Microsoft has announced its revenue for this quarter amounts to $20.49 billion (£13.34 billion), a 17.2 per cent increase year-on-year, simultaneously announcing CFO Pete Klein would be leaving the company.
Revenues were up from $17.41 billion (£11.35 billion) the same time last year, and the company’s earning per share was $0.72 (£0.47), beating the $0.68 (£0.44) predictions made by analysts.
Despite recent industry reports showing a decline in PC sales due to the steep rise in popularity of tablets and smartphones, Microsoft’s Windows division reported a 23 per cent increase in revenues in comparison to last year.
“The bold bets we made on cloud services are paying off as people increasingly choose Microsoft services including Office 365, Windows Azure, Xbox Live and Sky,” said Steve Ballmer, Microsoft CEO. “While there is still work to do, we are optimistic that the bets we’ve made on Windows devices position us well for the long-term.”
The Entertainment and Devices Division posted revenue of $2.53 billion (£1.65 billion), meaning a 56 per cent increase from the same time last year. The division is home to the Xbox 360, and in the last quarter of 2012 only reported an 11 per cent increase.
Such a sales boost could be the eager anticipation of the as yet unannounced and unconfirmed Xbox 720 console tipped to launch by the end of this year.
Read our Xbox 720 rumours roundup
The Online Services Division’s revenue was also up 18 per cent year-on-year with $823 million (£536 million), and both Server and Tools and the Microsoft Business divisions posted revenue increases from the same period last year, rising 11 and 8 per cent respectively.
The rising revenues reported by Microsoft were accompanied by the news that its Chief Financial Office Peter Klein would be stepping down and leaving the company after four years as CFO. His departure would also mark his eleven years employment with Microsoft.
The company has said it will be announcing a new CFO in the coming weeks and it will be someone from its finance leadership team.
