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Redmond (dpa) - Microsoft significantly exceeded expectations in the past quarter, thanks in particular to a strong cloud business.
Sales rose in the second fiscal quarter ended December by 17 percent to 43.1 billion dollars (35.4 billion euros).
Analysts had expected around $ 40 billion.
The profit jumped year-on-year by 33 percent to 15.5 billion dollars, as the software giant announced.
Microsoft boss Satya Nadella aligned the group to cloud services over the long-term core business with the Windows operating system and office programs - the offer of computing power and software from the network.
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In the “intelligent cloud” division, sales grew by 23 percent to $ 14.6 billion last quarter.
A key factor here was a 50 percent increase in business on the Azure cloud platform, with which Microsoft competes with Amazon and Google.
The number of private customers in the Microsoft 365 subscription offer rose from 37.2 to 47.5 million within one year.
In the area with Windows and hardware there was a jump in sales of 40 percent in the business with the game console Xbox, in which a new model came out.
Windows sales increased by ten percent.
Microsoft only mentions the changes in many areas, but not the amount of sales.
The income from the tablets and notebooks of the in-house Surface series increased by 3.5 percent to a good two billion dollars.
Last year it became particularly clear that a second wave of digital change is imminent, which will affect every company and every industry, said Nadella.
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For the current quarter, Microsoft expects further growth.
The share rose at times by a good four percent in after-hours trading.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210127-99-183806 / 2
Microsoft on business last quarter