(c)iStock.com/Nicolas McComber
Microsoft cited the strength of its cloud portfolio on the firm’s ‘customer momentum’ as it reported a $3.1 billion (£2.4bn) net income for the quarter ending June 30.
Revenue was $20.6bn GAAP, with operating income at $3.1bn. Office commercial products and cloud services revenue grew 5%, heavily driven by the Office 365 side, while Office consumer products and cloud services grew 19%.
For Azure, revenue grew 102%, with Azure compute usage more than doubling year on year, while the install base for Microsoft’s enterprise mobility suites grew almost two and a half times year on year. The company claims its overall user base in the wider context of enterprise mobility is 33,000; figures from earlier this month, when Microsoft rebranded EMS from Enterprise Mobility Suite to Enterprise Mobility + Security, put the number of EMS customers at more than 27,000.
“This past year was pivotal in both our own transformation and in partnering with our customers who are navigating their own digital transformations,” said Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella in a statement. “The Microsoft cloud is seeing significant customer momentum and we’re well positioned to reach new opportunities in the year ahead.”
Microsoft’s strategies and manoeuvres are of course never out of the press, but the firm’s planned acquisition of LinkedIn, slated at $26.2bn, in June was evidently the biggest. This was inferred by Amy Hood, EVP and chief financial officer. “This fiscal year we invested in innovation and expanded our market presence in key product areas and geographies,” she said. “I am pleased with the execution from our sales teams and partners this quarter who delivered a strong finish to the fiscal year.”
Last week Microsoft secured a major victory when a federal court ruled the US government could not force the tech giant to hand over information stored in other territories, overturning a two-year-old previous judgement. Analyst figures argue Microsoft is in clear second place in the infrastructure as a service (IaaS) bracket, although significantly behind Amazon Web Services.