MSFT Stock Rebounds After Microsoft Refutes Information Report: “Did Not Lower AI Software Sales Quotas”

Update 10:35am ET: CNBC quotes a Microsoft spokesman who denies the Information report, saying the company “did not lower sales quota.” Meanwhile, The Information has also changed the title of its report from “MSFT Lowers AI Software Sales Quotas as Customers resist newer products” to “Microsoft Lowers AI Software Growth Targets as Customers Resist Newer Products.” Separately, a report from Mizuho’s Klein also pushes back on the report and claims that the Information article “looks and sounds totally backward looking” adding that it is “nothing new. Not an incremental negative.“

In kneejerk reaction, MSFT stock rebounds from session lows, and the drop is now less than 1% from the pre-report highs.

* * * 

Futures suddenly tumbled just after 9am ET, when Bloomberg blasted a report from the Information, which cites two salespeople in Microsoft’s Azure cloud unit, and who claim that Microsoft has lowered expectations for how quickly it can get customers to spend money on newer AI products, known as agents, after many salespeople missed sales-growth goals.

Corporate customers have complained that it’s hard to measure the savings from using AI technology and that it can be difficult to get the AI to work perfectly in certain cases. This is important for those trying to quanity the IRR from AI: it appears to still be at or just above zero.

According to the report, multiple MSFT divisions lowered how much salespeople are supposed to grow their sales of certain AI products after many of them missed sales-growth goals in the fiscal year that ended in June, according to two salespeople in Microsoft’s Azure cloud unit; they added that “It’s rare for Microsoft to lower such quotas for specific products.”

Microsoft is adjusting to resistance from companies to pay more for AI, but AI has been a major boon to Microsoft’s business, thanks to new spending by AI firms and Microsoft’s sales of AI software.

The news hammered both MSFT…

… and spoos, which instra-tumbled about 40 points on the report.

Word of caution: since sellthrough of AI software is one of the weakest links in the multi-trillion AI bubble, don’t be surprised if we get a quick and firm denial from MSFT in the next few minutes, which will reverse the sharp losses.