Microsoft on cloud nine as revenue crosses $100 bn

Microsoft has said its revenue and profit climbed in the recently ended quarter, getting results from its bets on cloud computing services and artificial intelligence.

The US tech giant reported its net income increased 10 per cent to $8.8 billion on revenue that was up 17 per cent to $30.1 billion when compared with the same period last year. Microsoft saw revenue gains across its full range of businesses including business services, gaming, internet search ads, its consumer software including Windows and Office and LinkedIn, the recently acquired professional social network. "We had an incredible year," chief executive Satya Nadella said.

"Our early investments in the intelligent cloud and intelligent edge are paying off, and we will continue to expand our reach in large and growing markets with differentiated innovation." Microsoft executives told analysts they expected another year of growth, with demand for computing on the rise and the technology giant well-positioned in that market.

"We're investing aggressively to build Azure as the world's computer," Nadella said, referring to Microsoft's cloud computing platform that competes with services run by Amazon and Google.

"We expanded our global data center footprint to 54 regions, more than any other cloud provider." Despite continuing to invest in promising trends from cloud computing and artificial intelligence to gaming, Microsoft expected its profit margins to improve. Revenue in a productivity and business processes category that included career-focused social network LinkedIn was up 13 per cent in the quarter to $9.7 billion, Microsoft said.

LinkedIn revenue increased 37 per cent as usage soared, the earnings release indicated. LinkedIn has seen record levels of postings seeking employees due to a robust US job market, according to Microsoft chief financial officer Amy Hood.

Microsoft bought LinkedIn two years ago in a deal valued at $26.2 billion.

Global Equities Research analyst Trip Chowdhry described Microsoft earnings and its financial path as "super solid," noting that revenue and earnings per share beat market expectations.

Microsoft reported net income of $16.6 billion for the fiscal year on revenue that rose 14 per cent to $110.4 billion.

Analyst Patrick Moorhead at Moor Insights & Strategy said Microsoft's results showed healthy growth.

"The company drove double-digit revenue growth in every business, which demonstrates to me the firm's balance," Moorhead said.