REDMOND, Wash., June 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Microsoft
Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) ("Microsoft") today announced a
strategic change in its retail operations, including closing
Microsoft Store physical locations. The company's retail team
members will continue to serve customers from Microsoft corporate
facilities and remotely providing sales, training, and support.
Microsoft will continue to invest in its digital storefronts on
Microsoft.com, and stores in Xbox and Windows, reaching more
than 1.2 billion people every month in 190 markets. The
company will also reimagine spaces that serve all customers,
including operating Microsoft Experience Centers in London, NYC, Sydney, and Redmond campus locations. The closing of
Microsoft Store physical locations will result in a pre-tax charge
of approximately $450M, or
$0.05 per share, to be recorded in
the current quarter ending June 30,
2020. The charge includes primarily asset write-offs and
impairments.
"Our sales have grown online as our product portfolio has
evolved to largely digital offerings, and our talented team has
proven success serving customers beyond any physical location,"
said Microsoft Corporate Vice President David Porter. "We are grateful to our Microsoft
Store customers and we look forward to continuing to serve them
online and with our retail sales team at Microsoft corporate
locations."
Since the Microsoft Store locations closed in late March due to
the COVID-19 pandemic, the retail team has helped small
businesses and education customers digitally transform; virtually
trained hundreds of thousands of enterprise and education customers
on remote work and learning software; and helped customers with
support calls. The team supported communities by hosting more than
14,000 online workshops and summer camps and more than 3,000
virtual graduations.
"We deliberately built teams with unique backgrounds and skills
that could serve customers from anywhere. The evolution of our
workforce ensured we could continue to serve customers of all sizes
when they needed us most, working remotely these last months," said
Porter. "Speaking over 120 languages, their diversity reflects the
many communities we serve. Our commitment to growing and developing
careers from this talent pool is stronger than ever."
The retail team members will serve consumers, small-business,
education, and enterprise customers, while building a pipeline of
talent with transferable skills.
"The Microsoft Store team has long been celebrated at Microsoft
and embodies our culture," said Microsoft Chief People Officer
Kathleen Hogan. "The team has a
proven track record of attracting, motivating, and developing
diverse talent. This infusion of talent is invaluable for Microsoft
and creates opportunities for thousands of
people."
With significant growth through its digital storefronts,
including Microsoft.com, and stores on Xbox and Windows, the
company will continue to invest in digital innovation across
software and hardware. New services include 1:1 video chat support,
online tutorial videos, and virtual workshops with more digital
solutions to come.
"It is a new day for how Microsoft Store team members will serve
all customers," said Porter. "We are energized about the
opportunity to innovate in how we engage with all customers,
maximize our talent for greatest impact, and most importantly help
our valued customers achieve more."
About Microsoft
Microsoft (Nasdaq "MSFT" @microsoft) enables digital
transformation for the era of an intelligent cloud and an
intelligent edge. Its mission is to empower every person and every
organization on the planet to achieve more.
Forward-Looking Statements
Statements in this release that are "forward-looking statements"
are based on current expectations and assumptions that are subject
to risks and uncertainties. Actual results could differ materially
because of factors such as:
- intense competition in all of our markets that may lead to
lower revenue or operating margins;
- increasing focus on cloud-based services presenting execution
and competitive risks;
- significant investments in products and services that may not
achieve expected returns;
- acquisitions, joint ventures, and strategic alliances that may
have an adverse effect on our business;
- impairment of goodwill or amortizable intangible assets causing
a significant charge to earnings;
- cyberattacks and security vulnerabilities that could lead to
reduced revenue, increased costs, liability claims, or harm to our
reputation or competitive position;
- disclosure and misuse of personal data that could cause
liability and harm to our reputation;
- the possibility that we may not be able to protect information
stored in our products and services from use by others;
- abuse of our advertising or social platforms that may harm our
reputation or user engagement;
- the development of the internet of things presenting security,
privacy, and execution risks;
- issues about the use of artificial intelligence in our
offerings that may result in competitive harm, legal liability, or
reputational harm;
- excessive outages, data losses, and disruptions of our online
services if we fail to maintain an adequate operations
infrastructure;
- quality or supply problems;
- the possibility that we may fail to protect our source
code;
- legal changes, our evolving business model, piracy, and other
factors may decrease the value of our intellectual property;
- claims that Microsoft has infringed the intellectual property
rights of others;
- claims against us that may result in adverse outcomes in legal
disputes;
- government litigation and regulatory activity relating to
competition rules that may limit how we design and market our
products;
- potential liability under trade protection, anti-corruption,
and other laws resulting from our global operations;
- laws and regulations relating to the handling of personal data
that may impede the adoption of our services or result in increased
costs, legal claims, fines, or reputational damage;
- additional tax liabilities;
- damage to our reputation or our brands that may harm our
business and operating results;
- exposure to increased economic and operational uncertainties
from operating a global business, including the effects of foreign
currency exchange;
- uncertainties relating to our business with government
customers;
- adverse economic or market conditions that may harm our
business;
- catastrophic events or geo-political conditions, such as the
COVID-19 pandemic, that may disrupt our business; and
- the dependence of our business on our ability to attract and
retain talented employees.
For more information about risks and uncertainties associated
with Microsoft's business, please refer to the "Management's
Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of
Operations" and "Risk Factors" sections of Microsoft's SEC filings,
including, but not limited to, its annual report on Form 10-K and
quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, copies of which may be obtained by
contacting Microsoft's Investor Relations department at (800)
285-7772 or at Microsoft's Investor Relations website at
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/investor.
The company undertakes no duty to update any forward-looking
statement to conform the statement to actual results or changes in
the company's expectations.
View original content to download
multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/microsoft-store-announces-new-approach-to-retail-301084333.html
SOURCE Microsoft Corporation