14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft today announced its financial results for the third quarter of fiscal year 2015, revealing total revenues of $21.7 billion and a profit drop of 12 percent, as compared to the same period of the previous year.
One of the reasons for the profit decline is the integration of the Nokia Device and Services division, which required a total spending of $190 million for integration and restructuring.
Despite the profit drop, however, Microsoft posted excellent results for the Office 365 Consumer business, where the number of subscribers surpassed 12.4 million (up 35 percent), but also for the Surface division whose revenues increased to $713 million for the quarter, up 44 percent. Microsoft says the Surface Pro 3 is the main catalyst of this growth.
8.6 million Lumia phones sold
The software giant also posted revenues of $1.4 billion for the Phone Hardware unit, with 8.6 million Lumia units sold, but declines of 19 percent and 26 percent for Windows OEM Pro and Windows OEM non-Pro revenues, respectively.
Microsoft expects these figures to improve throughout the year with the approach of Windows 10, which according to company executives should launch during the summer.
“We remain focused on strong execution from our sales teams. Around the world we're seeing high interest in deployment of our cloud and server products, as well as participation in the enterprise early adopter program for Windows 10,” said Kevin Turner, chief operating officer at Microsoft.
As far as the commercial revenues are concerned, cloud posted a 106 percent increase thanks to Office 365, Azure, and Dynamics CRM Online, reaching $6.3 billion, while the server products and services revenue grew 12 percent. Windows volume licensing revenue declined 2 percent.
Last but not least, Microsoft’s Bing search engine has posted an impressive increase, reaching a 20.1 percent market share for the first time, and thus boosting search advertising revenue by 21 percent.
Microsoft performed well during the quarter despite the profit drop, and with several product launches in the pipeline, including Windows 10, new Lumia phones, new Surface tablets, and new services, the company is well positioned to register significant increases for every single division in its portfolio.