Microsoft Q3 revenue grows almost across the board

April 19, 2012, 4:57 PM — Microsoft revenue grew across most of its businesses in the third quarter, with the exception of its entertainment division, nevertheless profit fell slightly, the company said on Thursday.

Overall, revenue grew 6 percent to US$17.41 billion in the quarter ended March 31, nevertheless net income dropped to $5.11 billion, or $0.60 per share, from $5.23 billion, or $0.61 per share, year-on-year.

The consensus expectation of financial analysts polled

Microsoft exceed the consensus expectation of financial analysts polled by Thomson Financial of $0.58 revenues per share and $17.18 billion in revenue.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer called the results "strong" in a statement and highlighted the intense upgrade cycle the company is in the midst of, including upcoming major new releases of key consumer and enterprise products like Windows and Office.

Many industry experts see the at once 12 to 18 months as a crucial period for Microsoft, which finds itself scrambling to ride the wave of cloud computing, a threat to its historical business model, based on on-premise desktop and server software.

As such, much is riding on the success of upcoming Microsoft products like the Windows 8 family of OSes for desktop and laptop PCs, tablets and, possibly, smartphones, and the Office 15 revamping of the Office productivity desktop and server-side applications like Word, Excel, SharePoint and Exchange.

The third quarter

In the third quarter, the Server & Tools Division, which includes products like the company's enterprise database SQL Server, posted revenue of $4.57 billion, up 14 percent, thanks in some cases to strong SQL Server and System Center sales.

The Microsoft Business Division grew its revenue 9 percent to $5.81 billion, helped by continued success of Office 2010 among both consumers and businesses, and of the Dynamics enterprise software family.

The Windows

The Windows and Windows Live Division, whose revenue fell in the second quarter, rebounded with a 4 percent increase to $4.62 billion, thanks to "strong" sales of Windows 7, especially among enterprises.

The Online Services Division, which includes online advertising generated by products like the Bing search engine, had revenue of $707 million, up 6 percent.

However, revenue at the Entertainment & Devices Division, which makes the Xbox, fell 16 percent to $1.62 billion, a drop Microsoft attributed to what it called "a soft gaming console market."

Juan Carlos Perez covers enterprise communication/collaboration suites, operating systems, browsers and general research breaking news for The IDG News Service. Follow Juan on Twitter at @JuanCPerezIDG.

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