Over on Petri, I wrote…

Paul Thurrott’s Short Takes: Microsoft Earnings Special Edition

Because it’s that time of the quarter, this special edition of Short Takes will focus exclusively on Microsoft’s latest quarterly earnings report.

Note: Tuesday, Microsoft reported that it earned a net income of $17.1 billion on revenues of $50.1 billion, a year-over-year gain of 16 percent, in the quarter ending September 30.

Before diving into the details, I would like to remind everyone that most of the commentary below is based on Microsoft’s post-earnings conference call, which has historically provided a lot more information than its formal financial reports and press releases. This quarter was no different, but I was struck by what was clearly a good cop/bad cop routine by CEO Satya Nadella and CFO Amy Hood, which is probably usually the case but was very pronounced and obvious in this call. That is, Nadella stuck to the good news, and Hood was forced to counter with all the bad news, in many cases, because this quarter was financially difficult but, ultimately, I think, a sign of strong health and resiliency for a company that wisely diversified itself many years ago.

Also, for the first time, I’m going to break this down according to Microsoft’s three major business segments with a quick diversion to account for the Microsoft Cloud, a made-up business that’s comprised of individual businesses that Microsoft cherry-picks because they’re doing well in a given quarter. Enjoy! –Paul