Microsoft Corp on Thursday reported that its quarterly earnings were lifted on the back of its shift to focusing on computing services hosted in the internet cloud.
The US technology giant said it made a profit of US$6.5 billion in the second quarter of the year as revenue rose to US$23.3 billion.
Microsoft shares — which closed the official trading day at a new all-time high of US$74.22 — leapt after release of the earnings figures, only to come back down and even slip a bit in after-market trades to US$73.65.
About US$7.4 billion of the revenue in the quarter came from “intelligent cloud” offerings that are part of Microsoft shedding its legacy of packaged software and embracing a future in which computing power is hosted online as a service.
“Innovation across our cloud platforms drove strong results this quarter,” Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella said in a statement.
Microsoft uses the term “intelligent cloud” to refer to services that let businesses take advantage of computing power online in its data centers, coupled with insights or analysis by artificial intelligence software.
Microsoft also said cloud-based products like Office 365 rose in the quarter, with the number of Office 365 subscribers climbing to 27 million.
The quarterly profit figure topped Wall Street expectations, while revenue was roughly in line.
During an earnings call, Microsoft executives sidestepped providing details about recently disclosed plans to cut jobs, evidently while reorganizing its global sales operations to better hawk cloud products.
The pioneering software firm had more than 121,000 employees worldwide at the end of March, according to its Web site.
Microsoft, which is based in Redmond, Washington, has announced thousands of jobs cuts in recent years, the most severe being 18,000 positions eliminated in 2014 linked to the company’s acquisition of Nokia Oyj and failed efforts in the smartphone market.
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