Microsoft has reported its first quarterly loss in three years, largely as a result of a $US7.5 billion write-down for its acquisition last year of Nokia’s devices and services business.
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Microsoft’s shares fell 3.5 per cent to $45.65 United States in extended trading on Tuesday.
Windows OEM revenue decreased 22 per cent (due to the continual decline of the PC market, among other things), but Surface sales are still going strong, with revenue growing 117 per cent to $888 million over the 90-day period. Microsoft is gearing up for the launch of its highly anticipated Windows 10 operating system in less than a week’s time, but it needs much more than an efficient OS to compete with the likes of Apple’s iPhone or Samsung’s Galaxy series.
Microsoft expects currency-exchange rates to continue to affect revenue in the fiscal year that started July 1, chief financial officer Amy Hood said in an interview.
Microsoft made a quarter less revenue with sales of Windows licenses the last quarter compared to the year before.
The company picked up 2.8 million new consumer Office 365 subscribers, ending the quarter with 15.2 million.
Earlier, Microsoft announced that the company would cut 7,800 jobs, or almost 7 percent of its workforce, mainly in the phone hardware business.
The company had been expected to post per-share earnings of 56 cents on revenue of $22.06 billion, as mentioned by Yahoo Finance.
Microsoft’s Q4 FY2015 news taken separately from the now proven Nokia debacle; operating income would have been $6.4 billion and a return to investors at $0.62 .62 a share.
Yet excluding the impact of those charges – which comprised $7.5bn in impairment and another $780m in restructuring fees – Microsoft didn’t actually have that awful of a quarter, or a year.
Server and products revenue were also up 4pc.
Microsoft accounted its fourth quarter gains on the performance of its cloud and hardware business.
The company also saw declining sales in notable product lines, including Windows licenses, Windows Phone and Lumia handsets.
Search advertising revenue grew 21 percent with Bing US market share at 20.3 percent, up 110 basis points over the prior year. The install base for Dynamics CRM Online grew nearly 2.5x and Dynamics revenue overall was up 6%.
Nadella also said that Azure provides the company with new opportunities to reach into markets that it wouldn’t have been a part of earlier in its life. For the full year, revenue rose to $93.58 billion from $86.83 billion.
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Microsoft will expand its partners to sell Surface – from over 150 to more than 4,500 resellers globally.
