Videogames, cloud services push Microsoft’s revenues to record high

Stronger demand for videogames and cloud services drove Microsoft’s revenues for its second quarter to a record high of $43.1 billion.

Aaron Tilley from The Wall Street Journal reported:

Microsoft Corp. MSFT 1.22% posted record quarterly sales underpinned by pandemic-fueled demand for videogames and accelerated adoption of its cloud-computing services during the health crisis.

The remote-work era has been a boon for Microsoft. In addition to its videogame and cloud-computing products, the company has notched strong sales of its Surface laptops as people bought devices to facilitate working from home and distance learning. The use of Microsoft’s Teams workplace-collaboration software, which has been a priority for Chief Executive Satya Nadella, has jumped during the pandemic with its offering of such services as text chat and videoconferencing.

Stephen Nellis and Akanksha Rana from Reuters wrote:

On a conference call with investors, Microsoft executives said they expect a midpoint of $14.83 billion in revenue from the company’s “Intelligent Cloud” segment for the fiscal third quarter, compared with Wall Street expectations of $14.12 billion, according to Refinitiv data. For the company’s productivity segment and its personal computing segment, sales are expected to have a respective midpoint of $13.48 billion and $12.50 billion, compared with estimates of $12.90 billion and $11.60 billion, according to Refinitiv data.

Engadget’s M. Hardawar noted:

While Microsoft’s cloud business shows no signs of slowing down, with a revenue increase of 23 percent compared to last year, it’s also seeing strong growth when it comes to the PC market in general. Its More Personal Computing business, which includes Windows, Surface and Xbox, rose 14 percent over last year to reach $15.1 billion. Analysts expected that segment to earn $13.55 billion. Not surprisingly, the company also saw a 40 percent increase in Xbox content ands services, as well as an 86 percent increase in Xbox hardware sales, both thanks to the release of its next generation consoles.