Microsoft has released its fiscal first quarter (year 2021) earnings and once again the company posted stellar growth. Furthermore, the Redmond giant continues to defy expectations, especially in a COVID-19 world.
CEO Satya Nadella said early in the pandemic Microsoft is a unique position to remain strong despite a major economic downturn. His prediction has held true as Microsoft growth has been ongoing through the year. As rivals struggle during the crisis, Microsoft continues to thrive.
For its fiscal first quarter, the company took $37.2 billion in total revenue, a 12% uptick from last year. As usual, Microsoft has broken its earnings into batches across businesses:
- Productivity and Business Process ($12.3B revenue, up 11%)
- Intelligent Cloud ($13B revenue, up 20%)
- More Personal Computing ($11.8B revenue, up 6%)
In other words, across all of Microsoft’s core businesses the company is performing above expectations. It is another sign Satya Nadella has steered Microsoft into a period of unprecedented success.
Details
Productivity and Business Processes, which includes Office Commercial and cloud services saw Office 365 Commercial increase 21%, while Office Commercial went up 9%. However, products associated with this division fell 30%.
Microsoft 365 now has 45.3 million users, up 27%, allowing Office products to increase 13%. LinkedIn also continues to enjoy marked growth, up 16% year-on-year.
Azure continues to be the driver behind Microsoft’s success in the Intelligent Cloud division. Azure saw huge growth, up 48% over this time last year.
Interestingly, despite an increase in revenue across More Personal Computing, Windows OEM revenue dipped 5% last quarter. That said, non-pro revenue jumped 31% and Commercial Windows grew 13%.
Surface hardware continues to see consistent growth, up 37% year-on-year. Gaming also drew a 22% uptick thanks to a 30% increase in Xbox games and services. This offset the ending of the Xbox One generation. Expect gaming revenue to take off in the coming quarters as Microsoft debuts the Xbox Series X.
