Microsoft reported another quarter of double-digit revenue growth, led by demand for its cloud services. Revenues rose 13 percent year-on-year to USD 38.0 billion in its fiscal fourth quarter to June, and operating profit was up 8 percent to USD 13.4 billion. Net profit fell 15 percent to USD 11.2 billion or USD 1.46 per share, due to a one-time charge of USD 450 million to shut down its shops and a large tax benefit in the year-earlier period.
Microsoft said market trends were similar to the previous quarter. Its cloud, computer and gaming businesses are benefiting from more people working and schooling from home during the Covid-19 pandemic, while transactional software sales have slowed, especially among SMEs. LinkedIn is suffering from the drop in recruitment and advertising, and Search is also negatively impacted by less advertising, with sales down 18 percent excluding TACs.
The Intelligent Cloud division was the largest, with sales up 17 percent to USD 13.4 billion. This was led by 47 percent growth at the Azure cloud business.
At More Personal Computing, revenue rose 14 percent to USD 12.9 billion. Windows OEM revenue increased 7 percent, and Windows commercial revenue rose 9 percent, while Xbox sales jumped 65 percent, and Surface revenue increased 28 percent.
In Productivity and Business Processes, the company grew sales 6 percent to USD 11.8 billion. Office Commercial products and cloud services revenue increased 5 percent, and Office Consumer sales were up 6 percent. Office 365 Consumer subscribers increased to 42.7 million at the end of the quarter. LinkedIn revenue growth slowed to 10 percent.
Over its full year, Microsoft recorded revenue up 14 percent to USD 143 billion, and net profit rose 13 percent to USD 44.3 billion.
