Ford CEO 'denies' comment on Microsoft top job speculations

 
Alan Mulally, the man who has led Ford Motor Co's turnaround from near financial ruin, continues to keep mum on whether he has talked to Microsoft about the CEO job at the software giant.

Ford is set to report its fifth-straight profitable year under Mulally. The No. 2 US automaker reported a $1.3 billion third-quarter net profit.

He has held the top post since 2006, when he was hired from aviation giant Boeing to rescue the company. Mulally, 68, repeated that there's no change in Ford's plan for him to stay as CEO through the end of 2014.

"We don't comment on the speculation," he said on Thursday in response to a question from The Associated Press on the company's third-quarter earnings conference call.

Mulally said nothing has changed since last November, when Ford announced that he would stay through 2014 and that veteran executive Mark Fields would take over day-to-day business as chief operating officer.

Fields ran the company's Americas operations for seven years, turning them into a profit machine. His appointment as COO is a strong indication that the board favours him to replace Mulally.

Washington-based Microsoft Corp is reportedly considering Mulally as a replacement for CEO Steve Ballmer, who intends to step down in less than a year.

Mulally on his part hasn't denied reports that tech giant is courting him. His name surfaced shortly after Ballmer said in August that he would retire. The two are friends, and Mulally still has a home in the Seattle area. Ballmer even spoke with Mulally over coffee about a wide-ranging reorganization that Microsoft announced in July.

A management expert said the Ford CEO's no-comment indicates that he has some interest in the Microsoft job.

"His non-denial denial means that he's either talking to them or that he wishes he were talking to them," said Yale University management and law professor Jonathan Macey, who has written a book on corporate governance.

Microsoft beats forecasts as Q1 profit jumps 17 per cent

Microsoft Corp cruised past Wall Street's quarterly profit and revenue forecasts, helped by strong sales of its Office and server software to businesses, sending its shares up 6 per cent after hours.

For the first quarter, the technology giant posted a 17 per cent increase in profit to $5.2 billion, or 62 cents per share, up from $4.5 billion, or 53 cents per share, in the year-ago quarter.

Revenue rose 16 per cent to $18.5 billion, helped by rising sales of its Office software.

Analysts had trimmed profit estimates for Microsoft over the past three months, concerned by the launch of an ambitious reorganisation by retiring Chief Executive Steve Ballmer and the pricey acquisition of Nokia's handset business, even as the company's core personal computer market ebbs away.

"The earnings report will positively surprise the market, especially in the context of the soft expectations going in and the dismal report last quarter," said Todd Lowenstein, a portfolio manager at fund firm HighMark Capital. "Beating on revenue and earnings handily will boost confidence that the reorganization is pivoting them in the right direction."

Technology is proving one of the most resilient sectors in an uncertain US economy, with 84 per cent of tech companies beating analysts' earnings estimates for the latest quarter.

Microsoft, the world's largest software company, is the latest tech firm to surprise investors with a powerful performance, coming the same day as Amazon.com Inc eased past average revenue forecasts.

As part of its reinvention as a "devices and services" company, Microsoft now reports under two main groups - one covering its devices and consumer business, and one its commercial business.

The commercial side was the stronger in the quarter, posting a 10 per cent increase in revenue, chiefly from selling Office and server software to businesses. The consumer and hardware group's revenue rose a more modest 4 per cent, held back by another poor quarter for the Windows system as sales of personal computers continue to decline.

According to industry research firm Gartner, PC shipments fell 8.6 per cent last quarter, confirming a worldwide trend towards tablets that has benefited Apple Inc and Google Inc but hurt traditional PC stalwarts Microsoft and Intel Corp.

PC sales have been sliding for the last 18 months, although Microsoft Chief Financial Officer Amy Hood said on Thursday that there were "signs of stabilisation".

Microsoft said nothing on Thursday about the board's search for a new CEO after Ballmer announced in August that he plans to retire within 12 months.

Its shares rose to $35.65 after hours, after closing at $33.72 on Nasdaq.

Microsoft says Apple apps going free not a big deal

 
This was expected, but it hasn't taken a long time coming. A day after Apple announced that its new operating system , OS X Mavericks, as well as its office suite iWork -and iLife - would be free from now on , rival Microsoft has retorted by saying that the announcement was "not a big deal".

In a post filed on Microsoft's TechNet blog Frank Shaw, Corporate Vice President of Communications at Microsoft, said both Surface tablets had Office for free. "… Making Apple's decision to build the price of their less popular and less powerful iWork into their tablets is not a very big deal."

In a very cynical note, Shaw, who filed the post from Abu Dhabi, where the Nokia World has just concluded, added: "Seems like the RDF (Reality Distortion Field) typically generated by an Apple event has extended beyond Cupertino."

"Apple announced yesterday that they were dropping their fees on their "iWork" suite of apps. Now, since iWork has never gotten much traction, and was already priced like an afterthought, it's hardly that surprising or significant a move. And it doesn't change the fact that it's much harder to get work done on a device that lacks precision input and a desktop for true side-by-side multitasking," he added in a bid to show that the Surface tablets were superior to the iPad as far as productivity is concerned.

The post does not say much on what Redmond thought about the OS going free, but Shaw went on to highlight that the Surface and Surface 2 "are less expensive than the iPad 2 and iPad Air respectively, and yet offer more storage, both onboard and in the cloud". However, the fact is that Microsoft's tablets are far from popular and not even available in countries like India.

Perched in its position of software superiority Microsoft can afford to play hardball. "So, when I see Apple drop the price of their struggling, lightweight productivity apps, I don't see a shot across our bow, I see an attempt to play catch up," added Shaw in his post.
Now, to see if Microsoft can afford to maintain the hardline for long