Microsoft's revenue growth accelerated to 17 percent year-on-year in its fiscal second quarter to December, for total sales of USD 43.1 billion. The company said it benefited from the new wave of digital transformation running through each industry, as more and more businesses adopt its cloud services. Its quarterly operating profit rose 29 percent to USD 17.9 billion, and net profit jumped 33 percent to USD 15.5 billion or USD 2.03 per share.
Commercial cloud revenue rose 34 percent year-on-year to USD 16.7 billion. Commercial bookings grew 11 percent on a constant currency basis, and Microsoft added another USD 5 billion to its commercial backlog in the three months, for a total USD 112 billion in outstanding business at the end of December.
Azure was again the main growth driver, with a 50 percent increase in revenues, driven by usage-based services. Office Commercial products and cloud services revenue increased 11 percent, led by 21 percent growth in Office 365, and LinkedIn grew revenues 23 percent.
In the consumer market, Microsoft grew Office revenues 7 percent and ended the period with 47.5 million 365 subscribers. Xbox revenues jumped 40 percent, including an 86 percent rise in hardware sales following the release of new console models. Search advertising returned to annual growth of 2 percent as the ad market recovered.
In the computer market, Microsoft increased Windows OEM revenue by 1 percent, thanks to consumer demand for PCs. Windows OEM Pro revenue fell by 9 percent, and Surface sales rose a modest 3 percent.
Microsoft said it returned USD 10 billion to shareholders in the quarter, in the form of share repurchases and dividends. That's an increase of 18 percent compared to the year-earlier period.
