business. Demand for laptop and desktop PCs is expected to continue to grow. Windows licensing revenue from PC makers increased 25% in the latest quarter, while the company’s Surface computer sales rose 8%. Microsoft has been making big moves to boost its gaming business. Last week, it announced a $75 billion offer to acquire gaming company Activision Blizzard Inc. If the HEARD ON THE STREET » Read analysis on the software giant’s quarterly results Microsoft Saved by the PC• https://www.wsj.com/market-data/quotes/AMZN https://www.wsj.com/articles/desktop-sales-rebound-as-pandemic-work-evolves-11640860381?mod=article_inline https://www.wsj.com/articles/microsoft-saved-by-the-pc-11643159229?mod=article_inline https://www.wsj.com/articles/microsoft-to-buy-activision-blizzard-games-11642512435?mod=article_inline https://www.wsj.com/market-data/quotes/ATVI https://www.wsj.com/news/heard-on-the-street?mod=article_relatedinline https://www.wsj.com/articles/microsoft-saved-by-the-pc-11643159229?mod=article_relatedinline 1/26/22, 6:01 PM Microsoft Earnings Grew Last Quarter With Demand for Cloud Services - WSJ https://www.wsj.com/articles/microsoft-msft-q2-earnings-report-2022-11643112605?mod=business_minor_pos7 3/4 deal goes through, it will be Microsoft’s biggest acquisition by far. “With our planned acquisition of Activision Blizzard announced last week, we’re investing to make it easier for people to play great games wherever, whenever and however they want. And also shape what comes next for gaming as platforms like the metaverse develop,” Microsoft Chief Executive Satya Nadella told analysts in a conference call after earnings were announced on Tuesday. Microsoft’s gaming revenue in the quarter grew 8% from a year earlier, with its hardware sales advancing 4% on demand for the latest Xbox consoles. Revenue from gaming content and services climbed 10%. The Activision deal, if completed, would ratchet up the size of Microsoft’s videogame empire, making it the third-largest gaming company in the world by sales and adding popular game franchises including Call of Duty and Candy Crush to Microsoft’s Xbox console business. The offer for Activision also highlighted Mr. Nadella’s mission to reshape the company by leveraging its cloud infrastructure to grow in new markets. The acquisition would bolster its efforts to entice consumers to its already fast-growing cloud-gaming service. Microsoft’s subscription-gaming service, Game Pass, hit 25 million subscribers recently, up around 39% from a year ago. With more gamers playing on smartphones than on pricey game consoles and computers, Microsoft is leading the race to develop services for streaming high-end games to all kinds of devices the same way movies and TV shows are streamed. Microsoft shares have done well since the start of the pandemic. They are up around 75% over the past two years, and for a short period last year Microsoft ranked as the most valuable company in the world. This year its shares have slipped as part of a wider market selloff and are down more than 5% since the Activision acquisition was announced last week. Despite the strong results for Microsoft on Tuesday, some investors and analysts said they were looking for signs that Microsoft’s growth may have peaked. The company’s shares initially slipped more than 4% in after-hours trading after the announcement of the results. Even though the overall earnings numbers were better than https://www.wsj.com/articles/activision-deal-is-set-to-power-microsofts-push-to-be-the-netflix-of-gaming-11642597205?mod=article_inline https://www.wsj.com/articles/microsoft-overtakes-apple-as-most-valuable-company-11635516976?mod=article_inline 1/26/22, 6:01 PM Microsoft Earnings Grew Last Quarter With Demand for Cloud Services - WSJ https://www.wsj.com/articles/microsoft-msft-q2-earnings-report-2022-11643112605?mod=business_minor_pos7 4/4 Appeared in the January 26, 2022, print edition as 'Cloud Sales Propel Microsoft Earnings.' Copyright © 2022 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies for distribution to your colleagues, clients or customers visit https://www.djreprints.com. anticipated, some investors had expected more of the quarterly growth to come from the company’s cloud services, said Stifel Financial Corp. analyst Brad Reback. “The fact that maybe they’re reporting decelerating revenues for their fastest-growing segment is really raising concerns among some of the investors that the pace of growth in that division has really peaked,” said David Wagner, a portfolio manager at investment firm Aptus Capital Advisors, which owns shares in Microsoft. Write to Aaron Tilley at
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