Microsoft makes a lot of money each quarter - to the tune of a few billion dollars - but one metric that Wall St loves to examine, and which is a bit interesting for the casual observer, is that of how much money the company generates per employee For the fiscal year of 2013, which ran from June 2012 to June 2013, each employee at Microsoft brought in $220,800 in net income and $786,400 revenue.
That"s clearly a large figure considering that, at the time these figures were calculated, the company had around 100,000 employees. But, if you are to take these figures and compare them to Google and Apple, the numbers are not as impressive. Apple brought in $461,200 in net income and $2,128,400 in revenue per head while Google brought in $270,500 in net income and $1,252,700 in revenue per head.
But those are the leaders of the industry, and Microsoft was still able to beat Oracle and IBM in the same metrics. Later this month, we will be able to calculate more recent information for Microsoft for 2014 as their fiscal year ends on June 30th, although Apple"s is not until September, while Google goes on the traditional calendar year.
For reference, Google has about 48,000 employees and Apple has around 80,000. The numbers show, among Google, Apple and Microsoft, that Microsoft appear to be a bit head-count-heavy which may explain why there are rumors circulating that the company may cut up to 10% of its workforce.
Following Nadella"s open letter about the path forward for Microsoft, he will talk in more detail about the company"s plans its earnings call on July 22nd and likely next week as well at its partner conference.
Source: WSJ