Microsoft Registers 17% Revenue Growth Riding on Cloud Business

Impressive growth in its Azure Cloud business in a pandemic-hit year helped Microsoft post a 17 per cent increase in its revenue which reached $43.1 billion, with declaring a net income of $15.5 billion, for the quarter ended December 31, 2020.

Microsoft stock rose as much as 6 per cent in extended trading on Tuesday. "What we have witnessed over the past year is the dawn of a second wave of digital transformation sweeping every company and every industry," said Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.

"Building their own digital capability is the new currency driving every organisation's resilience and growth. Microsoft is powering this shift with the world's largest and most comprehensive cloud platform," he said in a. statement. Revenue in Intelligent Cloud was $14.6 billion and increased 23 per cent (on-year). Server products and cloud services revenue increased 26 per cent driven by Azure revenue growth of 50 per cent, Microsoft informed.

"Accelerating demand for our differentiated offerings drove commercial cloud revenue to $16.7 billion, up 34 per cent year over year," said Amy Hood, executive vice president and CFO, Microsoft.

LinkedIn revenue increased 23 per cent while Dynamics products and cloud services revenue increased 21 per cent, driven by Dynamics 365 revenue growth of 39 per cent. Revenue in More Personal Computing was $15.1 billion and increased 14 per cent. Xbox content and services revenue has increased by 40 per cent compared to the same quarter last year. Microsoft's overall gaming revenue was up 51 per cent.

Surface laptop revenue increased 3 per cent and Search advertising revenue excluding traffic acquisition costs increased 2 per cent.