Choice Post - 10/21

During after hours trading today, Microsoft's stock skyrocketed over 5%, which gives the company the opportunity to break it's record of $59.56 per stock that was set in 1999, around the time the Internet was starting to become mainstream. This boom can be credited to Microsoft's incredibly successful cloud computing service, "Azure", which has been steadily creeping up on the current industry leader, Amazon's "Web Services". Microsoft has had recent blunder with their gaming-related sales, with the "Xbox S" selling less units than expected, and a ongoing loss in the phone department. Windows phones recently sunk below 1% of the market sharer, which is a huge disappointment, considering the large sums of money invested into research and development for these devices. Despite the few rough patches Microsoft has had to deal with lately, the phenomenal success of their division based on the very profitable idea of "hardware as a service" has caused a huge spike in their stocks, and shows that the tech giant is still as big as it's ever been. This cloud computing unit is a result of a high stakes business venture between Microsoft and Adobe, that, luckily for Microsoft, easily paid back all the investment money that went into it.


Main Article:
http://money.cnn.com/2016/10/20/technology/microsoft-earnings-q1/index.html?iid=hp-stack-dom

Sources:
http://www.wsj.com/articles/microsofts-cloud-buoys-earnings-1476995257
http://www.theverge.com/2016/5/23/11743594/microsoft-windows-phone-market-share-below-1-percent
http://money.cnn.com/2016/10/20/technology/microsoft-earnings-q1/index.htm
l?iid=hp-stack-dom