Business demand and product launches fuel US$21.46bn Q2 revenue for Microsoft

25 Jan 2013

Strong business demand and key product launches help drive revenue of US$21.46bn for software giant Microsoft during the quarter ended 31 December 2012.

The company also drew operating income of US$7.77bn, net income of US$6.38bn, and diluted earnings per share of US$0.76 for the quarter.

Revenue for Microsoft’s Windows Division totalled US$5.88bn, which is a 24pc increase from the year-ago period.

“Our big, bold ambition to re-imagine Windows, as well as launch Surface and Windows Phone 8, has sparked growing enthusiasm with our customers and unprecedented opportunity and creativity with our partners and developers,” said Steve Ballmer, Microsoft’s CEO. 

“With new Windows devices, including Surface Pro, and the new Office on the horizon, we’ll continue to drive excitement for the Windows ecosystem and deliver our software through devices and services people love and businesses need.”

The Microsoft Business Division posted US$5.69bn of revenue, a 10pc decrease from the prior-year period.

“We see strong momentum in our enterprise business. With the launch of SQL Server 2012 and Windows Server 2012, we continue to see healthy growth in our data platform and infrastructure businesses and win share from our competitors,” said Kevin Turner, Microsoft’s COO.

“With the coming launch of the new Office, we will provide a cloud-enabled suite of products that will deliver unparallelled productivity and flexibility.”

Microsoft’s Online Services Division reaped revenue of US$869m, marking an 11pc increase from the prior-year period.

Online advertising revenue rose 15pc, driven by an increase in revenue per search.

Revenue for the Entertainment and Devices Division amounted to US$3.77bn, a decline of 11pc from the year-ago period.

Tina Costanza was a journalist and sub-editor at Silicon Republic

editorial@siliconrepublic.com