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Microsoft Cuts Russia Operations Due to Ukraine Invasion, Says Bloomberg News

The logo of Microsoft is seen at an office building in Wallisellen, Switzerland December 21, 2020. (Reuters)
The logo of Microsoft is seen at an office building in Wallisellen, Switzerland December 21, 2020. (Reuters)
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Microsoft Cuts Russia Operations Due to Ukraine Invasion, Says Bloomberg News

The logo of Microsoft is seen at an office building in Wallisellen, Switzerland December 21, 2020. (Reuters)
The logo of Microsoft is seen at an office building in Wallisellen, Switzerland December 21, 2020. (Reuters)

Microsoft Corp is substantially cutting its business in Russia in response to Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday.

Earlier in March, Microsoft said it was suspending new sales of its products and services in Russia.

The company did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

More than 400 employees will be affected, the report said, citing a company spokesperson.

Several major companies, including Apple Inc, Nike and Dell Technologies, have severed connections with Russia.

Facebook-owner Meta Platforms Inc and Alphabet Inc's Google have also taken measures to restrict Russian state media from making money off ads on their platforms.

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Salesforce Gains as Software Firm Bets on AI Tools to Power Growth

The Salesforce logo is pictured on a building in San Francisco, California, US October 12, 2016. REUTERS/Lily Jamali/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
The Salesforce logo is pictured on a building in San Francisco, California, US October 12, 2016. REUTERS/Lily Jamali/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
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Salesforce Gains as Software Firm Bets on AI Tools to Power Growth

The Salesforce logo is pictured on a building in San Francisco, California, US October 12, 2016. REUTERS/Lily Jamali/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
The Salesforce logo is pictured on a building in San Francisco, California, US October 12, 2016. REUTERS/Lily Jamali/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights

Shares of Salesforce gained more than 5% on Thursday as investors cheered the customer relationship management software maker's upbeat quarterly results and its artificial intelligence push to drive growth.

The company has been heavily investing to integrate its AI technologies into existing products, such as its messaging platform Slack, to enhance their capabilities and attract more customers.

"We continue to see Salesforce as an under-appreciated AI winner as its differentiated data and early success in creating/deploying GenAI agents," Reuters quoted Goldman Sachs analyst Kash Rangan as saying.

Wall Street was concerned that tempered cloud spending would affect Salesforce in a tough economy, but the software-as-a-service (SaaS) firm reported better-than-expected revenue, profit and margins in the second quarter.

Salesforce also raised its profit forecast for the year ending January 2025, as margins continue to expand, thanks to its restructuring efforts last year.

The stock is trading at 24.49 times that of Wall Street's profit expectations, compared with 52.11 for SaaS peer ServiceNow and cloud contact center firm Five9's 13.30.

Salesforce is set to add $14 billion to its market capitalization if premarket gains hold. The company's valuation stood at $248 billion as of Wednesday's close.

"We think these results alone are not good enough to drive a sustainable rally from here. For that, we need more catalysts, which could come with the new AI solutions," which are set to be showcased at its event Dreamforce and launched in October, Barclays analyst Raimo Lenschow said.

Some analysts believe that sustained growth in the coming quarters can come through customer support platform Agentforce, which is not yet commercially available.