Microsoft reported quarterly revenue and profit on Wednesday, helped by demand for its cloud computing services and flagship Azure product.

Microsoft took a $13.8 billion charge in the second quarter that resulted in a loss, but excluding items it earned 96 cents per share.

Revenue climbed 12 percent to $28.92 billion.

Microsoft's cloud business - which includes products such as Office 365, Dynamic 365 and Azure computing platform - has emerged as a major growth driver for Microsoft.

"This quarter's results speak to the differentiated value we are delivering to customers across our productivity solutions and as the hybrid cloud provider of choice," said Satya Nadella, chief executive officer of Microsoft. "Our investments in IoT, data, and AI services across cloud and the edge position us to further accelerate growth."

Revenue in Productivity and Business Processes was $9.0 billion and increased 25% (up 24% in constant currency), with the following business highlights:

• Office commercial products and cloud services revenue increased 10% (up 10% in constant currency) driven by Office 365 commercial revenue growth of 41% (up 41% in constant currency)
• Office consumer products and cloud services revenue increased 12% (up 11% in constant currency) and Office 365 consumer subscribers increased to 29.2 million
• Dynamics products and cloud services revenue increased 10% (up 9% in constant currency) driven by Dynamics 365 revenue growth of 67% (up 68% in constant currency)
• LinkedIn contributed revenue of $1.3 billion during the quarter with sessions growth of over 20% for the fifth consecutive quarter

Revenue in Intelligent Cloud was $7.8 billion and increased 15% (up 15% in constant currency), with the following business highlights:

• Server products and cloud services revenue increased 18% (up 18% in constant currency) driven by Azure revenue growth of 98% (up 98% in constant currency)
• Enterprise Services revenue increased 5% (up 3% in constant currency) driven by Premier Support Services

Revenue in More Personal Computing was $12.2 billion and increased 2% (up 2% in constant currency), with the following business highlights:

• Windows OEM revenue increased 4% (up 4% in constant currency) driven by OEM Pro revenue growth of 11%
• Windows commercial products and cloud services revenue decreased 4% (down 5% in constant currency) due to the impact of a prior year large deal
• Gaming revenue increased 8% (up 8% in constant currency) driven by Xbox hardware revenue growth from the Xbox One X launch
• Search advertising revenue excluding traffic acquisition costs increased 15% (up 15% in constant currency) driven by higher revenue per search and search volume
• Surface revenue increased 1% (relatively unchanged in constant currency)