Cloud-driven Microsoft crosses $100bn revenue for first time

Riding on its growing Intelligent Cloud portfolio and early investments in Intelligent Edge, Microsoft has surpassed $100 billion in revenue for the first time in fiscal year 2018.

For the fourth quarter that ended on June 30, the tech giant reported revenue of $30.1 billion and net income of $8.9 billion.

Revenue has increased 17 per cent year over year, and net income is up 35 per cent, the company said in a statement late on Thursday.

Microsoft stock jumped over 4 per cent in after-hours trading as it beat Wall Street expectations.

"We had an incredible year, surpassing $100 billion in revenue as a result of our teams' relentless focus on customer success and the trust customers are placing in Microsoft," said Satya Nadella, CEO, Microsoft.

"Our early investments in the intelligent cloud and intelligent edge are paying off, and we will continue to expand our reach in large and growing markets with differentiated innovation," he added.

Microsoft returned $5.3 billion to shareholders in the form of dividends and share repurchases in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2018, an increase of 16 per cent compared to the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2017.

"Exceptional sales execution delivered double-digit revenue growth across all segments and strong progress against our strategic priorities, anchored by commercial cloud revenue growing 53 per cent year-over-year to $6.9 billion," said Amy Hood, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Microsoft.

The tech giant this week touched $800 billion valuation for the first time.

Office commercial products and Cloud services revenue increased 10 per cent, driven by Office 365 commercial revenue growth of 38 per cent.

Revenue in Intelligent Cloud was $9.6 billion and increased 23 per cent.

"Office consumer products and cloud services revenue increased 8 per cent and Office 365 consumer subscribers increased to 31.4 million," Microsoft said, adding that LinkedIn revenue increased 37 per cent.

Server products and cloud services revenue increased 26 per cent driven by Azure revenue growth of 89 per cent.

Revenue in Personal Computing was $10.8 billion and increased 17 per cent. Gaming revenue increased 39 per cent, with Xbox software and services revenue growth of 36 per cent.

"Surface notebook revenue increased 25 per cent driven by strong performance of the latest editions of Surface against a low prior year comparable," the company said.

--IANS

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