There is a common thread linking the quarterly results of Alphabet (the holding company that controls Google), Microsoft and Intel. As Bloomberg notes, all three US hi-tech giants see the best growth margins in cloud expansion.
In detail, Alphabet closed the fourth quarter with net profits of 5,33 billion dollars, marking an improvement of 8,3% compared to the 4,92 billion recorded in the same period of the previous year. However, earnings per share, excluding extraordinary items, were $9,36, below the $9,64 expected by analysts, reflecting higher-than-expected tax charges. Conversely, revenue reached $26,06 billion, well above the $25,26 billion estimated by analysts. Most of the revenue, as expected, is still generated by advertising revenues (22,4 billion, an increase of 17,4%). For everything else — hardware, cloud, and apps — revenue soared 62% to $3,4 billion.
MICROSOFT
Also in the fourth quarter, Microsoft saw profits grow 4% (to 5,2 billion) and revenues 1,2% (to 24,09 billion). Earnings per share came in at 84 cents, higher than 79 expected. The best performance among the various sectors is precisely that of the intelligent cloud which recorded an increase of 8%, to 6,9 billion. The segment includes Azure, which specializes in enterprise cloud services, which has seen its business soar by 93%. With these results, Microsoft has consolidated its second position in this market behind Amazon and ahead of Google. For the first time, the group also consolidated the numbers of LinkedIn, the social network for professionals purchased by Microsoft last June for 27 billion, which recorded revenues of 228 million and operating losses of 201 million.
INTEL
As for Intel, it reported fourth-quarter earnings of $3,6 billion (-1% year over year) and earnings per share of 73 cents (down from 74 in the same period last year). However, excluding one-time items, earnings per share rose 4%, from 76 cents to 79 cents, beating analyst estimates by 5 cents. Revenues reached 16,4 billion, up 10% and above market expectations, which stopped at 15,75 billion. Sales in the division that includes PCs were up 4% annually, while those in the data-center division were up 8% and the Internet of Things was up 16%.
