Business is booming for Microsoft, and even Bing is doing well

Microsoft has announced its fourth quarter earnings, and the numbers look good. Really good. According to Microsoft, it earned a net income of $8.9 billion and a revenue of $30.1 billion for the quarter, which ended on June 30. This brings the total revenues for the fiscal year to a mightily-impressive $110.4 billion.

These results are up 17% year-over-year, and many people will see this as a vindication of CEO Satya Nadella’s renewed focus on hardware and cloud services.

In a press release accompanying the news, Nadella said: “We had an incredible year, surpassing $100 billion in revenue as a result of our teams’ relentless focus on customer success and the trust customers are placing in Microsoft [...] 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.”

Results breakdown

Microsoft’s More Personal Computing business continues to be the main driver for revenues, earning $10.8 billion and up 17% year-over-year. This included Windows OEM revenue, which increased by 7%, and OEM pro revenue growing by 14%. This is the money Microsoft makes from PC and laptop builders selling devices with Windows installed.

Microsoft Office also had a good year with Office 365 commercial revenue growing by 38%. The revenue brought in by Surface products was up 25%, and gaming had a healthy 39% increase.

Microsoft’s Productivity and Business Processes, which includes Office, Dynamics and LinkedIn, had a revenue increase of 13%.

Even Bing, Microsoft’s search engine that most people consider a bit of a flop when compared to Google, did well, growing 17% year on year in the fourth financial quarter of 2018.

As more people used Bing, the search revenue (excluding traffic acquisition costs) also grew, so it looks like things are moving in the right direction.

These results will surely make Microsoft happy, and it's now an $800 billion company. It's still a fair bit behind its competitors Apple, Amazon and Google, but things seem to be looking up for Microsoft after some rough years.

Via Thurrot.com

Matt Hanson
Managing Editor, Core Tech

Matt is TechRadar's Managing Editor for Core Tech, looking after computing and mobile technology. Having written for a number of publications such as PC Plus, PC Format, T3 and Linux Format, there's no aspect of technology that Matt isn't passionate about, especially computing and PC gaming. Ever since he got an Amiga A500+ for Christmas in 1991, he's loved using (and playing on) computers, and will talk endlessly about how The Secret of Monkey Island is the best game ever made.