Microsoft Corp beat Wall Street’s profit forecast on Wednesday, helped by growth in its cloud computing business, but took a $13.8 billion one-time charge due to the new US tax law. Stock of the world’s largest software company, which have risen almost 50 percent over the past 12 months, initially fell in after-hours trading but later moved into positive territory.
The quarter was the 10th in a row of more than 90 percent revenue growth for its flagship Azure cloud computing service, which directly competes with Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services. Amazon customers hoping to avoid being locked into one service could be helping growth, said Kim Forrest, an equity analyst at Fort Pitt Capital Group. “If you’re really smart you’ll have not one provider but two,” she said. (Source)