Microsoft’s (NASDAQ:MSFT) cloud services continued to be disrupted on Friday as the LSE Group, which operates the London Stock Exchange, stated that it is experiencing a global technical glitch that is preventing news from being published. This issue is affecting users worldwide, including those in Asia. For example, Japanese users are experiencing problems with services such as Microsoft 365, the tech giant’s office software suite.
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Additionally, airlines in India and Hong Kong have started to manually check in passengers as their systems were impacted by the outage. Frontier Airlines, based in the U.S., also reported that its systems were affected by the disruption.
When did the MSFT Outage Start?
Apparently, the outage started late on Thursday night after Microsoft reported that customers in the Central U.S. were facing issues with Azure and Microsoft 365 services, including Teams. By Friday, most services were recovered, but some issues persist.
Many Windows users globally experienced the dreaded Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) error, leading to unexpected system shutdowns or restarts. Various reports indicate that a recent update from cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike (NASDAQ:CRWD) is likely the cause of this issue.
Shares of MSFT and CRWD declined in pre-market trading following the news of the outage.
MSFT’s Response to the Issue
Meanwhile, Microsoft stated on its social media handle on X that the company was “investigating an issue impacting users ability to access various Microsoft 365 apps and services.”
Is Microsoft a Buy, Hold, or Sell?
Analysts remain bullish about MSFT stock, with a Strong Buy consensus rating based on 34 Buys and one Hold. Over the past year, MSFT has increased by more than 20%, and the average MSFT price target of $504.12 implies an upside potential of 14.5% from current levels.
