Microsoft on Thursday posted high quarterly profit and revenue as more businesses signed up for its Azure cloud computing services and Office 365 productivity suite.
The company's flagship Azure cloud product recorded revenue growth of 89 percent in the fourth quarter ended June 30.
Much of Microsoft's recent growth has been fueled by its cloud computing business, which has benefited from companies rushing to shift their workloads to the cloud to cut data storage and software costs.
Microsoft shares have risen 180 percent since Satya Nadella took over as chief executive in 2014, refocusing the company on cloud computing rather than PC software. Its market cap edged above $800 billion for the first time earlier this month.
"We had an incredible year, surpassing $100 billion in revenue as a result of our teams' relentless focus on customer success and the trust customers are placing in Microsoft," said Satya Nadella. "Our early investments in the intelligent cloud and intelligent edge are paying off, and we will continue to expand our reach in large and growing markets with differentiated innovation."
Azure has a 16 percent share of the global cloud infrastructure market, making it the second-biggest provider of cloud services after Amazon.com 's Amazon Web Services, according to April estimates by research firm Canalys.
Revenue at Microsoft's productivity and business processes unit, which includes Office 365, rose 13.1 percent to $9.67 billion.
Revenue for the company's LinkedIn business and job network grew 37 percent from the year-ago quarter, while its Dynamics 365 online business application suite posted a 61 percent increase.
Gaming revenue increased 39% (up 38% in constant currency) with Xbox software and services revenue growth of 36% (up 35% in constant currency) mainly from third party title strength.
Surface revenue increased 25% (up 21% in constant currency) driven by strong performance of the latest editions of Surface against a low prior year comparable.
Search advertising revenue excluding traffic acquisition costs increased 17% (up 16% in constant currency) driven by higher revenue per search and search volume.
Overall, the Redmond, Washington-based software maker's revenue rose 17.5 percent to $30.09 billion, above expectations of $29.21 billion.
Net income rose to $8.87 billion, or $1.14 per share, from $8.07 billion, or $1.03 per share, in the year-ago fourth quarter.
Excluding certain items, Microsoft earned $1.13 per share. |