Quarterly earnings report reveals strong performance

Oct 27, 2017 06:19 GMT  ·  By

Microsoft has posted the company’s earnings report for the first quarter of the fiscal year 2018, revealing substantial increases in almost every unit, with particularly strong performance for cloud, Windows, and Surface.

Specifically, Microsoft reported a total of $24.538 billion in revenue for the quarter, and this represents a 12 percent increase from $21.928 billion at the end of the same period a year ago. Additionally, the company’s operating income improved 15 percent to $7.7 billion, while the net income reached $6.6 billion thanks to a 16 percent increase.

When it comes to each division, in particular, the Productivity and Business Processes unit performed strong and returned $8.2 billion in revenue, up 28 percent year-over-year. Office and cloud revenue itself increased 10 percent, with Office 365 alone increasing revenue by 42 percent in the commercial biz.

Office consumer products improved as well during the quarter, growing 12 percent year-over-year and reaching 28 million subscribers across the world.

Windows and Surface going strong

As for the unit that’s the most interesting for the majority of consumers, the More Personal Computing, good performance was recorded here as well, though Microsoft says that revenue reached $9.4 billion, remaining unchanged year-over-year.

But despite this, Windows OEM revenue increased 4 percent, while the Surface revenue recorded a growth of 12 percent, mostly thanks to the Surface Laptop, according to Microsoft. Gaming revenue, on the other hand, jumped just 1 percent, but Xbox software and services experienced strong performance and posted a growth of 21 percent.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella says the company has even surpassed its revenue goal, obviously praising cloud services as the main catalyst of the growth.

“This quarter we exceeded $20 billion in commercial cloud ARR, outpacing the goal we set just over two years ago,” said Satya Nadella, chief executive officer at Microsoft. “Our results reflect accelerating innovation and increased usage and engagement across our businesses as customers continue to choose Microsoft to help them transform.”