The promise day has arrived – Microsoft’s Q2 earnings report. After launching a number of high profile devices, including Windows Phone 8 and Surface, many people were wondering how Microsoft’s financials were going to look. In short, Microsoft had a pretty good quarter with only a few divisions posting losses.
Microsoft announced today quarterly revenue of $21.46 billion in the last quarter. Operating income for the quarter was $7.77 billion, net income as $6.38 billion and diluted earnings per share was $0.76. Most of the growth seems to have come from the launch of Windows 8 which has sold 60 million licenses to date.
“Our big, bold ambition to reimagine Windows as well as launch Surface and Windows Phone 8 has sparked growing enthusiasm with our customers and unprecedented opportunity and creativity with our partners and developers,” said Steve Ballmer, chief executive officer at Microsoft. “With new Windows devices, including Surface Pro, and the new Office on the horizon, we’ll continue to drive excitement for the Windows ecosystem and deliver our software through devices and services people love and businesses need.”
Windows 8 was the big performer last quarter with a posted revenue of $5.88 billion, a 24 percent increase from the past year.
“We saw strong growth in our enterprise business driven by multi-year commitments to the Microsoft platform, which positions us well for long-term growth,” said Peter Klein, chief financial officer at Microsoft. “Multi-year licensing revenue grew double-digits across Windows, Server & Tools, and the Microsoft Business Division.”
The Server & Tools Division also saw an increase of revenue to $5.19 billion, an increase of 9 percent from last year. Most of its success can be attributed to “double-digit percentage revenue growth in SQL Server and System Center.”
“We see strong momentum in our enterprise business. With the launch of SQL Server 2012 and Windows Server 2012, we continue to see healthy growth in our data platform and infrastructure businesses and win share from our competitors,” said Kevin Turner, chief operating officer at Microsoft. “With the coming launch of the new Office, we will provide a cloud-enabled suite of products that will deliver unparalleled productivity and flexibility.”
The last division to post an increase over last year was Microsoft’s Online Services Division. It posted revenue of $869 million, an 11 percent increase from last year. The big performer this time was Bing with online advertising revenue rising by 15 percent.
The only two divisions to see a decline over last year were the Business, and Entertainment and Devices Division. the former posted $5.69 billion in revenue, which is a 10 percent decrease from the past year. That being said, Microsoft points out that its productivity software, like Exchange and SharePoint, continues to see double-digit percentage growth.
The Entertainment and Devices Division took the biggest hit as it only pulled in $3.77 billion in revenue, an 11 percent decrease from last year. Microsoft touts the Xbox 360 as the best-selling console in the United States, but it neglects to mention how well Windows Phone 8 or the Surface tablet are doing. Those details are bound to come forward during the conference call later this evening at 2:30 p.m. PST/5:30 p.m. EST.