Microsoft announces Q4 2014 financial results

US-based software giant Microsoft recently issued a report detailing its financial performance during the fourth quarter of 2014. Overall, the company registered better sales due to Surface and Lumia devices. Overall profits declined compared to the same period of 2013.

Mihai Andrici, Published 01/27/2015

Windows

Back in February when Satya Nadella assumed his current position as Microsoft CEO, his openly-announced goal was to transform Microsoft from an outdated software company into a modern equipment and OS provider, while also maintaining a focus on Cloud and Mobile. Almost one year later, it looks like everything is working according to plan for the Microsoft CEO.

Microsoft recently publicized its balance sheet corresponding to the fourth of 2014. The main takeaways from the financial report are that the software giant generated less profit and more sales. Profit fell nearly 11 percent, down to $5.86 billion from $6.56 billion in Q3 2014. Sluggish demand for Windows 8.1 translated into 13 percent less revenue for the division responsible with the operating system.

In terms of raw sales, Microsoft did much better during Q4 2014 compared to Q4 2013. Overall sales rose 8 percent year-over-year, up to $26.47 from $24.52 billion. This sales growth was made possible by a combination of factors such as booming Surface sales (up 24 percent to $1.1 billion) and increasing sales of Lumia smartphones ($2.3 billion). Other divisions that reported sales growth include the Office 365 Home and Professional division (the service now has 9.2 million subscribers), Bing Search advertisment, and the division responsible for Azure and Dynamic CRM Online (a 114% growth up to $5.5 billion).