Latest news with #JudsonAlthoff
Business Times
3 days ago
- Business
- Business Times
Microsoft touts AI sales at town hall, reveals Barclays contract
MICROSOFT touted its progress selling artificial intelligence tools to corporate customers during a companywide town hall on Thursday, including a major deal with Barclays. Chief commercial officer Judson Althoff told employees that Barclays agreed to buy 100,000 licenses for Microsoft's Copilot AI assistants, according to people familiar with the event. Althoff also said multiple dozen customers — including Accenture, Toyota, Volkswagen AG and Siemens AG — have over 100,000 Copilot users, according to the people, who requested anonymity to discuss the internal remarks. Microsoft is focused on driving adoption of Copilot and is closely tracking what share of customer workforces are using the tools, chief executive officer Satya Nadella said during the event. At list prices of US$30 per user per month, the deals cited by Althoff would each be worth tens of millions of dollars per year — though large customers typically get bulk discounts. Microsoft declined to comment. Representatives of Barclays, Accenture, Toyota, Volkswagen and Siemens didn't comment. BT in your inbox Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox. Sign Up Sign Up The world's largest software maker is considered a leader in commercialising AI products, thanks to its close partnership with ChatGPT maker OpenAI, and has been embedding Copilot in its suite of productivity applications. Still, Wall Street has been anxious to see evidence that the multibillion-dollar bet is paying off. In January, Microsoft said that its AI suite — including cloud infrastructure and AI applications — was on pace to bring in at least US$13 billion in annual revenue. The company has offered plentiful anecdotes describing how corporate customers are taking up Copilot, Microsoft's signature AI product, but hasn't disclosed a total customer count or the financial impact of those sales. Some corporate clients say the tools require plenty of internal tweaks and employee training, and many describe their use of Copilot as a measured rollout and series of trials, rather than a rush to equip all of their personnel with the pricey software. Weeks after announcing plans to axe 6,000 workers, or about 3 per cent of the workforce, the company also has reason to rally the troops. Nadella began the meeting by addressing the cuts, saying that they were related to a reorganisation rather than performance. The terminations fell hardest on the people who build the company's products, showing that even engineering jobs aren't guaranteed in the age of artificial intelligence. BLOOMBERG
Bloomberg
3 days ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
Microsoft Touts AI Sales at Town Hall, Reveals Barclays Contract
Microsoft Corp. touted its progress selling artificial intelligence tools to corporate customers during a companywide town hall on Thursday, including a major deal with Barclays Plc. Chief Commercial Officer Judson Althoff told employees that Barclays agreed to buy 100,000 licenses for Microsoft's Copilot AI assistants, according to people familiar with the event. Althoff also said multiple dozen customers — including Accenture Plc, Toyota Motor Corp., Volkswagen AG and Siemens AG — have over 100,000 Copilot users, according to the people, who requested anonymity to discuss the internal remarks.
Business Insider
6 days ago
- Business
- Business Insider
Multiple Executives at Microsoft (MSFT) Sell Company Stock
Several executives at technology giant Microsoft (MSFT) have sold company stock in recent days. Confident Investing Starts Here: Millions of dollars of MSFT stock has been raised by senior managers at the Seattle-based company, according to filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). This includes Judson Althoff, Microsoft's Vice-President of Financials, who sold 16,000 shares at approximately $458 each, for proceeds of $7.3 million. Althoff still owns 98,010 shares of MSFT stock. Additionally, Microsoft Executive Vice-President Kathleen Hogan sold 21,500 shares of company stock at an average price of $454 each, totaling $9.8 million. Hogan still owns 134,887 shares of MSFT stock. The share sales come as Microsoft's stock has recovered from its April lows and risen 15% in the past month. Stock Recovery At $450 a share, MSFT stock is now at its highest level since last December and not far from its 52-week high of $468.35. Executives within the company appear to have used the recent rally to offload some stock they own and book profits. The stock's rally and executive sales come after Microsoft reported strong quarterly results at the beginning of May. In addition to beating Wall Street estimates on the top and bottom lines, MSFT also reported that revenue from its Azure cloud computing unit grew 33% during the year's first quarter, with 16 percentage points of that growth coming from artificial intelligence (AI). Is MSFT Stock a Buy? average price target on MSFT stock of $512.34 implies 13.81% upside from current levels.
Business Insider
21-05-2025
- Business
- Business Insider
Microsoft exec sells $7.33M in common stock
In a regulatory filing, Microsoft (MSFT) disclosed that its Chief Commercial Officer Judson Althoff sold 16K shares of common stock on May 19th in a total transaction size of $7.33M. Confident Investing Starts Here: Easily unpack a company's performance with TipRanks' new KPI Data for smart investment decisions Receive undervalued, market resilient stocks straight to you inbox with TipRanks' Smart Value Newsletter Published first on TheFly – the ultimate source for real-time, market-moving breaking financial news. Try Now>>
Business Insider
25-04-2025
- Business
- Business Insider
Microsoft is trying to simplify how it sells Copilot AI offerings, internal slides reveal
Microsoft is trying to simplify its many AI offerings by streamlining how the products are pitched to customers, according to internal slides from a recent presentation. The software giant has a bunch of different AI tools, all called Copilot. There's Copilot for its Teams chat app, Copilot for its PowerPoint presentation tool, Copilot for its Outlook email service — just to name a few. These products are often split into different "solution areas," as Microsoft calls them. Having Copilot tools in many different buckets can slow down sales, confuse customers, and affect cost and quality of the tools, people in the organization told Business Insider. They asked not to be identified discussing private matters. Microsoft Chief Commercial Officer Judson Althoff this week unveiled plans for addressing these issues in the company's upcoming fiscal year, which begins in July. BI obtained copies of slides from his presentation. According to one of the slides, three major changes include: Consolidate Microsoft's solution areas. Accelerate regional skills at scale. Align teams working with small, medium, and corporate customers with those working with outside channel partners who market and sell Microsoft products. The organization currently has six solutions areas: Modern work, Business Applications, Digital & App Innovation, Data & AI, Azure Infrastructure, and Security. Beginning in July, these areas will be combined into three: AI Business Solutions, Cloud & AI Platforms, and Security. AI Business Solutions will include tools such as Copilot for Microsoft 365, Copilot for Teams, Copilot for Outlook, plus a data visualization product called Power BI, according to a person who attended a Thursday all-hands for Althoff's organization. This person asked not to be identified discussing private matters. "We are evolving the commercial solution areas within our sales organization to better reflect the era of AI and support the growth of our customers and partners," a Microsoft spokesperson said in a statement. "This evolution reflects the shift in how customers and partners are buying and will better serve their needs." The other changes include expanding training for salespeople and a reorganization to Small, Medium Enterprise & Channel (SME&C) team, which was announced internally earlier this year. The changes come as Microsoft is trying to figured out how to make money from its significant AI investments. It has mulled changes including new software bundles with Copilot. The company earlier this year said it plans to spend $80 billion on expanding its network of AI data centers.
