Zhitong Finance APP learned that Microsoft (MSFT.US) announced its second quarter results for the fiscal year 2023 ending December 31, 2022 after the U.S. stock market closed on Tuesday. The financial report shows that Microsoft’s Q2 revenue was US$52.75 billion, which was lower than the market’s expected US$52.94 billion, an increase of 2% year-on-year, the lowest growth rate since 2016; net profit was US$16.43 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 12%; Shares earned $2.32, beating consensus estimates of $2.29.
Divided by business, the revenue of the productivity and business process segment, which mainly includes Office software, was US$17 billion, a year-on-year increase of 7%, higher than the market expectation of US$16.79 billion. CEO Satya Nadella said the Teams messaging app now has more than 280 million monthly active users.
The revenue of the intelligent cloud business unit was 21.5 billion US dollars, an increase of 18% year-on-year, slightly higher than the 21.44 billion US dollars expected by market analysts on average. Among them, the revenue growth rate of Azure cloud computing services, which has received much attention, increased by about 31%. Although it was slightly higher than market expectations, it was not as good as the growth rate achieved in the second quarter of last year. 46%.
Revenue from the More Personal Computing segment, which includes businesses such as Windows, Surface devices and Xbox, was $14.2 billion, down 19% year-over-year; Windows license sales to PC makers fell about 39% year-over-year, down from the first quarter 15% drop.
Amy Hood, Microsoft’s chief financial officer, said, “Our commercial products continue to deliver value to our customers, and its Surface team met execution challenges during the quarter, during which time the company successfully launched Surface Pro 9.”
“As the Microsoft Cloud transforms the world‘s most advanced artificial intelligence models into a new computing platform, the next major wave of computing is being born, and we are committed to helping our customers use Our platforms and tools do more with less and innovate for the future in the new era of artificial intelligence.”
The company took a $1.2 billion charge during the quarter over its decision to cut 10,000 jobs, revise its hardware lineup and consolidate leases as the global economy teeters on the brink of recession. The charge includes $800 million in employee severance payments. Analysts at Raymond James wrote in a note to clients on Monday that Microsoft’s decision to cut jobs shows “the company’s commitment to securing its margins despite volatile revenue.”
During the quarter, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission sued Microsoft to block its $69 billion acquisition of game publisher Activision Blizzard (ATVI.US), while the U.S. Department of Defense awarded Microsoft and three other companies a cloud contract worth a combined $9 billion. “We will continue to work with regulators to review the transaction and work towards closing the transaction in fiscal year 2023, subject to required regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions being met,” the company said.
As of press time, Microsoft’s share price fell 0.76% after hours to $240.2.