ISG Global: Technology giant, Microsoft, saw its shares surge by as much as 4% in after-hours trading after it revealed better-than-expected profit growth in its 2nd quarter earnings report.
The company posted a $3.1 billion profit for the three months to June, a vast improvement on the $3.2 billion loss it booked after writing down the value of assets connected to its purchase of Nokia’s mobile phone business which it bought for $7 billion in 2014.
Microsoft’s cloud computing business, Azure, which includes its Office 365 Software as a Service (SaaS) offering saw its revenues climb 7% to $6.7 billion.
“This development is a testament to the company’s decision to focus on the expansion of its cloud-based services amid slowing PC sales,” said Glen Tse, a technology and social media analyst at ISG-Global.
The company’s hardware business continued its decline however, with revenue from devices slipping by 35%, mostly driven by a huge 70% falloff in mobile device sales.
“That they’ve managed to achieve what they have with their cloud computing division in the face of aggressive competition from the likes of Google and Amazon is impressive.”
Microsoft recently announced it was acquiring professional social media network, LinkedIn for $26.2 billion, a move that ISG-Global believes will further boost its penetration of the SaaS and cloud computing spaces.
“The purchase of LinkedIn seems inspired when you combine the scope of what it can achieve with its cloud computing business combined with access to more than 430 million professional users,” said Tse.

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