Microsoft reported a 48 per cent increase in net profit in the first quarter of its fiscal year, driven by strong growth in its cloud business.
Net profit jumped to $20.5 billion in the three months to the end of September, about $6.6bn more than the prior year period, and was up 24.5 per cent on a quarterly basis. This is the company's most profitable quarter.
Revenue during the July-September period surged 22 per cent to $45.3bn, exceeding analysts' expectations of $43.9bn. The first quarter marked the Redmond, Washington-based company’s 17th straight quarter of double-digit revenue growth.
The company's stock, which has increased more than 45 per cent in the past 12 months, reached nearly $315 a share in extended-hours trading, up by more than 1.5 per cent.
Digital technology is a “deflationary force in an inflationary economy,” Microsoft’s chairman and chief executive Satya Nadella said.
“Businesses — small and large — can improve productivity and the affordability of their products and services by building tech intensity,” he said.
Revenue in the company’s intelligent cloud business increased 31 per cent year-on-year to $17bn in the first quarter and its server products and cloud services revenue increased almost 35 per cent.
The company’s operating income grew 27 per cent to $20.2bn in the previous quarter from the prior year period while the diluted earnings per share was up 49 per cent on an annual basis at $2.71.
The company’s productivity and business processes division, which includes both its Microsoft Office business and revenue from LinkedIn, soared 22 per cent to $15bn.
LinkedIn revenue increased almost 42 per cent annually. Microsoft did not give a dollar figure for its LinkedIn revenue and did not disclose the number of users.
This month, LinkedIn said it will shut its local version of the platform in China by the end of this year as the company faced a “challenging operating environment” and “greater compliance requirements” in the world’s second-largest economy.
The world’s largest professional network, which launched its localised version in China in February 2014, will roll out a new stand-alone jobs application for China — InJobs — later this year. The Asian country is LinkedIn’s third-largest market, Statista reports.
Microsoft 365 Consumer subscribers increased to 54.1 million at the end of the last quarter, the company said.
Microsoft also returned $10.9bn to shareholders in the form of share repurchases and dividends in the last quarter, a yearly increase of 14 per cent compared to the prior year period.
Sales in the personal computing division rose 12 per cent to $13.3bn in the quarter, the company said.
Search and news advertising revenue increased by 40 per cent annually, while Xbox content and services revenue increased 2 per cent in the first quarter.
Surface revenue decreased 17 per cent yearly, primarily driven by supply chain constraints.
Microsoft spent $5.6bn on research and development, about 12.3 per cent of its total sales in the quarter. This is 13.6 per cent more than what was spent on R & in the same period last year.
MATCH INFO
Uefa Champions League final:
Who: Real Madrid v Liverpool
Where: NSC Olimpiyskiy Stadium, Kiev, Ukraine
When: Saturday, May 26, 10.45pm (UAE)
TV: Match on BeIN Sports
The most expensive investment mistake you will ever make
When is the best time to start saving in a pension? The answer is simple – at the earliest possible moment. The first pound, euro, dollar or dirham you invest is the most valuable, as it has so much longer to grow in value. If you start in your twenties, it could be invested for 40 years or more, which means you have decades for compound interest to work its magic.
“You get growth upon growth upon growth, followed by more growth. The earlier you start the process, the more it will all roll up,” says Chris Davies, chartered financial planner at The Fry Group in Dubai.
This table shows how much you would have in your pension at age 65, depending on when you start and how much you pay in (it assumes your investments grow 7 per cent a year after charges and you have no other savings).
|
Age
|
$250 a month
|
$500 a month
|
$1,000 a month
|
|
25
|
$640,829
|
$1,281,657
|
$2,563,315
|
|
35
|
$303,219
|
$606,439
|
$1,212,877
|
|
45
|
$131,596
|
$263,191
|
$526,382
|
|
55
|
$44,351
|
$88,702
|
$177,403
|
RESULT
Kolkata Knight Riders 169-7 (20 ovs)
Rajasthan Royals 144-4 (20 ovs)
Kolkata win by 25 runs
Next match
Sunrisers Hyderabad v Kolkata Knight Riders, Friday, 5.30pm
The five stages of early child’s play
From Dubai-based clinical psychologist Daniella Salazar:
1. Solitary Play: This is where Infants and toddlers start to play on their own without seeming to notice the people around them. This is the beginning of play.
2. Onlooker play: This occurs where the toddler enjoys watching other people play. There doesn’t necessarily need to be any effort to begin play. They are learning how to imitate behaviours from others. This type of play may also appear in children who are more shy and introverted.
3. Parallel Play: This generally starts when children begin playing side-by-side without any interaction. Even though they aren’t physically interacting they are paying attention to each other. This is the beginning of the desire to be with other children.
4. Associative Play: At around age four or five, children become more interested in each other than in toys and begin to interact more. In this stage children start asking questions and talking about the different activities they are engaging in. They realise they have similar goals in play such as building a tower or playing with cars.
5. Social Play: In this stage children are starting to socialise more. They begin to share ideas and follow certain rules in a game. They slowly learn the definition of teamwork. They get to engage in basic social skills and interests begin to lead social interactions.
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
Company Fact Box
Company name/date started: Abwaab Technologies / September 2019
Founders: Hamdi Tabbaa, co-founder and CEO. Hussein Alsarabi, co-founder and CTO
Based: Amman, Jordan
Sector: Education Technology
Size (employees/revenue): Total team size: 65. Full-time employees: 25. Revenue undisclosed
Stage: early-stage startup
Investors: Adam Tech Ventures, Endure Capital, Equitrust, the World Bank-backed Innovative Startups SMEs Fund, a London investment fund, a number of former and current executives from Uber and Netflix, among others.
The British in India: Three Centuries of Ambition and Experience
by David Gilmour
Allen Lane
