WPC: Turner Vows a $3.3B Investment in Partners in FY '10
Microsoft's channel investment will grow $400 million in fiscal year 2010 to $3.3 billion, COO Kevin Turner said at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC). The figure is up from a stated amount of $2.9 billion in 2009, which was a big bump from a $2.3 billion figure for 2008. Turner made the point that while Microsoft was holding overall R&D investments flat at $9.5 billion, the channel investment was going up.
The declaration of the partner investment got applause from the audience on Wednesday. But I have to say that it left me scratching my head. Ever since the economy tanked in September, I've heard about nothing but cuts to Microsoft programs. I've heard that general managers have had less in co-marketing funding to distribute to partners, and I've heard of funding for other co-marketing efforts being frozen. Meanwhile, the WPC itself in New Orleans seemed a much more frugal affair than in past years.
If Microsoft didn't spend all of its $2.9 billion on partners last year, it's hard to blame the company. Everyone was cutting back on everything. But if it really did get spent, and it's really going up this year, I'm hard-pressed to say where that money is going. If you have any idea, help me out here. E-mail me at [email protected].
Posted by Scott Bekker on July 16, 2009 at 11:58 AM