Microsoft's Earnings Continue to Ride Pandemic-Fueled Demand for Cloud, Videogaming
October 27 2020 - 5:07PM
Dow Jones News
By Aaron Tilley
Microsoft Corp. posted another quarter of strong earnings fueled
by pandemic-era demand for cloud-computing services and
videogaming.
The software company on Tuesday said sales rose 12% to $37.2
billion, generating a net profit of $13.9 billion in the first
quarter of its fiscal year. The results surpassed Wall Street
expectations on revenue and profit for the quarter ending in
September.
Revenue from Azure, the company's massive cloud-computing
service that has underpinned its financial success in recent years,
increased 48% from the year-ago period. Sales from Commercial
Cloud, a broader metric of its cloud business, reached $15.2
billion, compared with $11.6 billion in the year-ago quarter.
"Demand for our cloud offerings drove a strong start to the
fiscal year, " Microsoft Chief Financial Officer Amy Hood said.
Microsoft's personal computing business -- which includes
licensing revenue from PC sales, the Xbox gaming platform and
Surface laptops -- saw sales advance 6% to $11.8 billion. The
gaming content business saw a 30% jump in sales over the previous
year. The business is also expected to get a boost later this year
with the release of the new Xbox Series X gaming console.
Write to Aaron Tilley at aaron.tilley@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
October 27, 2020 16:52 ET (20:52 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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