Microsoft’s Earnings: A Reminder That Their Still An Enterprise Company and Not a Consumer Company

We bring this up all the time, but if you look at Microsoft and where’ they make their money it’s not in the consumer markets. This was from a year ago “As of last year they were making over $1b from Office and Windows; Xbox, SQL Server; System Center; Unified Communications; SharePoint; Developer Tools; Dynamics (ERP & CRM); and Online display and search advertising (but they post huge losses in search as well). “ Guess what? This is still the same Microsoft. Let’s see where they made money this quarter:

• The Server & Tools business posted $4.57 billion in third-quarter revenue
• The Microsoft Business Division reported $5.81 billion in third-quarter revenue
• The Windows and Windows Live Division posted revenue of $4.62 billion

Meanwhile…

• The Online Services Division reported …operating loss improvement of approximately $300 million
• The Entertainment& Devices Division posted revenue of $1.62 billion, a decrease of 16%

This isn’t going to change. Microsoft’s real money is and continues to be on the corporate side. yes, that consists of Windows and Office but also heavily relies on database and server solutions and the Business Division includes Lync. We’re used to looking at Microsoft for PC sales. Those were up 4% over the past year. It’s ok – nothing spectacular. But the things we think of when we think about Microsoft (like Xbox, Kinect, Bing, Skype and Windows Phone) are squat. That’s sort of what makes this so interesting. We’re at a point where Microsoft is trying to make significant inroads into the consumer markets. Can they pull this off? If they can get Microsoft in your pocket and on your tv and powering your video calls then they can really explode as a company (well relative to their stock – not like Apple but Apple’s not on the same page as any other company).

So, by the end of the year will Microsoft become a company that’s actually making money off of consumers? Shout out