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Cloud Business Up, Up and Away for Citrix, Microsoft

The cloud business is more than just hype and hot air, as Citrix and Microsoft both report positive earnings in latest financial filings.

• By Michael Domingo
• 04/24/2014

Citrix will start off its Citrix Synergy confab in two weeks already on a high note in regards to financial news, as the company's first quarter earnings comes out on the positive side. Meanwhile, Microsoft has a cloudburst of its own to report as its Q3 2014

First up, the mobile workstyle company reported total revenue at $751 million, or 12 percent better than the year-ago quarter. Net income was a mixed bag, however: GAAP income netted $56 million, or 6 percent lower than a year ago, whereas non-GAAP income came in at $119 million, which was better than a year ago by $2 million.

CFO David Henshall during a earnings Webcast on Wednesday afternoon broke out earnings in the following categories:

• SaaS business came in at $157 million of the total, which is higher than a year ago by 14 percent. Henshall said that GoToMeeting made up 60 percent of that portion.
• Mobile & Desktop topped out at $381 million, or 7 percent higher than a year ago; 85 percent of mobile sales consisting of XenMobile Enterprise as opposed to the stand-alone version.
• Networking & Cloud made up the rest, at $167 million or 13 percent higher than a year ago. Henshall said that "Netscaler products again were the major driver of this business."

Citrix also announced a buyback plan involving $1.5 billion in share value, of which $1.25 billion will come from convertible bonds. Henshall said no details could be revealed on the plan until a financial analyst meeting scheduled for May 6.

CEO Mark Templeton was also on the call, and was pressed about the search for a new Citrix CEO, basically answering that "there is no data to share" regarding progress from the search committee. Templeton announced his retirement earlier this year.

Citrix Synergy will be held in Anaheim, Calif. the week of May 6. At the event, Citrix will be marking its 25th year in operation.

Even though Microsoft's cloud business still makes up a tiny slice of its overall business, the company on Thursday released its Q3 2014 financials that highlighted the progress it's making in that regard. CEO Satya Nadella was expected to speak, along with CFO Amy Hood at an earnings call later in the day (to be webcasted at this link).

For Q3, Microsoft revenue topped out at $20.40 billion, which was flat when compared to the year-ago quarter ($20.48 billion). Broken down, the Device & Consumer business drew in $8.3 billion of the total, while the Commercial business brought in $12.23 billion.

What is an interesting side note to all of this is that within the commercial business, according to the press release, there were some positives in the cloud business. Specifically called out was Office 365 revenue, which grew 100 percent over a year ago, while Azure platform revenue also grew 150 percent. Redmondmag.com will have a full report later today following the earnings call.