Bad News

Microsoft's stock dropped 6% as its AI investments failed to significantly boost Azure cloud revenue, while Meta gained 4% after Zuckerberg reassured investors about growth. Analysts noted Microsoft's focus on AI workloads may have slowed core Azure growth, delaying the expected acceleration. The company’s weaker-than-expected cloud forecast led to a market cap loss of around $182 billion.

Microsoft will retire Dynamics 365 Unified Service Desk (USD) by June 2028, phasing out support and updates in the years leading up to that date. The company recommends users transition to Customer Service Workspace (CSW), which offers faster performance, AI-driven agent assist, and ongoing updates. While Microsoft is pushing CSW as the preferred alternative, other companies like Google and Here provide similar unified agent desktop solutions.

Microsoft's Azure cloud services experienced disruptions in the US East 2 region due to a networking configuration issue, affecting various services and causing connectivity problems. While most systems were restored by January 10, intermittent errors and degraded performance persisted for some customers. Microsoft continues to work on recovery and advises users to implement disaster recovery plans.

Microsoft is cutting less than 1% of its workforce based on performance, following earlier layoffs in its gaming unit and broader staff reductions in 2023. Despite its strong financial performance, the company faces challenges, including a strained partnership with OpenAI and slower-than-expected adoption of its AI tools like Microsoft 365 Copilot. Microsoft remains focused on growth, particularly through Azure's AI infrastructure.

A legal claim filed in the UK's Competition Appeal Tribunal accuses Microsoft of overcharging businesses for Windows Server software, seeking over £1 billion in compensation on behalf of UK businesses. The claim alleges Microsoft’s licensing practices unfairly increased costs for companies using rival cloud providers like Google and Amazon, restricting competition. Filed on an "opt-out" basis, the lawsuit highlights the impact on small businesses and forms part of broader scrutiny of cloud computing practices by the UK's Competition and Markets Authority.

Microsoft resolved issues with Outlook and Teams by Tuesday afternoon, over a day after thousands of users reported outages. Most problems were tied to Exchange Online and Teams calendars, with fixes deployed by Monday morning but slower-than-expected progress for many users. The disruption coincided with the rollout of a new Recall AI tool, though Microsoft did not confirm a direct link.

Elon Musk has expanded his lawsuit against the ChatGPT maker OpenAI, adding federal antitrust and other claims and adding OpenAI’s largest financial backer, Microsoft, as a defendant. Musk’s amended lawsuit, filed on Thursday night in federal court in Oakland, California, said Microsoft and OpenAI illegally sought to monopolize the market for generative artificial intelligence and sideline competitors.

The FTC is preparing to investigate Microsoft for alleged anti-competitive practices in its cloud computing business, focusing on claims of restrictive licensing, high exit fees, and incompatibility of Office 365 with rival platforms. This aligns with ongoing scrutiny of Big Tech by regulators globally, including similar investigations by the UK and EU. The inquiry follows broader concerns about monopolistic behaviors in the cloud market, where Microsoft holds a 20% market share behind AWS but ahead of Google Cloud.

Microsoft has accused Google of covertly organizing the Open Cloud Coalition to influence European regulators and counter Microsoft’s cloud practices, labeling it an "astroturf" campaign. The coalition, led by smaller cloud firms but reportedly funded by Google, seeks to advocate for cloud market openness and interoperability, allegedly to counter Microsoft's 2019 licensing changes, which made it more costly to use Microsoft software on non-Azure clouds. This clash intensifies as Europe and the U.K. investigate market lock-in by major cloud providers, with both companies aiming to shape upcoming regulatory decisions.

Bad News

Salesforce plans to lay off some employees at Own, the data management startup it recently acquired for $2 billion, as part of its integration strategy. While some roles will end by January 2024, others will be transitional to aid the merger. This reflects Salesforce’s more cautious approach to acquisitions, despite its recent announcement to hire over 1,000 people for its generative AI initiatives.

Salesforce is facing a global outage affecting multiple data centers and leaving customers unable to access its services since 05:55 UTC. Efforts to address the issue include managing traffic and restoring affected databases to stable backups, but no timeline for resolution has been provided. The outage also impacts Data Cloud functionality and follows a similar incident in October 2024.

Salesforce AI CEO Clara Shih has reportedly left the company, with Adam Evans stepping into a broader role as EVP and GM of AI during a strategic shift toward "AI agents." This comes as Salesforce focuses on autonomous, task-executing AI agents like its new Agentforce platform, which launched in October 2024. Despite the AI push, Salesforce has yet to disclose specific AI revenue, and its stock, up 26% in 2024, recently dipped following the news.

Salesforce experienced a major outage, disrupting services for users across multiple regions, with many unable to log in or facing slow performance. The company acknowledged the issue as a "degradation of service" and implemented a staggered fix, though some users continued to report problems throughout the day. The outage, affecting Salesforce instances hosted on AWS, reignited concerns about cloud platform reliability and the importance of clear, timely communication during service disruptions, as users expressed frustration over the lack of detailed updates.

Bad News

The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has revived a lawsuit by Teradata against SAP, accusing SAP of antitrust violations and stealing trade secrets. Teradata claims SAP used a 2008 joint venture to access its intellectual property and later tied software sales to its competing database product. The court ruled there are material disputes for a jury to decide, reversing a 2021 lower court ruling in favor of SAP.

SAP streicht im Rahmen der globalen "Next Level Transformation" rund 3.500 Stellen in Deutschland, was einem Rückgang der Belegschaft um etwa 14 % entspricht. Während einige Mitarbeitende großzügige Vorruhestands- oder Abfindungsangebote angenommen haben, wächst die Sorge über steigende Arbeitsbelastung und die Verlagerung von Stellen an günstigere Standorte wie Indien, wo SAP stark expandiert. Die Stimmung unter den Beschäftigten hat sich verschlechtert, mit zunehmender Unzufriedenheit über die Restrukturierung, Führungsentscheidungen und organisatorische Veränderungen.

Bad News

ServiceNow is restructuring its RiseUp training program, which aims to train workers in managing its technology, amid low job placement rates and a broader corporate retreat from diversity-focused initiatives. The program has faced leadership turnover and budget scrutiny, with its original goal of training one million people by 2024 now softened to a broader target of skilling three million by 2027. While RiseUp is framed as part of equity-focused efforts, ServiceNow denies it was designed as a diversity initiative and is increasing efforts to improve graduate employability through job placement support and tracking.

Bad News

VMware users are frustrated with Broadcom’s new licensing policies, which now require a three-year upfront commitment for vSphere renewals instead of annual renewals. Customers argue this is a deliberate move to lock them in as many consider migrating away due to steep price hikes and the removal of perpetual licenses. Broadcom claims to offer flexibility, but customers and analysts warn that transitioning away from VMware could be costly and complex.

Austrian cloud provider Anexia migrated 12,000 virtual machines from VMware to an open-source KVM system, citing Broadcom's increased license costs as a threat to its competitiveness. Anexia CEO Alexander Windbichler criticized Broadcom's pricing strategy, noting it forced upfront payments and strained trust among customers, prompting other providers like Beeks to explore alternatives. Anexia's transition leveraged its existing infrastructure, minimizing impact on customers.

Netflix has sued Broadcom's VMware, alleging its vSphere virtualization platform infringes five Netflix patents related to virtual-machine operations. This legal dispute adds to ongoing litigation between the companies over video streaming technology, with a separate trial scheduled for next June. Netflix is seeking monetary damages in the new case.

Beeks Group, a UK-based cloud operator, transitioned from VMware to OpenNebula due to soaring licensing costs, declining support quality, and inefficiencies in VMware's platform. The move resulted in a 200% increase in VM efficiency and lower costs, although it required adapting proprietary tools and developing additional performance-monitoring capabilities. While Beeks still offers VMware services, most of its infrastructure now runs on OpenNebula, highlighting dissatisfaction with Broadcom's licensing terms post-acquisition.

A Linux variant of the Helldown ransomware has been uncovered. Previously known for targeting Windows systems, the Helldown group now extends its reach to VMware ESX servers and Linux environments. According to a new report by Sekoia’s Threat Detection & Research (TDR) team, Helldown, an intrusion set that surfaced in August 2024, operates with a double-extortion model.

Since Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware, customers have faced sharp price increases and unexpected late fees if they miss renewals when transitioning to VMware's subscription model. These changes, including new contractual terms and product bundling, have frustrated many long-time VMware customers, some of whom are exploring alternatives like Nutanix and OpenStack despite the high switching costs. Broadcom’s focus on large, strategic clients has left some customers feeling overlooked, and competitors are seizing the opportunity to attract discontented VMware users.

Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware is shaking up the distributed hybrid infrastructure market, opening opportunities for rivals like Microsoft, AWS, Oracle, and Nutanix. Gartner notes that concerns over Broadcom's pricing and licensing changes are prompting many VMware customers to consider alternatives, with up to 30% potentially exiting the VMware ecosystem. This shift could gradually impact Broadcom, although some customers are locked into multi-year VMware contracts, delaying a full-scale exodus.

Bad News

Microsoft has accused Google of covertly organizing the Open Cloud Coalition to influence European regulators and counter Microsoft’s cloud practices, labeling it an "astroturf" campaign. The coalition, led by smaller cloud firms but reportedly funded by Google, seeks to advocate for cloud market openness and interoperability, allegedly to counter Microsoft's 2019 licensing changes, which made it more costly to use Microsoft software on non-Azure clouds. This clash intensifies as Europe and the U.K. investigate market lock-in by major cloud providers, with both companies aiming to shape upcoming regulatory decisions.

Google Cloud’s europe-west3 region in Frankfurt faced a 12-hour outage due to a power and cooling failure, affecting numerous services like Compute Engine, Kubernetes Engine, and Persistent Disk. Users experienced issues such as VM creation failures, node inaccessibility, and delays in batch job scaling. Google eventually advised migrating workloads to other regions or zones, apologizing for the disruption.

Amit Zavery, previously a leader at Oracle and Google, has joined ServiceNow as president, chief product officer, and chief operating officer, following a leadership shakeup tied to a recent hiring investigation involving government scrutiny. Zavery’s appointment comes after CJ Desai's resignation amid internal conflict-of-interest findings and Raj Iyer’s departure from ServiceNow’s public sector role. With a background in cloud and developer-centric products, Zavery is expected to bolster ServiceNow’s competitive stance against Atlassian and Salesforce, especially in Agile development and AI-driven tools.

Die Schwarz-Gruppe hat für den Ausbau ihres Digitalgeschäfts einen Topmanager von der Konkurrenz abgeworben: Bernd Wagner, derzeit Geschäftsführer von Google Cloud in Deutschland, wechselt bald zu dem Familienunternehmen. Das erfuhr das Handelsblatt aus Branchenkreisen. In der IT-Branche dürfte der Wechsel Aufsehen erregen. „Das ist eine starke Personalie für Schwarz Digits“, sagte Axel Oppermann, Gründer des Analysehauses Avispador, dem Handelsblatt. Der Manager habe ein breites Verständnis des Marktes und sei gut vernetzt. Zudem komme er aus einer Organisation, die für ihre Umsetzungsstärke bekannt sei. „Das könnte für Tempo sorgen.“