Microsoft publishes earnings reports for Q3 2019 with a 14% revenue increase

Microsoft has published its earnings report for the third quarter of the 2019 fiscal year, which ended on March 31. The company reported a 14% increase year-over-year (YoY) in revenue, reaching $30.6 billion, and an increase of 25% in operating income for a total of $10.3 billion. Net income was $8.8 billion, a 19% increase YoY, and diluted earnings per share increased 20% to $1.14.

As usual, this is broken down into three main categories: Productivity and Business Processes, Intelligent Cloud, and More Personal Computing. For the Productivity and Businesses Processes category, revenue was $10.2 billion and increased by 14% YoY. The Intelligent Cloud category grew 22% YoY to $9.7 billion. Lastly, the More Personal Computing category grew 8% to $10.7 billion.

The growth in the Productivity and Business Processes category was mostly driven by LinkedIn, which saw its revenue increase by 27% (29% in constant currency), keeping up the strong growth from last quarter. LinkedIn sessions also grew 24% with "record levels of engagement".

Office Commercial products and cloud services grew 12% (14% CC), mostly due to a 30% increase (31% CC) in revenue in Office 365 Commercial revenue, with Office commercial seats growing 27%. Office commercial products revenue decreased by 19% (18% CC) as customers shift to cloud offerings.

Office Consumer products and cloud services revenue grew by 8% (10% CC) thanks to recurring subscription revenue. The number of Office 365 subscribers grew to 34.2 million, which is about 0.9 million more than last quarter. Dynamics revenue grew 13% (15% CC) and Dynamics 365 revenue grew 43% (44% CC).

In the Intelligent Cloud category, Server Products and Cloud Services revenue grew by 27% (29% CC), with Azure revenue growing a whopping 73% (75% CC), and server products growing 7% (9% CC). Enterprise services grew 4% (5% CC).

Finally, in the More Personal Computing category, Windows OEM Pro revenue increased 15%, reversing the decline in the previous quarter, while non-Pro revenue maintained the downward trend and declined 1%. Windows commercial products and cloud services grew 18% (20% CC).

Surface revenue grew significantly, though not as much as in the last quarter. Revenue growth was 21% (25% CC) YoY.

Gaming revenue grew by 5% (7% CC) mostly thanks to software offsetting the lower hardware revenue. Xbox software and services revenue grew 12% (15% CC), with Xbox Live monthly active users growing 7% to 63 million. Microsoft didn't share details for hardware revenue.

Finally, Search grew 12% (14% CC), excluding traffic acquisition costs.