Microsoft’s profits continue to climb.

“Coming out of the pandemic we are seeing actually a lot of constraints in the economy, and the only resources that can help drive productivity while keeping costs down is digital tech,” he said.

Microsoft had $125 billion in cash, almost $70 billion of which it hopes to spend on buying the video game powerhouse Activision in a deal announced this month. Bank of America analysts called the purchase a “savvy maneuver” and a “strategic and financial positive, which can accelerate Microsoft’s gaming business across numerous platforms.”

Sales of Microsoft’s cloud offerings to commercial customers, which includes Office 365 subscriptions and Azure, its cloud computing platform, grew 32 percent to $22.1 billion. Revenue is poised to grow further as price increases for Office 365, which includes Word and the Teams communications app, go into effect in March. The price increases could produce $5 billion in extra revenue this year, according to Wedbush Securities.

Azure is the second-largest cloud platform, after Amazon Web Services. It is part of a fundamental shift in how companies are moving more of their business online. Azure grew 46 percent, reflecting how customers across industries are signing larger, longer deals.

Brett Iversen, the head of Microsoft’s investor relations, said that despite turmoil in the stock market, the company was focused on long-term opportunities so it could cut “through the shorter-term, external noise that we don’t control as much.”

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/25/technology/microsoft-earnings-q2-2022.html