The FINANCIAL — Microsoft Corp. on April 23 announced that revenues for the quarter ended March 31, 2015 grew to $21.7 billion. Gross margin, operating income, and diluted earnings per share (“EPS”) for the quarter were $14.6 billion, $6.6 billion, and $0.61 per share, respectively.
These financial results include $190 million of integration and restructuring expenses, or a $0.01 per share negative impact, related to Microsoft’s restructuring plan announced in July 2014 and the ongoing integration of the Nokia Devices and Services (“NDS”) business, according to Microsoft.
During the quarter, Microsoft returned $7.5 billion to shareholders in the form of share repurchases and dividends.
The strengthening of the U.S. dollar compared to foreign currencies had a significant impact on results in the quarter. Excluding the effect of foreign exchange rate changes on the GAAP amounts, on a constant currency basis, revenue and gross margin would have grown 9% and 4%, respectively, and operating income and EPS would have declined 4% and 7%, respectively.
“Customers continue to choose Microsoft to transform their business and as a result we saw incredible growth across our cloud services this quarter,” said Satya Nadella, chief executive officer at Microsoft. “Next week at Build we’re excited to share more about how we’re empowering every individual and organization on the planet to achieve more with the next generation of our platforms.”
“We executed with strong operational and financial discipline again this quarter, and are seeing positive impact from our investments in key growth areas,” said Amy Hood, chief financial officer at Microsoft. “We remain focused on maximizing shareholder value and again increased our overall return of capital to shareholders.”
Devices and Consumer revenue grew 8% (up 11% in constant currency) to $9.0 billion, with the following business highlights:
Office 365 Consumer subscribers increased to over 12.4 million, up 35% sequentially
Windows OEM Pro revenue declined 19%, as Pro mix returned to pre-Windows XP end-of-support levels and the business PC market declined
Windows OEM non-Pro revenue declined 26%, primarily due to channel inventory drawdown and ongoing mix shift to opening price point devices
Search advertising revenue grew 21% (up 24% in constant currency), with Bing U.S. market share at 20.1%, up 150 basis points over prior year
Xbox Live usage grew over 30%, driven by increased users and deeper user engagement
Surface revenue of $713 million, up 44% (up 53% in constant currency) driven by Surface Pro 3
Phone Hardware revenue of $1.4 billion, with 8.6 million Lumia units sold
Commercial revenue grew 5% (up 7% in constant currency) to $12.8 billion, with the following business highlights:
Commercial cloud revenue grew 106% (up 111% in constant currency) driven by Office 365, Azure and Dynamics CRM Online, and is now on an annualized revenue run rate of $6.3 billion
Server products and services revenue grew 12% (up 16% in constant currency), with premium versions of Windows Server, System Center Server and SQL Server together growing 25%
Office Commercial products and services revenue declined 2% (up 1% in constant currency); transactional revenue was impacted by the continued transition to Office 365 and declines in business PC sales following the XP refresh cycle
Windows volume licensing revenue declined 2% (up 1% in constant currency), with transactional revenue declining following the XP refresh cycle partially offset by annuity revenue growth
“We remain focused on strong execution from our sales teams. Around the world we’re seeing high interest in deployment of our cloud and server products, as well as participation in the enterprise early adopter program for Windows 10,” said Kevin Turner, chief operating officer at Microsoft.
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