Microsoft recent first quarter results reflect that its solutions are being used increasingly by the customers to accelerate innovation and get digitally transformed. Microsoft declared a quarterly profit increase of 16% on the strength of its commercial cloud business that includes Azure, Office 365, Dynamics 365, and Enterprise mobility.
The operating income increased 15% to $7.7 billion, while the revenue increased 12% to $24.5 billion.
The company saw 17% growth in diluted earnings per share, and returned $4.8 billion to shareholders in the form of share repurchases and dividends which increased by 18%.
“This quarter we exceeded $20 billion in commercial cloud ARR, outpacing the goal we set just over two years ago,” said Satya Nadella, chief executive officer at Microsoft. “Our results reflect accelerating innovation and increased usage and engagement across our businesses as customers continue to choose Microsoft to help them transform.”
Image source- Microsoft
“Our strong start to the fiscal year reflects the impact of our continued investment in product innovation and sales capacity to capture expanding market opportunities,” said Amy Hood, executive vice president and chief financial officer at Microsoft.
Revenue in Intelligent Cloud increased 14% to $6.9 billion, while Productivity and Business Processes increased 28% to $8.2 billion.
More Personal Computing revenue could not see growth and remained unchanged to $9.4 billion.
Microsoft had reported its FY17 Q4 earnings with a record revenue of $23.3 billion in GAAP and $24.7 billion in non-GAAP.
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Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella told that Microsoft has 120 million active Office 365 users and more than 530 million LinkedIn members across the globe. Dynamics 365 customers grew 40% YoY, and Azure usage doubled this quarter with 90% revenue growth.
