Making it rain in Redmond
Microsoft gets to head into the weekend on a positive note. Thats because the numbers for its second fiscal quarter ended December 31, 2015, are in and theyre cause for celebration.
All of its businesses combined, Microsoft collected $25.7 billion in revenue (non-GAAP) during the quarter. Though thats down from $26.1 billion in the same quarter a year prior, Microsoft increased its quarterly profits by 8 percent to $6.3 billion, up from $5.8 billion.
"It was a strong holiday season for Microsoft highlighted by Surface and Xbox," said Kevin Turner, chief operating officer at Microsoft. "Our commercial business executed well as our sales teams and partners helped customers realize the value of Microsoft’s cloud technologies across Azure, Office 365 and CRM Online."
Indeed, the launch of the Surface Pro 4 and Surface Book helped boost overall Surface sales 29 percent in constant currency to $1.35 billion, up more than double from the previous quarters $672 million. This helped offset a 49 percent in Phone revenue, a decline that Microsoft said reflected its "strategy change announced in July 2015." In other words, this wasnt unexpected.
Microsoft was particularly pleased with its cloud performance, noting a 10 percent rise in revenue related to server products and cloud services, and a big 140 percent jump in Azure revenue.
"Businesses everywhere are using the Microsoft Cloud as their digital platform to drive their ambitious transformation agendas," said Satya Nadella, chief executive officer at Microsoft. "Businesses are also piloting Windows 10, which will drive deployments beyond 200 million active devices."
Investors reacted positively to the news, with shares of Microsoft trading up nearly 5 percent today.
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