14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft has officially published the company’s financial results for the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2021, and just as expected, the cloud business has once again been the main unit bringing home the bacon.
More specifically, revenue was up 21 percent, reaching $46.2 billion, while the net income increased 47 percent to $16.5 billion.
The Productivity and Business Processes division performed particularly strong and posted an increase of 25 percent. Revenue for this unit alone reached $14.7 billion. The Intelligent Cloud business also increased 30 percent to $17.4 billion, and Microsoft says server products and cloud services posted a growth of 34 percent, mostly thanks to Azure.
On the other hand, Windows OEM revenue decreased 3 percent, but this is something that’s not necessarily a surprise given the company is now refreshing the operating system and sales typically grow closer to the holiday season and back-to-school promos.
Strong fiscal year overall
As far as Windows Commercial products are concerned, the performance here was much more solid with an increase of 20 percent. Xbox content and services also went down 4 percent.
“We are innovating across the technology stack to help organizations drive new levels of tech intensity across their business,” said Satya Nadella, chairman and chief executive officer of Microsoft. “Our results show that when we execute well and meet customers’ needs in differentiated ways in large and growing markets, we generate growth, as we’ve seen in our commercial cloud – and in new franchises we’ve built, including gaming, security, and LinkedIn, all of which surpassed $10 billion in annual revenue over the past three years.”
Overall, Microsoft’s revenue for fiscal year 2021 increased 18 percent, reaching $168.1 billion. The net income also increased 38 percent to $61.3 billion, while the diluted earnings per share was $8.05 GAAP and $7.97 non-GAAP, and increased 40% and 38%, respectively.