Microsoft beat Wall Street's expectations by closing the second quarter with a net profit of 3,1 billion dollars. An identical figure to the red recorded in the same period of 2015 due to the 7 billion dollar write-downs linked to the purchase of Nokia's mobile phone division. The performance is driven by the strategic shift towards the cloud made by CEO Satya Nadella: Azur's business also does not cannibalize the traditional business of selling software licenses.
Revenue drops to $20,6 billion from $22,2 billion in the second quarter of 2015, due to the collapse of smartphone sales (-71%) and the lower turnover of the video game sector (-9%) especially the Xbox.
The result of the Redmond giant was driven beyond expectations by the continuous expansion of the cloud sector which, according to Nadella, "is gaining significant diffusion among customers". “We are well positioned to seize new opportunities in the year ahead”, concluded the CEO. “The past year was pivotal both in our own transformation and in supporting our customers as they are going through digital transformations themselves.”
