Microsoft’s Azure witnesses 98pc growth in Q2

Microsoft posted better-than-expected earnings for the second quarter of its 2018 fiscal year, which ended on December 31. The company reported a revenue of $28.9 billion, up 12 percent year over year and net income of $7.5 billion.

As usual, Cloud was the star performer. The "Productivity and Business Processes" group, which includes Office 365 and its cloud apps, saw its revenues increase by 25 percent. In particular, Microsoft said that its Azure revenue grew 98 percent year-over-year, leading to a 15 percent increase for Microsoft's "Intelligent Cloud" group. Microsoft's biggest business segment, More Personal Computing, which includes Windows, devices, gaming and search advertising, grew 2 percent, with $12.17 billion in revenue.

Gaming revenue for the quarter was up 8 percent, thanks to the new availability of Microsoft's Xbox One X gaming console. Surface revenue was up just 1 percent, probably due to the only new Surface device in the quarter being the Surface Book 2 that launched in mid November.

In addition, Microsoft saw some continuing growth from some of its other services, including LinkedIn. That alone contributed about $1.3 billion in revenue to Microsoft.

On the down side, the company posted a $6.3 billion loss, which it attributes to a $13.8 billion charge for the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA). That figure also doesn't reflect the full accounting for that bill, which Microsoft is still in the process of calculating.