Cloud Produces Sunny Earnings at Amazon, Microsoft and Alphabet -<br />By NICK WINGFIELD, DAVID STREITFELD and STEVE LOHRAPRIL 27, 2017<br />SEATTLE — The moneymaking machines at the core of Amazon, Microsoft and Alphabet, the parent company of Google, are notably different.<br />For the first quarter, which ended March 31, Amazon said its total net income rose to<br />$724 million, or $1.48 a share, from $513 million, or $1.07 a share, a year ago.<br />In their quarterly earnings reports on Thursday, the three said cloud computing — through which they rent computing services<br />and online access to software hosted in their data centers — was growing faster than their larger, older businesses.<br />Microsoft’s total operating revenue, which includes the deferred accounting for sales<br />of its Windows 10 personal computer operating system, was higher, at $23.56 billion.<br />The company’s results were well ahead of the $1.12-a-share average earnings estimate<br />and $35.3 billion revenue estimate of analysts compiled by Thomson Reuters.<br />Ruth Porat, Alphabet’s chief financial officer, said in a conference call with analysts<br />that the Google cloud platform was one of the company’s “fastest-growing businesses,” though she offered no details.<br />Its operating earnings per share, which excludes one-time gains, increased 16 percent<br />to 73 cents a share, ahead of the average analyst estimate of 70 cents a share.
