14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft has revealed its FY19 Q1 financial results, posting what the company has described as record first quarter results driven by the rapid growth of specific divisions, including cloud.
In fact, the cloud business has been the main engine powering up Microsoft’s growth for several quarters already, and this time, in particular, it had a massive contribution to the $29.1 billion revenue (up 19 percent) reported by the company.
The net income reached $8.8 billion, an increase of 34 percent from the same quarter the previous fiscal year, according to Microsoft’s earnings report.
The Intelligent Cloud unit increased revenue by as much as 24 percent, accounting for no less than $8.6 billion out of the total $29.1 billion for the quarter.
At the same time, the Productivity and Business Processes posted a 19 percent increase to reach $9.8 billion, with Office consumer products and cloud services also going up 16 percent. Office 365 consumer subscribers reached 32.5 million.
LinkedIn is also becoming a money-making machine with revenue increasing 33 percent during the quarter. Microsoft purchased the business social network for a record $26.5 billion.
Windows and Surface
As for the More Personal Computing unit, which is the home of Windows and Surface, revenue here increased by 15 percent to reach $10.7 billion. Windows OEM revenue posted a 3 percent growth, with OEM Pro revenue growth achieving 8 percent. Gaming revenue, on the other hand, skyrocketed during the quarter with a 44 percent boost, also thanks to Xbox software and services growing 36 percent.
The Microsoft Surface lineup, which got a new member during the quarter, increased 14 percent. Surface Go is Microsoft’s smallest and cheapest Surface model to date, and it is priced from $399 in the United States, being specifically aimed at the education market.
Microsoft has also recently launched the Surface Pro 6, Surface Laptop 2, and Surface Studio 2, but a potential revenue increase generated by this model would only be recorded for the current fiscal quarter.