February 13, 2023

This week saw negative quarterly reports from Apple, Amazon, and Alphabet, while Facebook parent company Meta defied the gloomy tech trend with more sales than anticipated.

After COVID-19 limitations on its facilities in China reduced iPhone sales during the important Christmas holiday season, Apple reported its first revenue decline in almost four years.

Sales for the corporation fell 5% from the same time last year to $117 billion (€107 billion) for the months of October through December, a more dramatic decrease than experts had anticipated.

Apple, unlike its competitors, has not indicated any intention of using mass layoffs. In a conference call with analysts on Thursday, Apple CEO Tim Cook said, “We manage for the long term.” “We invest on people and innovation.”

Apple’s quarterly profit also decreased, falling 13% year over year to $30 billion (€27.5 billion). Its results did not meet market forecasts for the first time in almost seven years.

Apple’s quarterly profit also decreased, falling 13% year over year to $30 billion (€27.5 billion). Its results did not meet market forecasts for the first time in almost seven years.

Apple, unlike its competitors, has not indicated any intention of using mass layoffs. In a conference call with analysts on Thursday, Apple CEO Tim Cook said, “We manage for the long term.” “We invest on people and innovation.”

As the search engine is hampered by a drop in online advertising spending and competition from rivals, Google’s parent firm Alphabet also reported lower quarterly earnings and a little gain in revenue.

While overall revenue increased, advertising revenue decreased by almost 4%, while YouTube revenue decreased by 8% year over year. Investors looked to be alarmed by this as they lowered the price of the company’s stock in after-hours trading.

According to Alphabet, it made $13.62 billion (€12.5 billion) in the October to December quarter, a 34% increase over the same time last year. The amount of revenue increased 1% to $76.05 billion (€69.7 billion).

Microsoft is a rival to Google in the field of artificial intelligence. Last month, Microsoft revealed that it was investing “multiyear, billions dollars” in OpenAI, the company behind the hugely popular ChatGPT and other tools that can create new visuals and legible text.

In its largest-ever round of layoffs, Alphabet revealed last month that it will be eliminating 12,000 employees, or nearly 6% of its staff. As Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, and other businesses tighten their belts in the face of a dimming economic outlook, tens of thousands of positions have been eliminated throughout the tech sector.
Amazon also revealed lower-than-anticipated fourth-quarter earnings and issued a warning that its operational profit could reach zero in the upcoming quarter if customers continue to restrict their spending in the face of increasing inflation.

However, revenues at its cloud computing division AWS helped it outperform forecasts in terms of revenue.

The decision by Meta to cut expenditures signaled a sea change for a corporation that has invested billions to realize its vision of the metaverse of the future, even as its primary business struggled in the face of fierce competition and a sluggish advertising market.

The 11,000 job layoffs Meta announced in November are expected to result in savings, along with measures to reduce the cost of building data centers and decisions to shelve less important projects.

Source: Euronews
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