Item 6. [RESERVED]

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Item 6. [RESERVED]

PART II

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ITEM 7. MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS

The following Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations (“MD&A”) is intended to help the reader understand the results of operations and financial condition of Microsoft Corporation. MD&A is provided as a supplement to, and should be read in conjunction with, our consolidated financial statements and the accompanying Notes to Financial Statements (Part II, Item 8 of this Form 10-K). This section generally discusses the results of our operations for the year ended June 30, 2024 compared to the year ended June 30, 2023. For a discussion of the year ended June 30, 2023 compared to the year ended June 30, 2022, please refer to Part II, Item 7, “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended June 30, 2023.

OVERVIEW

Microsoft is a technology company committed to making digital technology and artificial intelligence (“AI”) available broadly and doing so responsibly, with a mission to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. We create platforms and tools, powered by AI, that deliver innovative solutions that meet the evolving needs of our customers.

We generate revenue by offering a wide range of cloud-based solutions, content, and other services to people and businesses; licensing and supporting an array of software products; delivering relevant online advertising to a global audience; and designing and selling devices. Our most significant expenses are related to compensating employees; supporting and investing in our cloud-based services, including datacenter operations; designing, manufacturing, marketing, and selling our other products and services; and income taxes.

Highlights from fiscal year 2024 compared with fiscal year 2023 included:

Microsoft Cloud revenue increased 23% to $137.4 billion.

Office Commercial products and cloud services revenue increased 14% driven by Office 365 Commercial growth of 16%.

Office Consumer products and cloud services revenue increased 4% and Microsoft 365 Consumer subscribers grew to 82.5 million.

LinkedIn revenue increased 9%.

Dynamics products and cloud services revenue increased 19% driven by Dynamics 365 growth of 24%.

Server products and cloud services revenue increased 22% driven by Azure and other cloud services growth of 30%.

Windows revenue increased 8% with Windows original equipment manufacturer licensing (“Windows OEM”) revenue growth of 7% and Windows Commercial products and cloud services revenue growth of 11%.

Devices revenue decreased 15%.

Xbox content and services revenue increased 50% driven by 44 points of net impact from the Activision Blizzard Inc. (“Activision Blizzard”) acquisition. The net impact reflects the change of Activision Blizzard content from third-party to first-party.

Search and news advertising revenue excluding traffic acquisition costs increased 12%.

On October 13, 2023, we completed our acquisition of Activision Blizzard for a total purchase price of $75.4 billion, consisting primarily of cash. The financial results of Activision Blizzard have been included in our consolidated financial statements since the date of the acquisition. Activision Blizzard is reported as part of our More Personal Computing segment. Refer to Note 8 – Business Combinations of the Notes to Financial Statements (Part II, Item 8 of this Form 10-K) for further discussion.

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Industry Trends

Our industry is dynamic and highly competitive, with frequent changes in both technologies and business models. Each industry shift is an opportunity to conceive new products, new technologies, or new ideas that can further transform the industry and our business. At Microsoft, we push the boundaries of what is possible through a broad range of research and development activities that seek to identify and address the changing demands of customers and users, industry trends, and competitive forces.

Economic Conditions, Challenges, and Risks

The markets for software, devices, and cloud-based services are dynamic and highly competitive. Our competitors are developing new software and devices, while also deploying competing cloud-based services for consumers and businesses. The devices and form factors customers prefer evolve rapidly, influencing how users access services in the cloud and, in some cases, the user’s choice of which suite of cloud-based services to use. Aggregate demand for our software, services, and devices is also correlated to global macroeconomic and geopolitical factors, which remain dynamic. We must continue to evolve and adapt over an extended time in pace with this changing environment.

The investments we are making in cloud and AI infrastructure and devices will continue to increase our operating costs and may decrease our operating margins. We continue to identify and evaluate opportunities to expand our datacenter locations and increase our server capacity to meet the evolving needs of our customers, particularly given the growing demand for AI services. Our datacenters depend on the availability of permitted and buildable land, predictable energy, networking supplies, and servers, including graphics processing units (“GPUs”) and other components. Our devices are primarily manufactured by third-party contract manufacturers. For the majority of our products, we have the ability to use other manufacturers if a current vendor becomes unavailable or unable to meet our requirements. However, some of our products contain certain components for which there are very few qualified suppliers. Extended disruptions at these suppliers could impact our ability to manufacture devices on time to meet consumer demand.

Our success is highly dependent on our ability to attract and retain qualified employees. We hire a mix of university and industry talent worldwide. We compete for talented individuals globally by offering an exceptional working environment, broad customer reach, scale in resources, the ability to grow one’s career across many different products and businesses, and competitive compensation and benefits.

Our international operations provide a significant portion of our total revenue and expenses. Many of these revenue and expenses are denominated in currencies other than the U.S. dollar. As a result, changes in foreign exchange rates may significantly affect revenue and expenses. Fluctuations in the U.S. dollar relative to certain foreign currencies did not have a material impact on reported revenue and expenses from our international operations in fiscal year 2024.

Refer to Risk Factors (Part I, Item 1A of this Form 10-K) for a discussion of these factors and other risks.

Seasonality

Our revenue fluctuates quarterly and is generally higher in the fourth quarter of our fiscal year. Fourth quarter revenue is driven by a higher volume of multi-year contracts executed during the period.

Change in Accounting Estimate

In July 2022, we completed an assessment of the useful lives of our server and network equipment. Due to investments in software that increased efficiencies in how we operate our server and network equipment, as well as advances in technology, we determined we should increase the estimated useful lives of both server and network equipment from four years to six years. This change in accounting estimate was effective beginning fiscal year 2023.

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Reportable Segments

We report our financial performance based on the following segments: Productivity and Business Processes, Intelligent Cloud, and More Personal Computing. The segment amounts included in MD&A are presented on a basis consistent with our internal management reporting.

Additional information on our reportable segments is contained in Note 19 – Segment Information and Geographic Data of the Notes to Financial Statements (Part II, Item 8 of this Form 10-K).

Metrics

We use metrics in assessing the performance of our business and to make informed decisions regarding the allocation of resources. We disclose metrics to enable investors to evaluate progress against our ambitions, provide transparency into performance trends, and reflect the continued evolution of our products and services. Our commercial and other business metrics are fundamentally connected based on how customers use our products and services. The metrics are disclosed in the MD&A or the Notes to Financial Statements (Part II, Item 8 of this Form 10-K). Financial metrics are calculated based on financial results prepared in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America (“GAAP”), and growth comparisons relate to the corresponding period of last fiscal year.

In the first quarter of fiscal year 2024, we made updates to the presentation and method of calculation for certain metrics, revising our Microsoft Cloud revenue metric to include revenue growth and expanding our Microsoft 365 Consumer subscribers metric to include Microsoft 365 Basic subscribers, aligning with how we manage our business.

Commercial

Our commercial business primarily consists of Server products and cloud services, Office Commercial, Windows Commercial, the commercial portion of LinkedIn, Enterprise and partner services, and Dynamics. Our commercial metrics allow management and investors to assess the overall health of our commercial business and include leading indicators of future performance.

Commercial remaining performance obligationCommercial portion of revenue allocated to remaining performance obligations, which includes unearned revenue and amounts that will be invoiced and recognized as revenue in future periods
Microsoft Cloud revenue and revenue growthRevenue from Azure and other cloud services, Office 365 Commercial, the commercial portion of LinkedIn, Dynamics 365, and other commercial cloud properties
Microsoft Cloud gross margin percentageGross margin percentage for our Microsoft Cloud business

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Productivity and Business Processes and Intelligent Cloud

Metrics related to our Productivity and Business Processes and Intelligent Cloud segments assess the health of our core businesses within these segments. The metrics reflect our cloud and on-premises product strategies and trends.

Office Commercial products and cloud services revenue growthRevenue from Office Commercial products and cloud services (Office 365 subscriptions, the Office 365 portion of Microsoft 365 Commercial subscriptions, and Office licensed on-premises), comprising Office, Exchange, SharePoint, Microsoft Teams, Office 365 Security and Compliance, Microsoft Viva, and Copilot for Microsoft 365
Office Consumer products and cloud services revenue growthRevenue from Office Consumer products and cloud services, including Microsoft 365 Consumer and Copilot Pro subscriptions, Office licensed on-premises, and other Office services
Office 365 Commercial seat growthThe number of Office 365 Commercial seats at end of period where seats are paid users covered by an Office 365 Commercial subscription
Microsoft 365 Consumer subscribersThe number of Microsoft 365 Consumer and Copilot Pro subscribers at end of period
Dynamics products and cloud services revenue growthRevenue from Dynamics products and cloud services, including Dynamics 365, comprising a set of intelligent, cloud-based applications across ERP, CRM, Power Apps, and Power Automate; and on-premises ERP and CRM applications
LinkedIn revenue growthRevenue from LinkedIn, including Talent Solutions, Marketing Solutions, Premium Subscriptions, and Sales Solutions
Server products and cloud services revenue growthRevenue from Server products and cloud services, including Azure and other cloud services; SQL Server, Windows Server, Visual Studio, System Center, and related Client Access Licenses (“CALs”); and Nuance and GitHub

More Personal Computing

Metrics related to our More Personal Computing segment assess the performance of key lines of business within this segment. These metrics provide strategic product insights which allow us to assess the performance across our commercial and consumer businesses. As we have diversity of target audiences and sales motions within the Windows business, we monitor metrics that are reflective of those varying motions.

Windows OEM revenue growthRevenue from sales of Windows Pro and non-Pro licenses sold through the OEM channel
Windows Commercial products and cloud services revenue growthRevenue from Windows Commercial products and cloud services, comprising volume licensing of the Windows operating system, Windows cloud services, and other Windows commercial offerings
Devices revenue growthRevenue from Devices, including Surface, HoloLens, and PC accessories
Xbox content and services revenue growthRevenue from Xbox content and services, comprising first-party content (such as Activision Blizzard) and third-party content, including games and in-game content; Xbox Game Pass and other subscriptions; Xbox Cloud Gaming; advertising; third-party disc royalties; and other cloud services
Search and news advertising revenue (ex TAC) growthRevenue from search and news advertising excluding traffic acquisition costs (“TAC”) paid to Bing Ads network publishers and news partners

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SUMMARY RESULTS OF OPERATIONS

(In millions, except percentages and per share amounts)20242023Percentage Change
Revenue$245,122$211,91516%
Gross margin171,008146,05217%
Operating income109,43388,52324%
Net income88,13672,36122%
Diluted earnings per share11.809.6822%
Adjusted gross margin (non-GAAP)171,008146,20417%
Adjusted operating income (non-GAAP)109,43389,69422%
Adjusted net income (non-GAAP)88,13673,30720%
Adjusted diluted earnings per share (non-GAAP)11.809.8120%

Adjusted gross margin, operating income, net income, and diluted earnings per share (“EPS”) are non-GAAP financial measures. Prior year non-GAAP financial measures exclude the impact of a $1.2 billion charge in the second quarter of fiscal year 2023 (“Q2 charge”), which included employee severance expenses, impairment charges resulting from changes to our hardware portfolio, and costs related to lease consolidation activities. Refer to the Non-GAAP Financial Measures section below for a reconciliation of our financial results reported in accordance with GAAP to non-GAAP financial results.

Fiscal Year 2024 Compared with Fiscal Year 2023

Revenue increased $33.2 billion or 16% driven by growth across each of our segments. Intelligent Cloud revenue increased driven by Azure. Productivity and Business Processes revenue increased driven by Office 365 Commercial. More Personal Computing revenue increased driven by Gaming.

Cost of revenue increased $8.3 billion or 13% driven by growth in Microsoft Cloud and Gaming, offset in part by a decline in Devices.

Gross margin increased $25.0 billion or 17% driven by growth across each of our segments.

Gross margin percentage increased slightly. Excluding the impact of the change in accounting estimate for the useful lives of our server and network equipment, gross margin percentage increased 2 points driven by improvement in More Personal Computing.

Microsoft Cloud gross margin percentage decreased slightly to 71%. Excluding the impact of the change in accounting estimate, Microsoft Cloud gross margin percentage increased slightly driven by improvements in Azure and Office 365 Commercial, inclusive of scaling our AI infrastructure, offset in part by sales mix shift to Azure.

Operating expenses increased $4.0 billion or 7% driven by Gaming, with 7 points of growth from the Activision Blizzard acquisition, and investments in cloud engineering, offset in part by the prior year Q2 charge.

Operating income increased $20.9 billion or 24% driven by growth across each of our segments.

Prior year gross margin, operating income, net income, and diluted EPS were negatively impacted by the Q2 charge, which resulted in decreases of $152 million, $1.2 billion, $946 million, and $0.13, respectively.

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SEGMENT RESULTS OF OPERATIONS

(In millions, except percentages)20242023Percentage Change
Revenue
Productivity and Business Processes$77,728$69,27412%
Intelligent Cloud105,36287,90720%
More Personal Computing62,03254,73413%
Total$245,122$211,91516%
Operating Income
Productivity and Business Processes$40,540$34,18919%
Intelligent Cloud49,58437,88431%
More Personal Computing19,30916,45017%
Total$109,433$88,52324%

Reportable Segments

Fiscal Year 2024 Compared with Fiscal Year 2023

Productivity and Business Processes

Revenue increased $8.5 billion or 12%.

Office Commercial products and cloud services revenue increased $5.8 billion or 14%. Office 365 Commercial revenue grew 16% with seat growth of 7%, driven by small and medium business and frontline worker offerings, as well as growth in revenue per user. Office Commercial products revenue declined 16% driven by continued customer shift to cloud offerings.

Office Consumer products and cloud services revenue increased $237 million or 4%. Microsoft 365 Consumer subscribers grew 10% to 82.5 million.

LinkedIn revenue increased $1.4 billion or 9% driven by growth across all lines of business – Talent Solutions, Premium Subscriptions, Marketing Solutions, and Sales Solutions.

Dynamics products and cloud services revenue increased $1.0 billion or 19% driven by Dynamics 365. Dynamics 365 revenue grew 24% driven by growth across all workloads.

Operating income increased $6.4 billion or 19%.

Gross margin increased $6.5 billion or 12% driven by growth in Office 365 Commercial. Gross margin percentage decreased slightly. Excluding the impact of the change in accounting estimate, gross margin percentage increased slightly driven by improvement in Office 365 Commercial.

Operating expenses increased $159 million or 1%.

Intelligent Cloud

Revenue increased $17.5 billion or 20%.

Server products and cloud services revenue increased $17.8 billion or 22% driven by Azure and other cloud services. Azure and other cloud services revenue grew 30% driven by growth in our consumption-based services. Server products revenue increased 3% driven by continued demand for our hybrid solutions, including Windows Server and SQL Server running in multi-cloud environments.

Enterprise and partner services revenue decreased $306 million or 4% driven by declines in Enterprise Support Services and Industry Solutions.

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Operating income increased $11.7 billion or 31%.

Gross margin increased $11.6 billion or 19% driven by growth in Azure. Gross margin percentage decreased slightly. Excluding the impact of the change in accounting estimate, gross margin percentage increased slightly primarily driven by improvement in Azure, inclusive of scaling our AI infrastructure, offset in part by sales mix shift to Azure.

Operating expenses decreased slightly primarily driven by the prior year Q2 charge, offset in part by investments in Azure.

More Personal Computing

Revenue increased $7.3 billion or 13%.

Windows revenue increased $1.7 billion or 8% driven by growth in Windows Commercial and Windows OEM. Windows Commercial products and cloud services revenue increased 11% driven by demand for Microsoft 365. Windows OEM revenue increased 7%.

Gaming revenue increased $6.0 billion or 39% driven by growth in Xbox content and services. Xbox content and services revenue increased 50% driven by 44 points of net impact from the Activision Blizzard acquisition. Xbox hardware revenue decreased 13% driven by lower volume of consoles sold.

Search and news advertising revenue increased $418 million or 3%. Search and news advertising revenue excluding traffic acquisition costs increased 12% driven by higher search volume.

Devices revenue decreased $815 million or 15%.

Operating income increased $2.9 billion or 17%.

Gross margin increased $6.8 billion or 23% driven by growth in Gaming, with 10 points of net impact from the Activision Blizzard acquisition, as well as growth in Windows. Gross margin percentage increased driven by sales mix shift to higher margin businesses and improvement in Devices.

Operating expenses increased $3.9 billion or 31% driven by Gaming, with 34 points of growth from the Activision Blizzard acquisition.

OPERATING EXPENSES

Research and Development

(In millions, except percentages)20242023Percentage Change
Research and development$29,510$27,1959%
As a percent of revenue12%13%(1)ppt

Research and development expenses include payroll, employee benefits, stock-based compensation expense, and other headcount-related expenses associated with product development. Research and development expenses also include third-party development and programming costs and the amortization of purchased software code and services content.

Fiscal Year 2024 Compared with Fiscal Year 2023

Research and development expenses increased $2.3 billion or 9% driven by Gaming, with 7 points of growth from the Activision Blizzard acquisition, and investments in cloud engineering.

Sales and Marketing

(In millions, except percentages)20242023Percentage Change
Sales and marketing$24,456$22,7597%
As a percent of revenue10%11%(1)ppt

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Sales and marketing expenses include payroll, employee benefits, stock-based compensation expense, and other headcount-related expenses associated with sales and marketing personnel, and the costs of advertising, promotions, trade shows, seminars, and other programs.

Fiscal Year 2024 Compared with Fiscal Year 2023

Sales and marketing expenses increased $1.7 billion or 7% driven by Gaming, with 6 points of growth from the Activision Blizzard acquisition.

General and Administrative

(In millions, except percentages)20242023Percentage Change
General and administrative$7,609$7,5750%
As a percent of revenue3%4%(1)ppt

General and administrative expenses include payroll, employee benefits, stock-based compensation expense, employee severance expense incurred as part of a corporate program, and other headcount-related expenses associated with finance, legal, facilities, certain human resources and other administrative personnel, certain taxes, and legal and other administrative fees.

Fiscal Year 2024 Compared with Fiscal Year 2023

General and administrative expenses increased slightly as growth from the Activision Blizzard acquisition was offset in part by the prior year Q2 charge.

OTHER INCOME (EXPENSE), NET

The components of other income (expense), net were as follows:

(In millions)
Year Ended June 30,20242023
Interest and dividends income$3,157$2,994
Interest expense(2,935)(1,968)
Net recognized gains (losses) on investments(118)260
Net losses on derivatives(187)(456)
Net gains (losses) on foreign currency remeasurements(244)181
Other, net(1,319)(223)
Total$(1,646)$788

We use derivative instruments to manage risks related to foreign currencies, interest rates, equity prices, and credit; to enhance investment returns; and to facilitate portfolio diversification. Gains and losses from changes in fair values of derivatives that are not designated as hedging instruments are primarily recognized in other income (expense), net.

Fiscal Year 2024 Compared with Fiscal Year 2023

Interest and dividends income increased due to higher yields. Interest expense increased due to the issuance of commercial paper. Net recognized losses on investments increased primarily due to higher equity impairments and lower gains on equity investments. Net losses on derivatives decreased primarily due to lower losses on equity derivatives. Other, net primarily reflects net recognized losses on equity method investments.

PART II

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INCOME TAXES

Effective Tax Rate

Our effective tax rate for fiscal years 2024 and 2023 was 18% and 19%, respectively. The decrease in our effective tax rate was primarily due to tax benefits from tax law changes, including the impact from the issuance of Notice 2023-55 and Notice 2023-80 by the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) and U.S. Treasury Department. Notice 2023-55, issued in the first quarter of fiscal year 2024, delayed the effective date of final foreign tax credit regulations to fiscal year 2024 for Microsoft. Notice 2023-80, issued in the second quarter of fiscal year 2024, further delayed the effective date of final foreign tax credit regulations indefinitely.

Our effective tax rate was lower than the U.S. federal statutory rate, primarily due to earnings taxed at lower rates in foreign jurisdictions resulting from producing and distributing our products and services through our foreign regional operations center in Ireland.

The mix of income before income taxes between the U.S. and foreign countries impacted our effective tax rate as a result of the geographic distribution of, and customer demand for, our products and services. In fiscal year 2024, our U.S. income before income taxes was $62.9 billion and our foreign income before income taxes was $44.9 billion. In fiscal year 2023, our U.S. income before income taxes was $52.9 billion and our foreign income before income taxes was $36.4 billion.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (“OECD”) published its model rules “Tax Challenges Arising From the Digitalisation of the Economy - Global Anti-Base Erosion Model Rules (Pillar Two)” which established a global minimum corporate tax rate of 15% for certain multinational enterprises. Many countries have implemented or are in the process of implementing the Pillar Two legislation, which will apply to Microsoft beginning in fiscal year 2025. While we do not currently estimate a material impact to our consolidated financial statements, we continue to monitor the impact as countries implement legislation and the OECD provides additional guidance.

Uncertain Tax Positions

We remain under audit by the IRS for tax years 2014 to 2017. With respect to the audit for tax years 2004 to 2013, on September 26, 2023, we received Notices of Proposed Adjustment (“NOPAs”) from the IRS. The primary issues in the NOPAs relate to intercompany transfer pricing. In the NOPAs, the IRS is seeking an additional tax payment of $28.9 billion plus penalties and interest. As of June 30, 2024, we believe our allowances for income tax contingencies are adequate. We disagree with the proposed adjustments and will vigorously contest the NOPAs through the IRS’s administrative appeals office and, if necessary, judicial proceedings. We do not expect a final resolution of these issues in the next 12 months. Based on the information currently available, we do not anticipate a significant increase or decrease to our income tax contingencies for these issues within the next 12 months.

We are subject to income tax in many jurisdictions outside the U.S. Our operations in certain jurisdictions remain subject to examination for tax years 1996 to 2023, some of which are currently under audit by local tax authorities. The resolution of each of these audits is not expected to be material to our consolidated financial statements.

NON-GAAP FINANCIAL MEASURES

Adjusted gross margin, operating income, net income, and diluted EPS are non-GAAP financial measures. Prior year non-GAAP financial measures exclude the impact of the Q2 charge, which includes employee severance expenses, impairment charges resulting from changes to our hardware portfolio, and costs related to lease consolidation activities. We believe these non-GAAP measures aid investors by providing additional insight into our operational performance and help clarify trends affecting our business. For comparability of reporting, management considers non-GAAP measures in conjunction with GAAP financial results in evaluating business performance. These non-GAAP financial measures presented should not be considered a substitute for, or superior to, the measures of financial performance prepared in accordance with GAAP.

PART II

Previous: Item 5. MARKET FOR REGISTRANT’S COMMON EQUITY, RELATED STOCKHOLDER MATTERS, AND ISSUER PURCHASES OF EQUITY SECURITIES · Next: Item 7. The following table reconciles our financial results reported in accordance with GAAP to non-GAAP financial results: