Introduction

Despite the coronavirus, Microsoft managed to make its overall revenue in the latest quarter jumped 15% YoY to $35 billion. 

But Microsoft wasn’t totally immune from financial troubles related to Covid-19. Here’s three ways the pandemic did impact the business.

Bing and LinkedIn took a hit

Microsoft experienced a “significant reduction” in ad spending, which affected its search business and LinkedIn professional network, and was part of a broader retrenchment in the online ad industry.

With companies laying off thousands of workers and pausing hiring, they aren’t spending as much on LinkedIn as they were previously.

On to personal computing

With more people at home, the  Xbox gaming business benefited. The overall Xbox content and services revenue grew 2% YoY and Microsoft’s Surface computers increased 1% YoY, which

Overall the company’s personal computing business—which includes Surface, Windows, Xbox, and search—rose 3% YoY to $11 billion.

Bring on the cloud data centers

The coronavirus pandemic has led to more businesses and people using Microsoft’s cloud-related services like Azure. But the heavy use also caused some of Microsoft’s cloud services to experience some outages, which expects more capital spending due to heavy investment in the data centers. 

Content source: Vanian. J. (2020) 3 ways COVID-19 impacted Microsoft’s latest earnings. Available at: https://fortune.com/2020/04/29/microsoft-earnings-shares-covid-coronavirus/?utm_campaign=fortunemagazine&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&xid=soc_socialflow_facebook_FORTUNE&fbclid=IwAR1MVGPqjmLph6Zw6TdrUNd4OsgXQipFMJxdvlIW5mo_MFZnZHutT-RC8PM [Accessed at: May 2, 2020]