Microsoft hit the headlines last week when it unveiled plans to buy Call of Duty maker Activision Blizzard in a monster merger worth over £50billion.
The implications of this deal, which will see the tech giant become the third-largest computer gaming company in the world, are still being debated by the tech and gaming sectors. Investor attention will shift to Tuesday’s announcements for the second quarter results.
Microsoft will report earnings for the period at $17.5billion, and revenues of roughly $50.9billion.
One area that is of particular interest to Activision when it completes its acquisition next year will be their outlook on the gaming market.
Microsoft’s cloud business, which the company has invested extensively to be competitive against other players in this space such as Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud Services will be also in the spotlight.
The group may be questioned about the impact of a worldwide shortage of semiconductors. These are computer chips that can be used in every aspect from smartphone braking systems to cars braking systems.
Investors should also check to see if Microsoft’s Office suite (which includes Word, Excel, Powerpoint) is still a market leader.
Talk of selling Office is possible, though. Ben Slivka (ex-Microsoft executive) said that Microsoft needed to sell the Windows and software businesses in order for it to continue its investment in cloud computing.