(AOF) – Highly anticipated after the numerous announcements of layoffs in tech, Microsoft’s profits have exceeded expectations. The software and cloud specialist’s revenues disappointed, however, while the continued slowdown in Azure (commercial cloud), which will persist, worries. In the second quarter, ended September, the computer giant saw its net profit fall by 12% to 16.43 billion dollars, or 2.20 dollars per share.
The cut of 10,000 jobs, or less than 5% of its workforce, announced a week ago results, as expected, in a charge of $ 1.2 billion, or a negative impact of 12 cents on diluted profit per share.
In adjusted data, earnings per share came out at $2.32, compared with a Bloomberg consensus of $2.30.
Turnover reached 52.7 billion dollars, up 2% (+7% at constant exchange rates) over one year, while analysts expected 52.9 billion dollars.
The Redmond, Washington-based firm benefited from increased activity in its Intelligent Cloud division, which oversees server-related products and services, such as Windows Server, SQL Server and Azure (commercial cloud). It saw its sales jump by 18% (+24% at constant exchange rates) to 21.5 billion dollars.
Highly watched by analysts because it has been the driving force behind the group in recent years, Azure saw its sales increase by 31% in raw data against 35% the previous quarter. They increased by 38% at constant exchange rates, compared to 42% in the previous quarter. The Bloomberg consensus stood at 37%.
During the analyst press conference, Chief Financial Officer Amy Hood clarified that Azure ended the quarter with growth of around 35% at constant currencies and that on this basis, it expects a further slowdown in growth of around 4 to 5 points for the current quarter.
When announcing the job cuts last Wednesday, Chief Executive Satya Nadella said he now sees his clients “optimizing their digital spend to do more with less.” “We are also seeing companies across all industries and geographies treading cautiously as some parts of the world are in recession and others are anticipating one.”
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European cloud players file complaint against Microsoft
These groups have benefited from a jump in their activity of 167% over the last five years. However, their share in the European cloud fell from 27% to 13% over the period. That of Amazon, Microsoft and Google has jumped from 46% to 72%, according to Synergy Research. The European leader, SAP, is only in seventh place with only 2% of the market.
European players accuse Microsoft, the world’s number one cloud provider, of taking advantage of its position as a software publisher and cloud service provider to force its software customers to switch to its services if they want to migrate to the cloud. Despite recent announcements from Microsoft to calm things down, European players are offering to test its compliance with the ten principles of fair software licensing established by Cigref, the French association of the main digital customers.