Corporate Sales Drive Growth in Latest Quarter

Strong sales to businesses earned Microsoft US$17.4 billion in revenue in the first quarter (ended Sept. 30, 2011) of its 2012 fiscal year, a 7% increase from last year’s fourth quarter. Net income also grew 6% year-over-year, to US$5.74 billion from US$5.41 billion. Office and server sales drove results in the quarter, which also saw operating income affected by expansion of the company’s consulting services and other lower-margin businesses.

(For an overview of Microsoft’s recent financial performance, see the chart “Financials for the Last Five Quarters“.)

Corporate Sales Push Overall Growth

Microsoft continues to report its financial results in five divisions. (For a chart detailing the results of each division, see “Revenue and Profit (Loss) by Business Segment“.) Not all of these divisions correspond to a single business unit at Microsoft. (See the illustration “Who’s in Charge?“.)

Business Division Sees Both Consumer and Business Growth

The Business division, Microsoft’s largest by revenue and income, includes Office, business servers such as Exchange, SharePoint, Dynamics CRM, Lync, and the Office 365 cloud applications. The division increased revenue 8% from the same quarter last year to US$5.62 billion, with an operating profit of US$3.66 billion.