You mean this one ??
12/23 14:04 Microsoft stock regains stride after CFO's exit
By Scott Hillis
LOS ANGELES, Dec 23 (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp.'s <MSFT.O> stock rose on Thursday, rallying back from a drop a day after the software giant's respected Chief Financial Officer Greg Maffei jumped ship to head a private fiber optics firm.
Shares in Microsoft rose by as much as 1-1/8 to a 52-week high of 118-11/16 in early afternoon trading on the Nasdaq, but later trimmed that to 117-13/16 a short time later.
The resignation of Maffei on Wednesday afternoon triggered an after-hours sell-off of more than 3 in the stock of the Redmond, Wash.-based software giant company.
Microsoft appointed John Connors, an 11-year veteran of the company, as Maffei's replacement. Connors was vice president of the worldwide enterprise group, and has served as controller and chief information officer.
Although Maffei won praise from Wall Street for helping Microsoft beat financial forecasts and accumulate a huge cash hoard, analysts said his exit shouldn't lead to a breakdown in the company's smooth-running financial machine.
"There had been speculation about Maffei for some time, and we're relieved to see a smooth transition strategy," Warburg Dillon Read analyst Andrew Roskill wrote in a research report.
Maffei's departure was bound to prompt a "knee-jerk" reaction in the market, Roskill said, but added, "We see no impact on the company's fundamental outlook. Our take is that Connors is well-qualified for the position."
Microsoft should meet or beat a second-quarter profit estimate of 43 cents a share, said Michael Kwatinetz, an analyst with Credit Suisse First Boston.
"Given the depth and strength of Microsoft's management team across the board, we don't believe this departure will have any meaningful impact on the company," Kwatinetz wrote in a research report.
Investment firm PaineWebber raised its price target on Microsoft to $150 a share from $120, saying that Connors appeared stronger than Maffei. "Departure of a CFO is a loss, but unlikely to affect operational performance," analyst Don Young wrote. "We never like to see CFOs depart, but we doubt this situation is signaling a potential problem."
Maffei, 39, resigned to become chief executive of Worldwide Fiber Inc., a fiber optic communications company based in Vancouver. He is staying at Microsoft through January.
His departure is the latest in a string of senior executives -- including Rob Glaser, chief executive of RealNetworks Inc., Peter Neupert of Drugstore.com Inc. and Naveen Jain of InfoSpace Inc. -- to leave the company to join start-ups that are smaller but have bright prospects. |
