Microsoft Annual Shareholders Meeting
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Microsoft Annual Shareholders Meeting
Microsoft Annual Shareholders Meeting
John Thompson - Lead Independent Director, Microsoft
Hossein Nowbar - CVP, General Counsel, and Corporate Secretary
Amy Hood - EVP & Chief Financial Officer
Satya Nadella - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer
Brett Iversen - General Manager, Investor Relations
Brad Smith - President & Vice Chair
Natasha Lamb - Managing Partner, Arjuna Capital
Jennifer Lee - Technology and Liberty Project Manager, ACLU of Washington
Savannah Sly - Advocate, Sex Workers Outreach Project Behind Bars
Stanley Shikuma – President, Seattle Chapter of the Japanese American Citizens League
Tenzing Tashishar - Shareholder Activism and Equity Research Associate, NorthStar Asset Management
Sister Susan Francois - Assistant Congregation Leader, Congregation of the Sisters of St Joseph of Peace
Tuesday, November 30, 2021
INVESTOR NOTICE: Today’s presentation may contain forward-looking statements which are any predictions, projections or other statements about future events based on current expectations and assumptions.
Actual results may differ materially from these forward-looking statements because of a variety of risks and uncertainties about our business which are discussed today or described in our filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our forms 10K and 10Q. We do not undertake any duties to update forward-looking statements.
This presentation is held in accordance with local health and safety guidelines. Precautions are in place to ensure the safety of our employees. Portions of this presentation are pre-recorded. The Q&A session will be live.
(Video segment.)
JOHN THOMPSON: Welcome, I’m John Thompson, Lead Independent Director of the Microsoft board. We appreciate you joining us. In addition to today’s virtual meeting, shareholders and other stakeholders have the option to view the meeting through Microsoft Teams on the Investor Relations website. The Teams broadcast will use Microsoft Translator and Azure Services that uses cognitive services for real-time translation in several languages.
Now, I’d like to share with you the presenters for our meeting.
Speaking will be: Satya Nadella, our chairman and chief executive officer; Amy Hood, our executive vice president and chief financial officer; and Hossein Nowbar our corporate vice president, general counsel, and corporate secretary. Hossein will address the business and procedural portions of the meeting, followed by Amy, who will review Microsoft’s financial results and business highlights. And finally, Satya will reflect on our how the unprecedented wave of digital transformation over the past year has opened the door to greater opportunity for our customers and for Microsoft. Following Satya’s remarks, we’ll have a live Q&A session that will also include Microsoft president and vice chair Brad Smith.
This past fiscal year presented continuing business, social and environmental challenges on a truly global scale. We’re proud of the work Microsoft and its employees have done with our customers and partners to help the world use technology to successfully meet the challenges we all face.
Throughout the year, the Board and executive leadership of Microsoft collaborated closely to ensure the Company continued to meet its commitments to a broad range of stakeholders, including our employees, customers, partners, suppliers, the communities we operate in and of course, our shareholders.
Amidst the challenges, Microsoft once again set records for financial performance in fiscal year 2021. Microsoft delivered strong results for its shareholders, including a return of $39.8 billion in the form of dividends and share repurchases. We look forward to more opportunity ahead as we remain committed to the long-term interests of Microsoft’s shareholders.
I’d like to take a moment to address questions we received from shareholders asking, "What is Microsoft doing to increase diversity on its board?"
We have an ongoing commitment to creating a balanced and effective board with diverse viewpoints and deep expertise. This year’s board nominees represent a wide range of backgrounds and experience with skills that contribute to the board’s effectiveness in managing risk and providing guidance to management.
I’m pleased to introduce our new director nominee, Carlos Rodriguez. Carlos is CEO of ADP. He’s an accomplished business leader and his experience accelerating ADP’s business transformation makes him an ideal addition to the Microsoft board.
Of our 12 Board nominees, 11 are independent, which includes me as Lead Independent Director and all committee members.
Microsoft’s board of directors continues to be one of the most diverse of any company in the technology sector. 8 of 12, or 67% of our board nominees represent gender or ethnic diversity, and 5 of 12, or over 40% of our board nominees are women. Further, three of our four board committees are chaired by diverse directors, two of which are women.
I am proud of our progress. We’re committed to ensuring the ongoing diversity of our pool of highly qualified future board candidates by actively seeking to include women and individuals from minority groups. As a matter of policy, every search we do for new directors includes diverse candidates for consideration.
As we look to the year ahead, we remain focused on the opportunities Microsoft has in terms of its business, shareholder value creation, and positive impacts the company can have at a global scale.
Thank you for the trust you place in us and the opportunity to serve you and our company as directors.
And now I’d like to call the 2021 Annual Shareholders Meeting to order.
I’ll be serving as the chair of the meeting, and Hossein will be serving as the secretary. As chair of the meeting, I’ve adopted an agenda that will govern the order of business and the rules of conduct for the meeting. Copies of the agenda and the rules are available on the virtual meeting site as well as the Annual Meeting page on the Investor Relations website. The rules of conduct also govern the Q&A session.
Hossein will now report the notice of the meeting, the proxies received, and present the matters to be voted on. Hossein?
HOSSEIN NOWBAR: Thank you, John. Welcome, everyone. I’ll walk us through the formal meeting and then, as John said, you’ll hear from Amy and Satya, followed by a Q&A session.
But first, let’s attend to a few administrative matters related to the meeting.
The polls are open and will close following the presentation of our business matters. If you already voted, you do not need to take any additional action, unless you wish to change your vote, which you can do now before the closing of the polls.
We will release the preliminary results of the votes following the presentation of the proposals.
The Company has appointed Broadridge to serve as Inspector of Election. A representative of Broadridge is participating by conference call and serving as the Inspector.
Joining us today by conference call are Mike Thompson, Susan Fennedy, and Evan Gregory, representing Deloitte & Touche, our independent auditors.
In order to provide our shareholders with the broadest opportunity to ask questions, we’ve had the shareholder question portal open since October 20th on the proxy vote website. Shareholders wishing to ask a question may do so on the virtual meeting portal. We plan to take both pre-submitted and live questions during the Q&A session. We will address as many questions as time allows during the Q&A session.
The notice of the meeting and internet availability of the proxy materials were mailed by Broadridge beginning October 20th, 2021, and it went to all shareholders of record as of September 30th, 2021.
As a result, the meeting is being held pursuant to proper notice.
We have received proxies representing more than 85% of the roughly 7.5 billion shares of the company’s stock that are eligible to vote. This means we have a quorum present, and the meeting is duly constituted and will proceed.
Today, we have four management proposals and five shareholder proposals for you to consider. They were all described in the proxy statement for today’s meeting.
The first item is the election of directors. The following 12 people have been properly nominated by the board: Reid Hoffman, Hugh Johnston, Teri List, Satya Nadella, Sandra Peterson, Penny Pritzker, Carlos Rodriguez, Charles Scharf, John Stanton, John W. Thompson, Emma Walmsley, and Padmasree Warrior. The board recommends a vote for each nominee. Our board nominees are attending today’s meeting via Microsoft Teams.
The second item is an advisory vote to approve executive compensation as disclosed in the company’s proxy statement. The board recommends a vote for this proposal.
The third item is a vote to approve the Employee Stock Purchase Plan as disclosed in the company’s proxy statement. The board recommends a vote for this proposal.
For the fourth item, we ask that you ratify the selection of the company’s independent auditor, Deloitte & Touche, for fiscal year 2022. The board recommends a vote for that proposal.
The next item is a shareholder proposal requesting Microsoft report on median pay gaps across race and gender. The shareholder proposal and its supporting statement are set forth in the proxy. The proposal has been submitted by Arjuna Capital and a co-filer.
I recognize Natasha Lamb with Arjuna Capital, who has submitted a presentation in support of the proposal. Please play Natasha’s presentation.
NATASHA LAMB: Good morning. My name is Natasha Lamb, managing partner at Arjuna Capital, and I move for proposal number 1 in asking for a report on the median racial and gender pay gaps as a means to address structural inequity. As investors, we’ve worked with many companies, pressing them to be more transparent on inequities, and many—including Microsoft—are now comfortable conducting statistical audits to determine whether minorities and women are paid similarly for the same roles as their white male peers.
However, that data does not account for the jobs they hold, nor address the structural racism and sexism that relegates people of color and women into low-paying job categories. In contrast, the median pay data requested by this proposal allows investors to understand how money is allocated at Microsoft by demographics and provides a benchmark for improvements. Narrowing median pay gaps requires companies to comprehensively evaluate their hiring, development, and promotion practices of diverse employees.
Representation data alone does not replace the need for media pay data. Unlike diversity data, median data shows us, quite literally, how companies assign value to their employees, to the roles they inhabit and the pay they receive. It also provides a more digestible data point for investors to assess how the company stacks up to peers and make progress over time.
Importantly, racial and gender median pay gaps have been accepted as the valid way of measuring pay inequity by the U.S. Census Bureau, the Department of Labor, the Organization for Economic Cooperation Development and the International Labor organization. The United Kingdom and Ireland also mandate disclosure of median pay gaps as they recognize the distinct value.
Microsoft already reports the median pay gap for its UK operations is -10.3% for the base pay and -38% for bonus pay, but it is declined to publish data beyond the UK. Companies that are comfortable publishing unadjusted data, Starbucks, Citi Group Adobe, Pfizer, MasterCard and others, are showing leadership. They’re not hiding behind statistically massaged data because they know that by being transparent, they are creating a new standard for accountability and performance.
I’m frustrated to say that Microsoft is not one of those companies and I am surprised that given where we are as a country the pay divides that have been exacerbated by the pandemic and the protests of full Black lives that the company is fighting this simple and reasonable request.
Thank you for your time as we firmly believe our company is best served by a transparent fulsome and honest accounting of pay equity.
HOSSEIN NOWBAR: Thank you, Natasha. The board recommends a vote against the proposal.
That does not mean the Board or Microsoft is against the spirit of this proposal. Indeed, the company’s commitment to pay equity across our workforce is of critical importance to the Board of Directors and to Microsoft.
Microsoft already provides detailed annual data on pay equity and on gender and racial representation across many levels of our organization. We think it’s the right data to report because it’s the data that the Board and Microsoft use to hold the executive team accountable for progress.
The next item is a shareholder proposal requesting Microsoft report on the effectiveness of its workplace sexual harassment policies, also submitted by Arjuna Capital. The shareholder proposal and its supporting statement are set forth in the proxy.
I turn back to Natasha Lamb with Arjuna, who has submitted a presentation in support of the proposal. Please play Natasha’s presentation.
NATASHA LAMB: Good morning. My name is Natasha Lamb and I move proposal number two on behalf our Arjuna counsel and our clients asking Microsoft’s Board to conduct an assessment on the effectiveness of its workplace sexual harassment policies.
We are concerned about Microsoft’s alleged continued culture of workplace sexual harassment and its history of unfulfilled previous commitments to resolve it. In 2012, Microsoft attracted national attention when 238 employees brought forward a class action lawsuit alleging gender discrimination and sexual harassment. In 2018, this class action documentation was unsealed, revealing hundreds of cases unaddressed by HR.
Microsoft responded with a commitment to better manage future investigations. However, a year later, in 2019, a company-wide e-mail thread circulating, detailing employee’s current experiences with workplace sexual harassment. Microsoft responded with yet another commitment to reform its culture and publish internal investigation data. In February 2020, employees stated this data was still not available and there were no signs of an improved workplace culture.
And most recently, we are all aware of the highly publicized sexual harassment allegations brought against former CEO, chairman and founder, Mr. Gates. As workplace culture is formed and managed by top leadership, these allegations only exacerbate investors’ concerns that there could be a culture of systemic sexual harassment.
While we’re glad Microsoft has recently committed to better resource its sexual harassment investigations, it has failed to commit to two key requests in our proposal: Independent investigations and public reporting on the executive level probe into Mr. Gates. These elements are crucial for the company to remediate the issue of workplace sexual harassment.
Independent investigations are the only way to ensure investors that subjectivity is removed when conducting investigation. Further public reporting on the executive-level probe will reassure shareholders that our company will adequately address sexual harassment allegations, no matter the leadership level, while sending a clear message to employees that unethical behavior is not tolerated.
The risk of inaction is considerable. Several companies, including Google and 21st Century Fox, have committed hundreds of millions of dollars to settle shareholder lawsuits alleging mismanagement of sexual misconduct. Other companies, like Wynn Resorts, have seen market capitalization substantially drop due to sexual harassment allegations. For Microsoft to avoid these risks, we believe it needs to protect its employees from harassment by committing to independent investigations and transparent reporting.
Thank you for your time and consideration of this proposal.
HOSSEIN NOWBAR: Thank you, Natasha.
The Board recommends a vote against the proposal for the reasons stated in the company’s proxy.
As with the previous proposal, the Board of Directors and Microsoft take the issue of ensuring a workplace free of sexual harassment very seriously. Microsoft has strong compliance programs and mechanisms in place for employees to raise concerns for prompt investigation without fear of retaliation. Our leaders and all employees are accountable for maintaining a workplace free of harassment and discrimination so that everyone can work in a productive, respectful, and professional environment.
To deepen transparency on these efforts, we’ve committed to expand our internal reporting to begin annual public reporting on Microsoft’s implementation of our sexual harassment and gender discrimination policies. That public report will include data on the number of sexual harassment concerns raised each year, the results of investigations, and the types of discipline imposed.
The next item is a shareholder proposal requesting the Board of Directors adopt a policy prohibiting sales of facial recognition technology to all government entities. The shareholder proposal and its supporting statement are set forth in the proxy.
The proposal has been submitted by Harrington Investments. I recognize Jennifer Lee with ACLU of Washington, who has been appointed by John Harrington as his representative and submitted a presentation in support of the proposal. Please play Jennifer’s and her associates’ presentations.
JENNIFER LEE: My name is Jennifer Lee, here on behalf of the ACLU of Washington and the Tech Equity Coalition, because we are concerned with the impacts of facial recognition technology. I’m here to present shareholder proposal three on behalf of Harrington Investments.
This proposal calls upon Microsoft to stop sales of its facial recognition technology to all government entities. Microsoft President Brad Smith has publicly acknowledged that facial recognition can be racially biased, threaten privacy and encroach on democratic freedoms. We agree. Facial recognition allows police to track protesters at political rallies, ICE to spy on immigrants and cities to routinely monitor the activities of their own residents.
At least 23 U.S. jurisdictions have passed bans on this technology, including in King County, Washington, where Microsoft is headquartered. In 2020, Microsoft placed a moratorium on the sale of facial recognition to police, but not to other agencies or to foreign governments, including those with a history of human rights abuses. We urge shareholders to support proposal three in line with Microsoft’s values and for the sake of our democracy.
SAVANNAH SLY: Hello, my name is Savannah Sly and I’m an advocate with the Sex Workers Outreach Project Behind Bars. We support shareholder proposal three to stop sale of facial recognition technology to all government entities. We are concerned that law enforcement and immigration authorities will use facial recognition technology to surveil marginalized communities.
People who face discrimination frequently supplement their incomes through erotic labor, which increases the level of stigma that they face. Sex workers are frequently women and single moms, queer or trans, people of color, immigrants and people with disabilities. Being outed as a sex worker can mean deportation, eviction, arrest and loss of child custody.
We are concerned that the misuse of facial recognition will create a digital scarlet letter that will impede people’s abilities to cross borders, access higher education or gain formal employment. For this reason, we support Microsoft in stopping the sale of facial recognition technology to government entities. Thank you.
STANLEY SHIKUMA: Good morning. I am Stan Shikuma, president of the Seattle chapter of the Japanese-American Citizens League, here to support resolution three on behalf of Harrington Investments.
Facial recognition technology is particularly dangerous given the global spread of repressive politics fueled by hate and fear. During World War II, the Japanese-American community suffered through a mass incarceration enabled by the surveillance technologies of the time. As one camp survivor told me, “My crime was my face.” My own grandfather was targeted for arrest by the FBI based on one misread photo.
Microsoft should not arm governments with tools that can suppress freedom and undermine democracy. I urge you to employ Microsoft standards of business conduct to protect your bottom line, because applying the trust code in line with your stated values is good for business. Pass resolution three.
HOSSEIN NOWBAR: Thank you, Jennifer, Savannah, and Stanley.
The Board recommends a vote against the proposal for the reasons stated in the company’s proxy statement.
In short, Microsoft has made extensive public commitments to restrict our sale of facial recognition technology, based on human rights considerations, and discloses information on our approach to meeting those commitments. Since 2018, Microsoft has led the industry in adopting and implementing a set of facial recognition principles, applied them to its sale of facial recognition technology, and repeatedly called for regulation to guard against misuse and provide people with protection under the law.
This proposal does not recognize those commitments and would impose a blunt prohibition that would deny public agencies the ability to deploy facial recognition technology in beneficial ways. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to facial recognition technology. Different use cases have different risk profiles, and safeguards need to be calibrated accordingly.
The next item is a shareholder proposal requesting Microsoft report on our implementation of the Fair Chance Business Pledge that criminal records should not pose barriers to future employment. The shareholder proposal and its supporting statement are set forth in the proxy.
The proposal has been submitted by NorthStar Asset Management. I recognize Tenzing Tashishar, with NorthStar Asset Management, who has submitted an audio presentation in support of the proposal. Please play Tenzing’s presentation.
TENZING TASHISHAR: Good morning. My name is Tenzing Tashishar of North Star Asset Management, a socially responsible investment firm and shareholder of Microsoft common stock. I am here to present shareholder resolution number four, item number eight on the proxy.
In 2015, Microsoft signed the White House’s Fair Chance Business Pledge, which seeks to address fair chance employment by increasing recruitment of individuals with criminal records. The companies all position statement indicates that it thinks it has fulfilled this commitment. As shareholders, we sincerely disagree and believe that Microsoft risks corporate value by failing to do so.
The pledge Microsoft signed included a commitment to provide individuals with criminal records, including formerly incarcerated individuals, a fair chance to participate in the American economy by, for example, offering internships and job training, or hosting job fairs for people with criminal backgrounds.
When Microsoft report said it does not have blanket prohibition for applicants with criminal records and that it delays background checks until after a conditional offer is made, we believe this is a low bar that is already required by law in many states and cities, and will be required by all federal contractors as soon as next month.
We believe that the intention of the pledge was to encourage companies to pursue intentional recruitment of and provide support to formerly incarcerated people and tap into this underemployed talent pool. Recruiting from this population could be good for business. Case studies on specific workplaces have shown that people with criminal backgrounds can outperform their colleagues without criminal records in categories such as attendance, policy and behavioral violations, faster promotion and lower turnover.
We also believe that Microsoft’s existing racial equity and criminal justice reform initiatives squarely intersect with the issue of fair chance employment. Studies have shown that black American men with a criminal record see a 65% reduction in job callbacks and that unemployment for formerly incarcerated black women is 37% higher than the general population.
Racial discrimination is compounded when someone has a criminal record. We believe that failing to take action that fulfill the spirit of the pledge will risk diminishing shareholder value through potential brand name damage. On the converse, we believe that pursuing recruitment strategies related to the applicants with criminal records can have exponentially positive impact on the company and shareholder value.
We urge shareholders to vote for shareholder proposal number four, item number eight on the proxy. Thank you.
HOSSEIN NOWBAR: Thank you, Tenzing.
The Board recommends a vote against the proposal for the reasons stated in the company’s proxy.
Microsoft is proud of our commitment to the Fair Chance Business Pledge, and we describe in the proxy statement the numerous steps Microsoft has put in place to effectively implement the pledge. For our U.S. hiring last year, more than 98% of those offered employment and flagged as having a criminal record successfully proceeded through review to final hiring. The less than two% who we did not onboard had a record of recent criminal conduct that was determined to be job related.
On a broader point, we share the proponents’ concerns about racial justice. In our Racial Equity Initiative announced in June 2020, we made commitments across three efforts: Increasing representation and strengthening inclusion; evolving our engagement with our supply chain, banking partners and partner ecosystem; and strengthening communities by using data, technology, and partnerships to help address racial injustice and inequities.
As we’ve publicly reported, we’ve made important progress against many of these commitments and also acknowledge much more that we need to accomplish. We will continue to provide regular progress updates on this important cross-company initiative.
The next item is a shareholder proposal requesting a report on how Microsoft’s lobbying activities align with company policies. The shareholder proposal and its supporting statement are set forth in the proxy.
The proposal has been submitted by Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace and a number of co-filers. I recognize Sister Susan Francois with Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace, who has submitted a video presentation in support of the proposal.
Please play the presentation.
SISTER SUSAN FRANCOIS: Good morning to all Microsoft shareholders, board members and employees. My name is Sister Susan Francois, assistant congregation leader of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace, representing the six investor proponents of a shareholder proposal on lobbying alignment. The promotion of peace through justice is integral to our mission in spirituality as the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace. We believe that technology can be a force for good and improve people’s lives. However, technology is not neutral and can be used to exacerbate inequities and oppression.
The use of discriminatory facial recognition tools and mass surveillance by police and immigration enforcement agencies has had devastating impacts on communities of color, including immigrants.
While Microsoft issued a moratorium on facial recognition sales to police, it does not address other government clients with a history of human rights abuses, like ICE or authoritarian governments.
Microsoft must be held accountable for how its technology is used and take urgent action to prevent further harm, and this includes engaging in responsible lobbying to advance strong privacy regulation. We have appreciated the opportunity to engage in dialogues with Microsoft to discuss corporate policies and practices regarding the use of surveillance and high-risk technologies; however, shareholders remain concerned that Microsoft’s direct and indirect lobbying activities do not align with its own stated principles on ethical artificial intelligence, public policy, human rights and racial justice.
Microsoft spent over $9 million on federal lobbying in 2020, including on privacy, defense, homeland security and border militarization. Through state-level lobbying in favor of weaker industry-backed bills on consumer data privacy and facial recognition, namely in Virginia and Washington, Microsoft has played a role in advancing regulations with weaker privacy protections than those called for by privacy and racial justice advocates.
Microsoft has even lobbied for laws that enable police to use facial recognition tech contradicting the company’s own police ban and stated values. Shareholders want to see Microsoft lobbyists live up to the company’s policy on racial justice, human rights and privacy, and call for regulations that prevent mass surveillance.
Microsoft’s business should support human dignity in a fair and just society, not amplify division and discrimination. I encourage all Microsoft shareholders to vote FOR Shareholder Proposal Five, requesting a report on lobbying alignment. Thank you.
HOSSEIN NOWBAR: Thank you, Sister Susan Francois. The board recommends a vote against the proposal believing its unnecessary for the reasons stated in the company’s proxy.
Microsoft has been recognized for its leadership on transparency around its engagement in the policy process including PAC contributions and lobbying expenditures. Our existing policies and disclosures provide extensive visibility and accountability in the company’s public policy engagement as well as that of our affiliated political action committee.
Microsoft has also committed to further enhancing that information and to issuing a new annual report detailing the governance, criteria, and disbursements of our political action committee and our public policy agenda.
Now, I’ll share with you the preliminary voting tabulation.
First, all 12 director nominees on the ballot are elected. They’ll serve until the next annual shareholders meeting and until their successors are elected and qualified.
Proposal two, the advisory vote on executive compensation, has been approved.
Proposal three, approval of the Employee Stock Purchase Plan has been approved.
Proposal four, ratification of the company’s auditor, Deloitte & Touche, has been approved.
The shareholder proposal on a report on median pay gaps across race and gender was not approved.
The shareholder proposal on report on effectiveness of workplace sexual harassment policies has been approved.
The shareholder proposal on prohibition on sales of facial recognition technology to all government entities was not approved.
The shareholder proposal on report on implementation of the Fair Chance Business Pledge was not approved.
Finally, the shareholder proposal on report on how lobbying activities align with company policies was not approved.
Discussion of the matters for shareholder consideration is now closed, and the polls are also now closed.
We expect to post the details of the final voting results on all these matters on our Investor Relations website later today.
We’ll also report the results in a form 8K that will be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission within four business days.
With that, we’ve completed the formal portion of the meeting, and the meeting is now adjourned.
Let me now hand it over to our chief financial officer, Amy Hood.
AMY HOOD: Thank you, Hossein. Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. As John mentioned, we delivered record results in FY21. Revenue grew 18% to over $168 billion Operating income grew 32%, and earnings per share grew 38%.
We saw strong momentum this year as we remained focused on growing usage across our differentiated Microsoft Cloud offerings and delivering exciting new consumer experiences. To further enhance our talent and capabilities in strategic growth areas, we completed seven acquisitions in FY21.
We welcomed ZeniMax Media, the parent company of Bethesda Software, one of the largest, privately held game developers and publishers in the world. With the acquisition, our creative studios grew from 15 to 23.
We also completed the acquisition of Metaswitch, announced last year, which expands our offerings for telecom partners as they move to 5G.
And with the purchase of ReFirm Labs, we enhanced our IoT security capabilities.
As we continued to invest in M&A and organic growth in FY21, we also maintained our commitment to capital return, which included a total cash return of $39.8 billion, up 13% from last fiscal year.
In September, we announced a new $60 billion buyback authorization, as well as an 11% increase in our quarterly dividend.
Now, let me share a few highlights from the last fiscal year.
Our Microsoft Cloud business surpassed $69 billion in revenue, growing 34%, year over year, with strong growth across our key services. Azure grew 50%. Office 365 grew 22%. Dynamics 365 grew 43%.
Importantly, we also continued to deliver on our commitment to make significant improvement in the Microsoft Cloud gross margin percentage, which expanded 4 points, year over year, to 71%.
Through the sustained efforts of our engineering, sales, and marketing teams, we were able to drive expansion even with a revenue mix shift to Azure. Our server products and cloud services business exceeded $52 billion, up 27%, with strong customer demand for our trusted, differentiated hybrid offerings.
From both a technology and licensing perspective, we continue to address our customers’ need for flexible and high-value solutions as they digitally transform.
Now, let’s turn to our progress across Microsoft 365.
Our Office business again saw double-digit revenue growth as we helped even more commercial and consumer users around the world be more productive, collaborative, and secure.
Teams monthly active users reached nearly 250 million and our Microsoft 365 consumer subscriber base grew to 51.9 million.
We again saw healthy PC demand, contributing to an increase in our base of monthly active Windows 10 devices and growth in our Search business.
In Surface, we continued to innovate in our broad portfolio of devices, across Surface Pro, Laptop, Hub and Duo.
In LinkedIn, revenue surpassed $10 billion, up 27%, and membership grew to more than 774 million professionals.
And in Gaming, revenue exceeded $15 billion and grew 33% as we saw record engagement with nearly 33 billion hours played across the platform, as well as strong hardware growth with the launch of our Xbox Series X and S consoles.
Now, a few comments on the current fiscal year.
First, we announced our plans to acquire Nuance Communications, a trusted cloud and AI software leader representing decades of accumulated healthcare and enterprise AI experience to further our ambitions in industry cloud solutions.
Next, as we do at the start of each fiscal year, we updated our investor metrics based, in part, on feedback from all of you.
In particular, we renamed the commercial cloud metrics to "Microsoft Cloud" to better align with branding for our commercial cloud business.
And, within server products and cloud services metric, we renamed Azure to "Azure and other cloud services" in anticipation of closing the Nuance acquisition in FY22.
Finally, we had a strong start to fiscal year ‘22 with first quarter top and bottom-line growth exceeding 20%.
These results were driven by Microsoft Cloud revenue, which surpassed $20 billion for the first time, growing 36%, year over year.
In addition, we were excited by the positive early demand signals we saw for Windows 11.
For the full year, we expect double-digit revenue and operating income growth.
These results would not be possible without the tremendous contributions of the nearly 190,000 Microsoft employees around the world.
Looking forward, we remain committed to driving significant shareholder value, which we believe comes from investing boldly for the future and creating differentiated, high-value solutions to help every person and organization to achieve more.
Microsoft succeeds when our customers succeed, and our increasing competitive differentiation, excellence in daily execution, and an ambitious vision for the future positions us for continued growth.
With that, please join me in welcoming our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Satya Nadella.
SATYA NADELLA: Thank you, Amy, and thanks to everyone joining us today for your continued commitment and investment in Microsoft. There is no doubt that 2021 has been a year of hardship and heartbreak for so many across the world, but for all the disruption, the past year has also been a catalyst for an unprecedented wave of digital transformation.
Our mission to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more has never been more urgent or more needed. Every day, I have the privilege to see it in action as customers use our platforms and tools to help address their own challenges and opportunities, as well as of those in their communities and society at large.
To share a few examples, the nonprofit Team Rubicon established more than one hundred COVID-19 response sites across the United States in just 30 days, using Dynamics 365 to coordinate volunteer efforts. To help provide care to underserved areas, doctors in New York and Uganda have performed hundreds of surgeries together using our mixed reality technology. And NASA performed the first powered flight on another planet, a milestone made possible with the help of more than 12,000 developers on GitHub.
Microsoft was made for this moment. We succeed when we help the world succeed around us. And across our solution areas, we are innovating to help our customers thrive in this period of rapid change.
It starts with Azure, which is quickly becoming the world’s computer. Over the past year, we added 15 new datacenter regions to deliver faster access to cloud services and address data residency requirements. We’re working with operators to bring ultra-low latency computing power and storage to the network edge. We’ve expanded our hybrid capabilities to enable organizations to build, manage, deploy applications anywhere, and we are at the forefront of a new infrastructure layer called the metaverse that enables us to create digital representations of the world that we can participate in.
Microsoft Mesh enables true presence and immersive experiences from anywhere on any device. In data, we introduce products that provide comprehensive management and governance. Azure Synapse combines data integration, enterprise data warehousing, and big data analytics into a single solution. And in AI, we are translating large-scale models into platforms that our customers can use to meet their unique needs.
As every company becomes a digital company, they will need standardized tools to modernize existing applications and build new ones. From Visual Studio to GitHub, we offer the most popular developer tools across every cloud and client platform. And with Power Platform, we’re making it easy for anyone to drive productivity by creating apps, automating workflows, and analyzing data.
Going forward, every business process will be collaborative, powered by data and AI, and will bridge the digital and physical worlds. With Dynamics 365, we’re ushering in a new era of hyperconnected business. And this year, we introduced new industry clouds that improve time to value, increased agility, and lower costs.
In a rapidly changing labor market, LinkedIn has never been more essential to helping people connect, learn, grow, and get hired. And we are helping organizations create continuous feedback loops between work, skills and the learning required to upskill and reskill employees.
When it comes to the future of work, hybrid work represents the biggest change to the way people work in decades. To help organizations make the shift, we have added hundreds of new features to Microsoft 365 and Teams.
With Teams Connect, employees across multiple companies collaborate as one. Teams is now a first-class platform for app development that organizations can use to build their own rich, collaborative apps. And we brought Teams to consumers so people can connect and collaborate with family and friends, too.
We created a new category with Microsoft Viva, which brings communications, knowledge, training, and insights for employees directly into their workflow, and we are not stopping there. Microsoft Loop is the next big breakthrough in Microsoft 365. It’s a new application for a communication-first and AI-first world that composes people’s content into a collaborative canvas and reimagines how anyone can contribute.
We launched Windows 11, the most significant update to our operating system in a decade, to help people be more productive, connected, and secure. With Windows 365, we are bringing the operating system to the cloud. And with Bing and Edge, we are creating differentiated experiences in high value areas, including online shopping.
This past year, the cybersecurity threat landscape became significantly more complex. Our goal is to help every organization strengthen its defense through zero-trust architecture, built on our end-to-end solutions that span all clouds and all client platforms. And we’re investing $20 billion over the next five years to advance our security solutions and protect our customers.
Finally, in gaming, we are expanding our opportunity to empower the world’s three billion gamers wherever and whenever they play. The Xbox Series S and X are our fastest selling consoles ever, and Xbox Game Pass is transforming how people discover, connect, and engage with games. This holiday season will bring our biggest lineup of content ever with three new AAA titles, including Age of Empires 4. Forza Horizon 5, and Halo Infinite.
There is no doubt that the digital transformation of the past year has opened the door to greater opportunity for our customers and for Microsoft, but it has also increased our responsibility in a world where technology must do more to address the pressing challenges we collectively face. To live up to this responsibility, we are focused on four pillars.
It starts with our belief that economic opportunity must be inclusive. To achieve this, we continue to work to extend affordable broadband access to millions in underserved communities. We are helping more people access digital skills training, and we launched a five-year commitment to spur the development of accessible technology and expand opportunities for people with disabilities.
Second, we support the fundamental rights of all people. This year, we made progress in our work to address racial injustice and inequity, and we are taking action to safeguard electoral processes, protect journalism, and support humanitarian action.
Third, while the pandemic has been the defining issue of the past year and a half, the climate crisis is the challenge of our lifetime. This year, we reduced our carbon emissions by 587,000 metric tons and purchased the removal of 1.3 million metric tons of carbon. We committed to match 100% of electricity consumption with zero-carbon energy purchases, 100% of the time by 2030. And with the Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability, we are creating a new business process category to help customers reduce their own carbon emissions.
Finally, we want our customers and partners to build their own digital capability and become independent with us, not dependent on us. This is not possible without trust. At Microsoft, we strive to earn trust through our commitment to privacy, security, transparency, digital safety, and responsible AI.
Ultimately, our ability to achieve our goals rests on our culture. This is why we’ve put so much emphasis on building a culture that centers on a growth mindset. This growth mindset has served us well during the past year of disruption and transformation, and while it may be difficult to imagine during this period of deep uncertainty, I see boundless possibilities ahead. Thank you all so very much.
(Video segment.)
BRETT IVERSEN: Welcome to the Q&A portion of the meeting. I’m Brett Iversen, Head of Investor Relations at Microsoft. I’m joined today by Satya, Amy and John, as well as Brad Smith, Microsoft President and Vice Chair. We want to thank you for all the questions you submitted in advance. We’ll try to get to as many as we can. As we reviewed the submissions, there were several questions on similar topics, so we’ve selected a representative question from those submitted to answer today, so let’s go ahead and get started.
We thought a good way to start today would be to address the many questions we received related to the shareholder proposals. Based on the outcome of the votes, Satya, could you share your reaction to some of the issues we reviewed today? And Brad, maybe you could speak specifically to the issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion along with how the company addresses sexual harassment matters?
SATYA NADELLA: Well, thank you so much, and first of all, we really value this dialogue with our shareholders, not just in this meeting, but throughout the year, as we have many meetings with you, and so we really appreciate your push, your feedback to us, and we always seek to listen, learn and act. And it’s been that spirit that I appreciate all the shareholder proposals.
To us, our culture is our number one priority. In order for us to be able to achieve our mission and business goals, it always starts with our culture and the lived experience of every employee at Microsoft to be able to do their very best work in order to drive our mission.
And therefore, this growth mindset, which is the cultural attributes that we emphasize has served us very well. It has served us very well through the pandemic. It serves us very well through all the critical priorities such as diversity and inclusion, as is manifested in the lived experience every day. And so, to us really taking that culture as a priority is the number one thing that I focus on, the SLT focuses on.
And so, in that context, we really want to take big feedback from our employees on a continuous basis from our shareholders and in fact even the broader dialogue we have with the communities in which we live and work and serve. And so, in that spirit, we’re going to take action. And so, to maybe get into some of the specifics on the proposals and the action that we will take, maybe I’ll turn it over to you, Brad.
BRAD SMITH: No, thanks, Satya, and I think you put it well. I mean, it is a constant dialogue. And I think we recognize that in some ways the nature of the conversation is even changing, not just at Microsoft, but more broadly. We’re seeing more shareholder groups come forward, they have a broader range of proposals. It’s almost a sea change to some degree in the relationship between shareholders, and I’ll say, especially large companies.
So let me start with the one shareholder resolution that passed relating to sexual harassment. It is an issue of enormous importance, I think, to every company, certainly to Microsoft, and most importantly, to our employees, to our female and male employees. And you know, there are new steps that we are going to take that we weren’t thinking about, and I think that the resolution and the dialogue we’ve had, has helped us advance our decision making.
So, for one, we will take new steps to be more transparent as a company. We have been sharing more data internally. We recognize that there’s shareholder interest, and so we’ll share more data externally, as well. You’ll see us published more reports. Just to reflect where this is going, what we’ll share is that in FY21, the fiscal year that ended this past June, we had 51 complaints from our employees, roughly 160,000 that were investigated, and 47% of them were substantiated.
That compares to a number the year before that was larger, it was 142. And I think that fall from one year to the next probably reflects the fact that people were working at home and had less interaction with each other. But the reality is the percentage substantiated was about the same, we went from 49% to 47%. We’ll share more data.
I think there was another important point raised in the context of sexual harassment, and that’s about ensuring that we have effective investigations, we will bring in a third party, do an independent assessment of all of the work that we do to investigate these cases, and we’ll share what that independent report says, and we will listen. And if there’s recommendations for change, we will think hard about making them.
I will say, it’s always important, I think, to step back. From my vantage point, there’s always four goals for these kinds of investigations. First, and perhaps most importantly, to get at the truth, to find out what happened. Second, to hold people accountable for mistakes or transgressions that they have made. Third, to be fast, because no one benefits when these things drag on. And fourth, to be empathetic, compassionate, and caring for the people who raise allegations who, as you saw 47% of the time, were victims, and that includes sharing more information with them and counseling them throughout these processes.
So, that I think is our gold standard for how we define effectiveness in investigations. The other thing I would note is that while the shareholder resolution on the median pay gap didn’t pass, as you’ll see it got a significant number of votes. And that’s an important issue, as Natasha Lamb, from Arjuna Capital noted when she was talking. You know, we’ve been sharing data in the United Kingdom and Ireland where we’re legally required to do so. And I think this proposal was frankly a good nudge. You know, it’s been a good conversation, and so you will see us next year take more steps to publish globally our median pay gap data. The HR team will work through the specifics, but you’ll see us do more there as well.
BRETT IVERSEN: Thank you both for get us started. This question comes from Rafel B, asking about the metaverse. Rafel asks, what types of investments has the company made to secure future revenue streams associated with the metaverse adoption? Satya, do you want to take us on especially with all the exciting work coming out of Ignite this month?
SATYA NADELLA: Yeah. No, we had a very exciting Ignite conference, but really, our journey on the metaverse started when we launched HoloLens, you know, seven years ago, and it’s – to me, it’s really the next phase of the web and the internet. It’s the next phase of the increasing digitization of people, places and things, and the embodied presence, virtually, that you can have. And so, to me, we are very, very excited, and as a platform company it always starts – you now, at Microsoft, whenever we see a technology, we want to make sure that we are harnessing the power of that shift for the broadest benefit of developers and organization and people.
So, therefore, our first order of priority is to invest in building the platform. And the platform starts with Azure IoT, which is able to digitize all of the people, places, things, or creating digital twins, and to be able to then create, through Mesh or Microsoft Mesh these metaverse worlds, right? Just like how you created websites in the past, you will now create these new metaverse applications using these intrinsics. The platform is sort of the most important piece for us to lay out.
We then use the platform ourselves at Microsoft to build applications, and you saw that at Ignite when we showed we showed a Teams meeting where, just like the gallery mode, now you can go into the Mesh mode and have a meeting where you can be present with your avatar or as a hologram, and have a real meeting where it does feel like you are together, is sort of the next phase of how Teams meetings evolved on this new platform.
Connected Spaces, Dynamics 365 Connected Spaces, whether it’s in the factory or it’s in retail or any other place, is another form of metaverse where you’re really digitizing the place itself and being able to interact with it.
We’re very excited. You’ll hear, obviously, a lot more about gaming and what we are doing with metaverse in gaming from us, going forward. But we are investing to make sure that Microsoft is well-positioned and leading in this, what is an important transition going from the PC Internet to mobile Internet to this third phase, which is more of the metaverse-driven Internet.
BRETT IVERSEN: Thanks, Satya. We received over 25 questions regarding our ESG practices. A shareholder asked, “How is Microsoft addressing climate change issues and helping us get to a net zero carbon economy?” Brad, you want to discuss some of our initiatives here?
BRAD SMITH: Sure. The way I would suggest people think about it is that we basically have three goals, as a company, and three roles that Microsoft will play. The first is we have to get our own house in order, and we’ve specifically pledged that by 2030, we’ll be carbon negative, we’ll be water positive and we’ll be zero waste, including with all of our datacenters and campuses around the world. And it is hard work, but we’re making good progress. We shared progress earlier this year. We’ll update that progress early in 2022.
The second thing that is really far broader and I think in some ways is one of our most important roles is what we’re doing for all of our customers, and really think about it as what we’re doing for the world to help everyone reduce their emissions and then remove carbon from the environment. And in part, this is based on the Microsoft Cloud, and digital twinning and other scenarios, but it’s really also about the Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability.
This is a critical step forward, not just for us as a company, but I think for everyone because part of what it does is it creates a system of record so that customers can count their carbon emissions and their reductions. They can record it, they can use it to reduce those emissions, but there’s two aspects to what we’re doing that I think are different from every other company in the tech sector.
First, our Cloud for Sustainability is based on a common data model. And what that means is as each customer starts to use this, they benefit from the data that has been built up by others while protecting, obviously, privacy and the like. They contribute data and it creates a tool where people can compare themselves to others in the same industry and discover insights about best practices. And we’re building an ecosystem with all of the direct sources of carbon emissions, something that you just don’t see in the world of carbon accounting today. Think of the Cloud for Sustainability as the fundamental platform that the world will need to measure carbon, and thereby, manage it.
And then there’s a third layer that I also think is critical, and Amy and her team have been driving a lot of this, but it even goes more broadly with our customers. Fundamentally, what we need to do as a planet is go through this enormous transition from a carbon-based economy to a net zero economy.
And so, if you just want to do the math, last year, the world emitted 53 billion tons of carbon into the environment. By 2050, we need to get to net zero. Now what that really means is we probably need to bring 53 down to 10, and then we need to remove 10 billion tons a year.
How are we going to do that? Well, part of it is going to be an enormous energy transition, and what we’re doing through our Climate Innovation Fund and through our philanthropic $100 million commitment through Breakthrough Energy Capital is to invest in the energy transition. When you see wind getting better, when you see solar getting better, when you see investments in nuclear fusion, when you see long-term, long-duration battery storage, which is really important, especially to something like solar, all of these are things that we’re not just investing in, but we’re then supporting with digital technology.
When you look at things that will be needed to reduce carbon emissions, like sustainable aviation fuel, that’s an area that we’re investing in philanthropically. When you look at other steps that will reduce carbon emissions, like advances in concrete and steel to make them greener, we’re focused on that. And finally, we’ve got to figure out how to use new technology to remove carbon from the environment. That means carbon capture sequestration storage. It means direct air capture, technologies that are in their infancy today. There again, we’re investing in it and we’re purchasing removal services from it.
Last year, Microsoft made the largest purchase of carbon removal in history, 1.3 million tons, but it was tiny compared to how big this market is going to need to become by 2030, and then the middle of the century. And so, we’re using our money to help kick start those markets, in part by purchasing and then validating the techniques that we see most promising.
And so, what you really see, Brett, is I think a very holistic, comprehensive approach that is not just using our resources as a company, but fundamentally, our relationships with every customer to help be a catalyst that the world I think really needs.
BRETT IVERSEN: Thanks, Brad. My three daughters at home love our commitment here. They’ll be trying to secure their avatars, as well, Satya.
The next one is for Amy. We received many questions regarding capital allocation, with a shareholder asking, “Microsoft continues to show great profits. When can stockholders expect significant dividend increases consistent with that performance? And would you ever consider splitting the stock?” Amy?
AMY HOOD: Thanks, Brett. As I mentioned earlier in my comments, we returned $39.8 billion to shareholders last year in the form of share repurchase and dividend, which is an increase of about 13%, year over year. But if I step back, we tend to use four ways and steps to think about returning and investing our capital.
First and foremost is to invest in ourselves. It is the best way to show growth, whether that’s the significant TAM opportunities we have in front of us and all the ambitious things, like Satya talked about the metaverse, and we have some questions coming up that I know will give us a chance to cover more growth opportunities.
Secondly, we tend to think about inorganic opportunities to expand our TAM or get started in new markets, and that’s an important lever we’ve used over time, whether that’s with ZeniMax that we did this year or Nuance, which has been our more recent acquisitions.
Then, the third and fourth levers for us about capital return tend to be dividends, which we’ve discussed, as a consistent way of committing to shareholders an expected level of return; and then finally, share repurchases, which tend to be a bit more opportunistic as a tool.
And then, finally, I believe the question was about are we considering a stock split, and we currently do not have plans to split the stock. If you really step back and think, what is one of the most important decisions we make, it’s about how to invest capital to have this company grow at its highest potential, have the largest impact possible, invest it in new ideas that retain employees who have ambitious desires to change really the trajectory of technology, going forward.
And so, I feel really confident in our ability to do all four of these levers effectively for the best and most commitment to long-term shareholder value creation.
BRETT IVERSEN: Absolutely. Thanks, Amy. Our next shareholder question asks: What investment is Microsoft making in the space of cybersecurity, artificial intelligence and blockchain technologies? Satya? (Laughter.)
SATYA NADELLA: (Laughter.) Those are great, and in fact, it speaks to Amy’s point about the first job for us is to invest in the great TAM opportunities, and maybe it’s best to unpack each one of them.
Cybersecurity is one of the fundamental challenges of our times, and the pandemic has even brought that to real focus. In our context, we are investing $20 billion in core R&D across the next five years to make sure that we build that end-to-end, zero trust architecture, right, because one of the things at Microsoft we have is a fantastic portfolio of products, from the end point to the applications to the infrastructure and identity. And so, we, I think, can do one of the best jobs out there of bringing all that together to support every organization implementing zero trust architecture, because that is the number one priority.
We are also investing in the adoption of the latest and greatest security technologies, and methodologies and processes. And to that end, we are investing $150 million to ensure that the federal government agencies, as well as the state and local government agencies, have the latest technology to protect themselves. On security, we’re all-in on basically doing our best work to bring about this world of zero trust.
The second area of AI is another place where a lot is changing and very rapidly. And perhaps one of the fundamental things that’s happened even in the last year is the large scale, multi-modal models that go way beyond language, but they start with language. They go to adding computer vision and images to it, and are really exhibiting emergent phenomena. In other words, they are becoming platforms on themselves.
The work we are doing to both build the infrastructure, so one of the biggest investments we make is in the supercomputers inside of Azure that allow us to train these large models, so that we can then have these models become platforms that are driving all of the things you see in Azure Cognitive Services, breakthroughs in computer vision or breakthroughs in NLP or breakthroughs in language translation. We’re very excited about it. Even our OpenAI partnership there is something that we think is really super exciting, because GPT3 and whatever comes next is all going to be available on Azure as a platform service, so that every developer out there can use it.
The other area of AI I would also stress is how it manifests in our applications, whether it’s in Forza or whether it’s in Teams or whether it’s in Dynamics. They all are now AI driven. In fact, there’s been a cultural change at Microsoft in terms of how software engineering is done, and it’s really influencing even how we think about our tooling, how do we think about our skills of our own teams, and what have you. And so, we’re really excited about our own first-party applications across the entire length and breadth of Microsoft.
And then the last thing on blockchain, this is an area that we are tracking, learning. We want to, again, as a platform company, build the building blocks. For example, Azure Confidential Computing and the tamperproof nature of how we can provide that is a building block service for anybody who wants to build some of these new applications using blockchain, I think, is a great place to start. Same thing with databases, we have a similar tamperproof SQL on Azure.
These are the places where we will focus on. Again, we seek to learn from what’s happening through developers. And then, as appropriate, we’ll incorporate these technologies in our applications, as well.
That’s a broad spectrum of investments across these three important areas.
BRETT IVERSEN: Yeah, all exciting spaces, for sure. Thanks, Satya.
We’ve received a lot of questions about our board of Directors, how candidates are identified, the appropriate size and the importance of diversity of background and experience. John, can you provide a few thoughts on how we work to ensure the company’s management and shareholders receive the benefit of a thoughtful and engaged support?
JOHN THOMPSON: Sure. Well, our board has changed quite a bit over the last few years, with many new directors and, as importantly, many new committee chairs. Ironically enough, we have a 12-person board compared to many large corporations that generally have nine or 10, and we have 12 in large part because we have four committees. Whereas most corporate boards tend to only have three committees, we have four, and that fourth one is the Regulatory and Public Policy Committee, which is critically important to Microsoft in light of the changing environment, not just here in the U.S., but around the globe.
Candidly, as I look at our board, I couldn’t be more proud of how it has changed. Of our four committees, three of the committees are led by diverse people of color or, candidly, gender. That is a phenomenal step, if you will, if you think about Microsoft. And as importantly, the company has evolved to the point where it now has a board that is not only knowledgeable about technology, but can share insights about public policy, can share insights about the changing global environment, and quite frankly, do wonderful, wonderful work to help the leadership team and to support our investors. That’s our number one job, and we recognize that.
BRETT IVERSEN: Thanks, John. The next one is from Jack N., who asked, “What are the three most important drivers of revenue growth over the next decade?” Amy, would you mind sharing your thoughts here?
AMY HOOD: I’d be happy to. This is one where I think it’s a slight challenge to pick three, but I’ve been asked to limit my question by Jack. (Laughter.)
AMY HOOD: I know, I’m going to try my best.
First and foremost, I think I’d just start with the Microsoft Cloud, and it’s a very broad answer as the number one driver. It covers everything in TAM expansion from infrastructure opportunities that Satya talked about, the cybersecurity opportunities to productivity growth to really what’s happening in business process reinvention. And so, if you think about that as both a very large and broad bucket, but also a place where TAM expansion is really happening, as we see digital adoption really accelerate, I think in some ways, we’ve talked about this over earnings calls for nearly a decade, but what’s happened in the past really two years is a massive acceleration. And so, if I put that maybe as topic number one.
Secondly, I would probably pick, and I’m going to expand a bit on what productivity has started to mean. Productivity has really expanded from maybe the task completion ideas before of a spreadsheet or a Word document to really collaborative, integrated communications that’s done video or text, synchronous or asynchronous, and really done on a global basis around every time zone.
And so, when we talk about hybrid and the evolution that’s taking place, you can really expect Microsoft 365, but importantly, Teams and Viva to be the center of how you build engaged employees able to do their very best work, regardless of their physical location, and taking into account how even best to design a conference room to make sure everybody feels included, even on days like today where we’re lucky to be together, but we’re able to communicate with shareholders around the world via this format. And think about that happening at every company around the world who’s working through that challenge. And I do expect that, given our position in Microsoft 365, it’s a real opportunity for us to expand and make that really work through Teams and Viva.
And then finally, I’m going to cheat a little bit by saying, as my third driver, there’s a couple of businesses that have really broken through for us in the past couple of years, and I really could not be more excited as I look forward.
LinkedIn, what a terrific job that team has done to build really the way that people are finding, seeking new opportunities, learning new skills and really investing to make the most of their future and the role that LinkedIn plays in that. And if you think about the next decade where people are going to want to learn skills, new skills are needed, and really the environment for labor today, the role that LinkedIn can play both for companies looking for talent, but more importantly, people who are looking for new opportunities for themselves and their families.
I would also say gaming. It’s a great business for us. It’s really broken through. Xbox at the holiday season, it’s hard not to bring, of course, that one up. And then, maybe because it’s also a big launch year for us, Windows 11 and the real centricity of a PC to the new world of work that we’ve been talking about, and how we’re going to all get jobs done.
What it used to feel like to be in front of a screen has really changed. It’s become a point of connection, a point of collaboration, even ways to draw and share your art and share the digital world that you want to be a part of. The Metaverse won’t just exist in the 3D form you often see, but in a 2D experience on a large screen is really terrifically engaging.
And so, I think maybe although I didn’t really answer Jack in only three drivers, one of the real attributes of this company is its diversity and the nature of the businesses we participate in. They have a connective tissue, of course, but they also have unique TAM and expansion opportunities that give us a pretty unique profile, among other large tech investments.
BRETT IVERSEN: Yeah, I totally agree. Individually, they’re each exciting, but when you think of the breadth of just the ones you mentioned, it’s exciting times for sure. Thanks, Amy.
We received many questions and comments relating to specific stands or commitments the company has made on environmental and social topics. Many of those questioned whether the company is doing too much in the space, and many others asked if the company is doing enough. Brad, can you talk about how Microsoft’s leadership decides when and how to address these topics?
BRAD SMITH: Yeah, no, it’s a great question. It’s something that the three of us talk about often. We talk about it with John and the rest of the board. Fundamentally, we recognize that you can speak out on just about everything under the sun, but that’s not the role of a company. We have to be principled and choose the issues that matter, and we have three criteria.
First, I think the most important is will an issue affects our customers and their use of technology and our products. Our mission is to empower individuals and organizations. I think we’re mission driven and we put customers first. That’s why you see us prioritize security, privacy, artificial intelligence, digital safety and the like.
Second, we focus on our employees, both their ability to be successful and safe at work – they have great opportunities – and to live in their communities with the safety and rights that they deserve. And third, we think about our business more broadly. There are issues like trade or tax that affect our success as a business.
I can imagine if you’re a shareholder, you might be watching right now and say, wait, you didn’t mention me. And what I would say is the winning formula to protect shareholders is to focus on customers, employees and our business. What we’ve just found repeatedly is that multistakeholder approach actually serves shareholders the most.
The last thing I would mention because I think it’s relevant, given some of the shareholder resolutions, is are we principled in our lobbying? Absolutely, I have no problem going through anything that we have stood up to support. I can talk all day about all the principles this reflects, but then you heard some people say, well, then why did you support this law to protect privacy in Virginia or facial recognition in Washington, and accept some provisions that some advocacy groups didn’t like?
It’s because that’s what life in a democracy requires. If you want to get something done, you need to compromise. There were times when we accepted provisions that we would never have drafted ourselves, but you have to be humble in a democracy. You have to recognize that the approach involves give and take. And if you just think about what we strive to stand for as a company, it’s that Microsoft will be principled and pragmatic enough to get things done.
There are 50 states in this country and only two have a privacy law. There are 50 states in this country and only one has a facial recognition law. In fact, you can travel the world and you will only find one place in the entire world that has a law to protect the rights of individuals, when it comes to the use of facial recognition. It’s this state, Washington State.
We believe, I always like to say first prize is do something great. Second prize, do something good. If you just do nothing, being principled is not enough to make a difference in the world.
BRETT IVERSEN: Well said. Thanks, Brad. This will be our last question. It’s for Satya. Our next question comes from Dennis V., who asks, “Where are you in regards to cloud computing? Can you share some of the innovation coming out of a company around cloud?”
SATYA NADELLA: Yeah, I mean, Amy sort of answered, in fact. Cloud is the number one thing in some sense is that it’s going to be the long-term driver of growth, even looking out next 10 years, to the previous question. I think that’s where we are. We are still in the very early innings of what is perhaps the biggest shift in computing.
But the way we have always thought about cloud is not a narrow definition of one category. That’s why when you say, Microsoft Cloud, it starts with our infrastructure, it ends with our industry clouds, like our Cloud for Sustainability or Cloud for Healthcare. It’s that depth and breadth of the Microsoft Cloud that we believe really sets Microsoft apart and creates, I think, the greatest return for our customers, because if you think about it, in Azure and in our infrastructure side, we’re innovating rapidly even for what is going to be a multi-cloud and multi-edge environments, right?
Azure Arc is a new product that’s really taken off even during the pandemic to help manage the distributed computing fabric. In the data layer, we have some of the most differentiated assets, right? It starts with our operational stores, like Cosmos DB with Synapse Link to Synapse, now with Purview. We have probably the best in class when it comes to all of the categories, from operational to analytics to governance, and really in the data layer.
AI, I talked about it, right? We’re investing in all of the AI platform layers. About that, we have, I would say, three distinct SaaS categories. We are a primary in developer SaaS, right? Visual Studio Code and GitHub is where every professional developer lives. And so, we’re really bringing fantastic innovation there. We’re bringing the innovation for the citizen developer with Power Platform. Amy talked about, in productivity, we’re redefining productivity, whether it’s in Teams, whether it is in Microsoft Loop or what’s happening with Viva. And then, of course, business applications with Dynamics 365.
And so, we’ll wrap all that and give it this industry specific IP even. I think the opportunity is huge, whereas I said very early on, most importantly, as we look to our customers and what they’re able to do with our cloud to be able to achieve their digital transformation outcomes, that’s really our core mission. Microsoft Cloud is not about our technology, it’s about ability for us to help transform our customers and help them build their own digital capability.
BRETT IVERSEN: It’s a great place to close. Thanks, Satya.
This concludes today’s Q&A session and wraps up our annual shareholders meeting. Thank you for joining us today and your participation in our meeting. If you have further questions, please visit our Investor Relations website. Thank you and thank all of you as well.
BRAD SMITH: Thank you.
AMY HOOD: Thank you so much.
SATYA NADELLA: Thank you so much.
END
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