Washington (AFP)
Some were temporarily closed due to a pandemic, they will not reopen for lack of an economic model: Microsoft announced Friday that it would close almost all of its stores worldwide, most of its sales being now made on the internet.
"Our sales have grown online as our product catalog has expanded with many digital offerings, and our super team has demonstrated its ability to serve our customers beyond physical locations," said Vice President David Porter. -president of the group in charge of brands, in a press release.
More than 80 stores will be closed, the company said. The "Microsoft Experience Centers", where visitors can test the brand's products, will remain open. Those of London, New York and Sydney will be "re-imagined".
The computer giant estimates that its sales websites, including Xbox and Windows, are visited by more than 1.2 billion people every month in 190 markets.
The number of employees affected by this decision was not immediately available.
"Our teams will continue to serve our customers from our offices or from home and we will continue to develop our diverse team", detailed David Porter in a note on Linkedin, the professional network which belongs to the group.
He praised the flexibility of the employees, who spent the confinement doing training for companies, institutions and schools, or answering customer questions over the phone.
Microsoft now plans to invest in tutorials, video calls and other support tools for its customers and online partners.
The Redmond company said it would make a provision of $ 450 million to cover in particular asset write-downs. This charge will be recorded in the accounts for the current quarter (ended June 30).
The impact of the pandemic has not yet been reflected in the financial results of Microsoft, which achieved a net profit of $ 10.8 billion from January to March, up 22% over one year, for a figure 35 billion in business (+ 15%).
Despite the production delays for its range of Surface computers, the group considers itself well positioned to weather the crisis, in particular thanks to the explosion of the cloud (remote computing).
With physical distance, Microsoft can also count on its software and services related to telework, distance education or video games.
The company has however just closed its video game streaming platform Mixer, leaving the field open to the giant of the industry Twitch (Amazon) and to its two rivals, YouTube Gaming and Facebook Gaming.
vog-juj / dax
© 2020 AFP