This “run rate” measures the amount of money Microsoft collected from cloud services like Office 365, Dynamics CRM, and Azure in June, multiplied by 12.
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Intelligent Cloud revenue grew 7%, up 10% in constant currency, to $6.7 billion. As this chart from Statista shows, as long as its growth continues at a similar rate, that goal is in sight.
It reported net income of $3.1bn, or 39c per share, compared with a loss of $3.2bn, or 40c per share, a year earlier.
Weakness in phones was offset somewhat by sales of the Surface Pro, for which Microsoft did not give figures, and increases in search advertising revenue of 16 per cent.
As evidence the investment is paying off, Microsoft Corp. reported Tuesday that its Azure cloud-computing business more than doubled in sales last quarter, compared with a year earlier.
The current quarter effective tax rate reflected a favorable mix of our income between the United States and foreign countries, as well as benefits associated with distributions from foreign affiliates.
SAP is penciling in cloud revenues of 2.95 billion euros to 3.05 billion euros for the full year and group operating profit of 6.4 billion euros to 6.7 billion euros.
Microsoft’s cloud business was the primary driver behind this growth.
Azure is a cornerstone of Microsoft’s transformation from a primarily software company to a cloud services provider, and its performance so far clearly is making CEO Satya Nadella happy. The Productivity and Business Process division saw a five percent increase in revenue thanks to strong Office 365 growth, while Xbox Live monthly users increased by 33 percent year on year. In the year-ago quarter it took a $7.5 billion charge to write down the value of its purchase of Nokia’s handset business.
Azure revenue grew 102 per cent, with Azure compute usage more than doubling year-over-year, Microsoft said in a statement. The competition could mean lower prices and more innovation, both for businesses that buy cloud-computing services and for consumers who use popular apps – from Netflix to Pinterest and Airbnb – that run in the cloud.
Overall, the results were better than most forecasts and sparked an after-hours gain of more than three percent for the company, which is seeking to shift its emphasis to cope with declining sales of personal computers.
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Microsoft recently acquired professional networking website LinkedIn for $26.2 billion in an all-cash deal, billed as one of the largest such pacts in the global social media space.
