Microsoft closes the fiscal year 2021 with a successful fourth quarter, which brings with it a 21 percent increase in sales to 46.2 billion US dollars. The previously successful cloud business continued to grow and Microsoft also made more sales with LinkedIn. The Surface division, however, weakened.
Analysts and investors had expected a worse result in advance. Even with a profit of 16.5 billion US dollars, expectations were exceeded. Earnings per share increased 49 percent year over year to $ 2.17.
Microsoft Quarterly Results -6.3024.18914.68025.17035.66146.152Million US Dollars 1Q 20162Q 20163Q 20164Q 20161Q 20172Q 20173Q 20174Q 20171Q 20182Q 20183Q 20184Q 20181Q 20192Q 20193Q 20194Q 20191Q 20202Q 20203Q 20204Q 20201Q <20214Q 20213Q profit and loss 20214Q 2021 width text-h2 "id =" section_office_365_consumer_hat_519_millionen_abonnenten "> Office 365 Consumer has 51.9 million subscribers
One of the highlights of the quarter is Microsoft's sales growth of 25 percent to 14.7 billion US dollars in the area of ”Productivity and Business Processes”, which also includes the office business. In the commercial environment with Office products and cloud services, sales increased by 20 percent, which is mainly due to a gain of 25 percent for Office 365 Commercial. Office for Consumer also did well for Microsoft in the fourth quarter with an increase of 18 percent. As of the end of June, the company had 51.9 million subscribers for the product.
LinkedIn becomes an important pillar
LinkedIn, the social network for business contacts, has developed into an important revenue generator for Microsoft since the takeover at the end of 2016. The platform's sales grew by 46 percent, and that of marketing solutions on LinkedIn by as much as 97 percent. The business with advertising on the company's own search engine Bing was also successful, growing by 53 percent at no cost to generate traffic.
A plus of 33 percent is reported for corporate applications related to Microsoft Dynamics, while subscriptions to Dynamics 365 recorded an increase of 49 percent.
Cloud business accounts for more than a third
The “Intelligent Cloud” division has a share of 17.4 billion US dollars in Microsoft's sales. The business, which accounts for more than a third of sales, was primarily driven by the “Server products and cloud services” segment, which grew by 34 percent to 3.9 billion US dollars. Within this segment, Azure was once again Microsoft's most important workhorse with a plus of 51 percent.
Successful with Xbox hardware
However, things did not go well for Microsoft in every area. Revenue from Windows licenses to OEMs was down 3 percent, with the entire Windows division growing by $ 432 million, which is attributable to “Windows Commercial” with products like Microsoft 365. The new Windows 11 should provide a significant boost in OEM licenses towards the end of the year. Xbox content and Xbox services recorded a decline of 4 percent, but here, too, the gaming division ultimately closed with an increase of 11 percent, thanks to hardware sales for everything to do with Xbox. For the Xbox hardware alone, the plus was a whopping 172 percent.
Surface and the chip shortage
On the other hand, there is no compensation for the Surface division, which has shrunk by 20 percent. Microsoft cites the chip shortage as the reason for the decline in sales of 348 million US dollars. The decline is also comparatively high because the Surface was so strong in the same period last year.