Microsoft benefited from strong demand for its Teams collaboration
software, which now has 75 million users.
Microsoft
Corp on Wednesday beat Wall Street sales and profit expectations, powered
by sharp demand for its Teams chat and online meeting app and Xbox gaming
services as the world shifted to working and playing from home because of the
novel coronavirus pandemic.
The company's shares, up over 12 per cent this year, rose about 5 per cent in extended trading.
The results
reflect Chief Executive Satya Nadella's focus over his six-year tenure on cloud
computing, in which companies tap Microsoft's data centres for computing power
- a growing business dominated by Amazon.com Inc's Amazon Web Services.
For the fiscal
fourth quarter, Microsoft gave business-unit forecasts that were below analyst
estimates, predicting tough times for LinkedIn and some small-business software
sales.
"Ultimately,
Microsoft is not immune from what is going on broadly in the world in terms of
GDP growth," Nadella said on a conference call with investors.
But results
benefited from sales of its Windows operating system and Surface hardware
devices as people upgraded personal computers to work or study from home.
Microsoft also cited all-time-high engagement on its Xbox Live gaming
service, with 19 million active users.
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