Microsoft soars past $100bn revenue mark, boosted by the power of the Cloud | City A.M.

Software and PC giant Microsoft had its best year ever in 2018, beating analyst estimates to score $110.4bn (£85.1bn) in revenue at a year-on-year increase of 14 per cent.

It reported $30.1bn in revenue for its fourth quarter, beating already high consumer estimates of $29.17bn.

Diluted earnings per share came in at $1.15 for the quarter, again beating previous estimates of $1.07.

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Double-digit revenue growth was reported across all segments of the company, anchored by its flagship commercial cloud business Azure’s revenue which grew a whopping 89 per cent growth in the quarter ending 30 June.

Azure has a 16 per cent share of the global cloud infrastructure market, putting it in second place behind Amazon Web Services according to estimates made in April by Canalys.

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“We had an incredible year, surpassing $100 billion in revenue as a result of our teams’ relentless focus on customer success and the trust customers are placing in Microsoft,” said Satya Nadella, chief executive officer of Microsoft.

“Our early investments in the intelligent cloud and intelligent edge are paying off, and we will continue to expand our reach in large and growing markets with differentiated innovation.”

The company returned $5.3bn to shareholders in the form of dividends and share repurchases in the last quarter, at an increase of 16 per cent compared to the same time in 2017.

Its popular Surface laptop-turned-tablet range earned a 25 per cent increase in revenue, which Microsoft attributed to strong performance by its latest editions against low comparable numbers last year.

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