Key Takeaways
- Microsoft said it expects to return an impairment complaint of astir $800 cardinal aft General Motors halted nan improvement of Cruise autonomous vehicles.
- The tech elephantine and others for illustration Honda and Walmart invested successful nan "robotaxi" startup complete nan past decade.
- GM said precocious Tuesday that it would extremity improvement of nan robotaxis because of nan costs to standard nan project, and displacement nan squad to processing different driver assistance programs.
Microsoft (MSFT) will return an $800 cardinal impairment charge successful its 2nd 4th net study related to its finance successful robotaxi startup Cruise aft mostly proprietor General Motors (GM) announced this week that it would halt nan development of Cruise autonomous vehicles.
Microsoft, Walmart (WMT), Honda and others were number investors successful nan startup, while GM has held a mostly liking since 2016. The automaker said Tuesday that nan "robotaxi" work had go excessively costly to create and scale, and said it would activity to bargain retired remaining shareholders.
End of Cruise Robotaxi Leads to $800M Charge, 9 Cent Per Share Negative for Microsoft
Late Wednesday, nan tech elephantine said successful a regulatory filing that it expected nan $800 cardinal complaint to person a antagonistic effect connected second-quarter earnings per stock (EPS) of astir 9 cents per share.
GM said nan project's costs had go excessively overmuch to proceed backing arsenic it was besides trying to standard alongside competitors for illustration Waymo, owned by Google genitor Alphabet (GOOGL), on with nan Tesla (TSLA) robotaxi nan EV shaper wants to get connected nan roads astatine standard successful nan coming years.
The automaker said nan Cruise squad would beryllium realigned to activity connected different driver assistance systems, and said it will proceed processing its partially self-driving, "hands off, eyes on" Super Cruise system.
In nan filing, Microsoft besides informed regulators of nan results of a number of shareholder votes from its yearly shareholder time that took spot Tuesday. The company's committee was re-elected, executive salary packages and an independent auditor were besides approved, while respective proposals from shareholders grounded to pass.
Microsoft shares edged 0.26% little successful premarket trading Thursday.