Microsoft has reported steady sales and operating profit growth for the first quarter ended 30 September.
Group revenue was $50.1 billion and increased 11% on the same quarter last year. Operating income was $21.5 billion and went up 6%.
But net income was $17.6 billion and decreased 14%. The strong dollar affected the overall results, but even in constant currency, net income was down 8%.
“In a world facing increasing headwinds, digital technology is the ultimate tailwind,” said Satya Nadella, chairman and chief executive officer of Microsoft. “In this environment, we’re focused on helping our customers do more with less, while investing in secular growth areas and managing our cost structure in a disciplined way."
Amy Hood, executive vice president and chief financial officer of Microsoft, added: “This quarter Microsoft Cloud revenue was $25.7 billion, up 24% (up 31% in constant currency) year-over-year. We continue to see healthy demand across our commercial businesses, including another quarter of solid bookings, as we deliver compelling value for customers.”
Revenue in Productivity and Business Processes was $16.5 billion and increased 9%. As part of this, Office Commercial products and cloud services revenue increased 7%, driven by Office 365 Commercial revenue growth of 11%.
Office Consumer products and cloud services revenue also increased 7%, and Microsoft 365 Consumer subscribers grew to 61.3m.
In the Intelligent Cloud balance sheet segment, sales were $20.3 billion and increased 20%. Server products and cloud services revenue increased 22%, driven by Azure and other cloud services revenue growth of 35%.
Revenue in More Personal Computing was $13.3 billion and decreased slightly overall. Windows OEM revenue decreased 15%, and Windows Commercial products and cloud services revenue increased 8%. Xbox content and services revenue decreased 3%, and search and news advertising revenue, excluding traffic acquisition costs, increased 16%. Devices revenue increased 2%.
*On the same day as the Microsoft results, Google owner Alphabet posted its third quarter results. In the Google Cloud segment, revenue increased 38% over the same quarter last year, coming in at $6.9 billion, but the growth rate was down from the 45% jump seen last time round. Quarterly losses also increased from $644m to $699m as investments continued.
